Document is proud to announce the launch of its photography competition for 2011. This year’s theme is the impact of cuts in public services on communities across the globe. Students photographers are asked to capture scenes that demonstrate the grim reality of the age of austerity, which has affected the poor disproportionately. This year’s competition, The New Austerity: Surviving without a safety net, will be accepting submissions beginning September 2010.

War on Want’s Document Photography Award was started in 2009 by Bond and Coyne Associates and War on Want to encourage student photographers to engage with the subject of poverty. In its first year the competition asked photographers to tackle the theme of economic meltdown, and received submissions from student photographers from all over the world. Among the shortlisted entries were images depicting council estates in the UK, the slums of Kenya, the homeless in St Petersburg and unemployed young people in British towns.

The 2010 prize was awarded to Gareth Kingdon, a student from the University of Wales, Newport, for his vivid photographs of Kibera, Kenya, Africa’s largest slum. The work of Gareth and five other shortlisted photographers were displayed as part of Document’s touring exhibition. After winning the award Gareth joined War on Want staff on their visit to the organisation’s South African partners. His photographs of life in Blikkiesdorp, a notorious transit camp for displaced South Africans, were featured on the front page of The Guardian and can also be viewed on his website.