Every year, the MacArthur Foundation selects 20-40 exceptional people in the United States and awards them with $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grants” — prestigious awards that come with no strings attached. Winners are of all ages, come from all kinds of fields, and are selected purely because they “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.”

The 2012 winners were revealed today, and of the 23 people selected, two of them were photographers: Uta Barth and An-My Lê.
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