| About the 2025 award: $50,000 to support the production of the photobook "Send My Love to the Hill" and produce community events in Pittsburgh. |
Charlese Dawson is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans various mediums. As a photographer, she's well known for her keen eye, which encapsulates the experiences of her surroundings in the community. Passionate about history, the future, and how the two mesh together to create the present, she has an unwavering commitment to documenting her community as it goes through changes from January 2020 - August 2021.
Charlese has been working to publish a unique photobook titled Send My Love to The Hill. This photobook is a collective love letter dedicated to the Hill District, one of Pittsburgh’s most historic neighborhoods. Through this collection of over 70 photographs and 10 written pieces, Send My Love to the Hill uplifts the community in the Hill District by capturing real raw moments on streets and encapsulating what it feels like to be from the Hill. In the vein of Charles "Teenie" Harris and August Wilson, Charlese is taking the very real experiences of her day-to-day life and encapsulating the landscape of the Hill District in the present.