Two freelance journalists have been awarded the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for their work reporting on underrepresented or misrepresented groups in the United States, it was announced Wednesday.
Julian Brave NoiseCat and Ryan Christopher Jones were each awarded $100,000 by the Heising-Simons Foundation based in Los Altos, California.
NoiseCat is a member of the Canada-based Canim Lake Band of First Nations people, and practices journalism in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the foundation said.
His articles and podcasts have covered issues such as fatherhood from the perspective of Indigenous men and a movement by homeless Black mothers to reclaim a vacant house they were evicted from in West Oakland, California, the foundation said.
His work has appeared in major publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker and National Geographic.
"Indigenous communities have a perspective and an experience that matters to a broader audience," NoiseCat said in a foundation news release.
"My work is inspired by a belief that indigenous peoples' experience and wisdom can contribute to understanding and addressing the world's most pressing challenges — from the climate crisis to anxieties around imperialism and race."
Jones is a Mexican American photojournalist and anthropologist. His work has examined the lives of immigrants in California, New York and elsewhere, farmworker communities in central California and issues such as the drug overdose crisis and Mexican American economic mobility, the foundation said.
His work has appeared in outlets including the New York Times, the Atlantic, ProPublica and the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom.
"In the news, photographic depictions of vulnerable communities have often resorted to dangerous tropes and stereotypes," Jones said in the foundation release. "As a photojournalist it has been my goal to visually document the complex stories of these underrepresented communities with the care and nuance they deserve."
The prize was awarded for long-form, narrative or deep reporting by a panel of 10 judges that included journalists from major news outlets.
