This week Daylight Magazine announced its 2012 Photo Award Winner. In his project Fort McKay: Sleeping With the Devil, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, (whose work on Jewish Morrocco was chosen for American Photography last year) shows a profound ambivalence about what is lost and what is gained as traditional cultures embrace modern materialism.

In the New York Times Lens Blog, Matt McCann writes, “A Toronto-based photographer and founding member of the Boreal Collective, Mr. Elkaim spent four months last year in northeastern Alberta, photographing the rewards and the consequences of living on lands rich with natural resources. He lived among the Fort McKay First Nation, indigenous people whose fate has become intricately tied to the Athabasca oil sands on which their reserve stands.” [More]

As well as a cash award, the prize includes a show at the Daylight Project Space in September and a multi-media feature in October. Jurors: David Bram, Fraction Magazine; Alexa Dilworth,Center for Documentary Studies; Jim Estrin, New York Times; Taj Forer + Michael Itkoff, Daylight; Paul Moakley, Time Magazine; Jessie Wender, New Yorker Magazine.