Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Program
Field of Specialization:	Photography
Name:	Ms. Alexandra Dietz
Official Address:	School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Indian Host Institution:	University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 9 months August 2011

Brief Bio:

Alexandra Dietz received her B.F.A. in photography from the Art Institute of Chicago in August, 2010. Her most recent work experience was with the Changing Minds Campaign in Chicago. In her work, Ms. Dietz sought to generate a more complex view of ex-prisoners by photographing them in their roles as family members, breadwinners, and community members. Ms. Dietz's other work experiences include photography in Qatar, Europe and Ecuador. Her exhibitions include an independent show to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina, an independent gallery showing of self-portraits, Black Market Gallery exhibition in 2009, Verge Miami exhibition in 2010, and a solo show at the Black Market Gallery, also in 2010. She was the youngest person published in CMYK Magazine in 2002. Since then, she has also been featured in the Detroit News and the Chicago Magazine. Ms. Dietz's Fulbright-Nehru research is titled "Photographing the Positive Impact of Micro-Loans on the Women of India", in which she will document through photography the growing number of impoverished women in India using micro-loans to improve their families. Using her contacts with the lender, she will chronicle the process by which these women make a livelihood for themselves out of hard work, creative drive, and a tiny sum of money. Through her photography, she will show how these women can command such strength, defy all expectations and, as a result, create for themselves, promising lives.