LOS ANGELES, CA.- Getty Images have selected two Magnum photojournalists, Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin, as recipients of the first two of five 2009 professional editorial photography grants.

Winning professional photographers receive $20,000 each. Winners in both categories also receive support from Getty Images photo editors.

Both Majoli and Pellegrin are represented by Magnum Photos. Majoli will continue his work on “Requiem in Samba,” which depicts the lives of the poor in Brazil, where warring factions, drug trafficking and the AIDS epidemic have resulted in death and devastation. Pellegrin intends to use the grant to complete “Iraqi Refugees,” which documents the people fleeing the war or displaced by ethnic cleansing.

Getty said it received a record number of proposals this year: 215 professional and 46 student applications were submitted for consideration by a judging panel that included TIME magazine chief picture editor Alice Gabriner, Aperture Magazine editor-in-chief Melissa Harris and Magnum photojournalist Susan Meiselas.