The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund unveiled its newly revamped Website today at www.smithfund.org.

The portal, redesigned by MediaStorm — incorporating the MediaStorm Player — provides an expanded selection of work from the 33 past recipients of the grant as well as easier site navigation, streamlined online registration for grant applicants, and thumbnail histories of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, the fund itself, and the Howard Chapnick grant. (The deadline for the 2011 grant has been extended to Friday, June 3rd.)

The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography–considered by many to be the most prestigious, long-standing honorarium for completion of a photojournalistic project–was created in 1979, a year after Smith’s death. The grant’s mission is to support and encourage photographers producing humanistic photo stories in the tradition of the legendary American photo essayist who sought to expose the truth about issues affecting and afflicting humankind. Between 1980 and 2010, the fund issued grants to 33 recipients from 14 countries, including photographers who were honored at pivotal points in their careers: Jane Evelyn Atwood, Donna Ferrato, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Graciela Iturbide, James Nachtwey, Trent Parke, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Eugene Richards, Cristina Garcia Rodero, and Sebastiao Salgado. The fund occasionally issues fellowships to promising projects as part of the judging process for the grant.

Judging for the 2011 grant will commence later this month. The jury will meet a second time in July. The grant ceremony will take place in New York in October.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is sponsored by the generous support of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), MediaStorm, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), Photo District News (PDN), Blurb, Inc., Canon USA, and Asia Society.

See the case study: Rebuilding the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Website