American Photography 30 Winners

It'll Be Better Next Year

It'll Be Better Next Year. Scene at the XIT Rodeo in Dalhart, Texas, on August 2, 2013. Cimarron County, a farming and ranching community of 2,500 people on the tip of the Oklahoma panhandle, was the epicenter of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Today, Cimarron and the surrounding area again face another drought, this one regarded as the most severe in fifty years, and one that has affected 80% of agricultural lands in the US. These current extreme conditions, brought on by global warming and climate variability, have affected an area as large as that of the dust bowl crisis. Catastrophic economic ramifications are being experienced by millions of farmers, and both FEMA and The National Weather Service are projecting the drought will be the most costly and damaging in U.S. history. The most exceptional centers of the drought are the Great Plains, where the drought is expected to continue–even intensify. The price of almost every food product made in the US is projected to rise in the next twelve months, at the same time as farmers are bracing for bankruptcy. Already, there have been record sized fires in Colorado, and livestock – farmers cannot keep the animals fed and healthy – is being sold at firesale prices. According to the USDA, corn, a US staple, has historically risen 50% in price in drought conditions this severe.

The War for Nigeria

The War for Nigeria. At the Kano State Hisbah Commission offices, women and men come to be screened for HIV, pregnancy and other sexually transmitted diseases, in the hopes of taking part in a mass wedding ceremony later this month, in Kano, Nigeria, on March 30, 2013. Most of the women are divorced, widowed or from very poor, rural families, seeking new husbands. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and also one of the world’s most important oil producers: 50% of the population lives in poverty, and in the north, where the situation is particularly dire, the number is more than 70%. Nigeria is evenly split between the primarily Muslim north and a Christian south, and, although most people live in harmony, since 2009, a murky Islamic insurgent group, Boko Haram, which translates as "Western Religion is Sacrilegious," has become increasingly radical and violent, targeting Nigerian security forces and churches. As tensions flair, there is a looming potential for civil war that could threaten to engulf the country and tear Nigeria apart –a disastrous outcome for all of Africa. This unpublished image taken for a National Geographic story shows how converging issues are impacting Nigeria’s growing crisis: religious strife, economic disparity, ethnicity, and a fight for resources. National Geographic

The War for Nigeria

The War for Nigeria. Women read through a program at the wedding of a Christian couple, Tony Bala Shammah, 29, and Timeni Samuel, 24, at the ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All) in Sabon Gari district of Kano, Nigeria, on April 6, 2013. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and also one of the world’s most important oil producers: 50% of the population lives in poverty, and in the north, where the situation is particularly dire, the number is more than 70%. Nigeria is evenly split between the primarily Muslim north and a Christian south, and, although most people live in harmony, since 2009, a murky Islamic insurgent group, Boko Haram, which translates as "Western Religion is Sacrilegious," has become increasingly radical and violent, targeting Nigerian security forces and churches. As tensions flair, there is a looming potential for civil war that could threaten to engulf the country and tear Nigeria apart –a disastrous outcome for all of Africa. This published image was part of a National Geographic story showing how converging issues are impacting Nigeria’s growing crisis: religious strife, economic disparity, ethnicity, and a fight for resources.