After my last post on the $5000 Photocrati Grant, I started searching the net for other opportunities that aren’t popularity based contest. I like Photocrati’s grant because it is based on content and quality, not just how good you are at soliciting social media hype. Below are a helping of grants (and a couple of juried awards) I have found that are not asking you to ask friends to vote and are not preying on your photos to use them when you don’t win. I am limiting the list to grants with a deadline before July 1st. Please note, these grants and awards are of high caliber (as evident by the prizes and grants involved) and often take a fair amount of work to prepare for. I realize some deadlines are quite short, but nothing ventured, nothing gained! And many are annual awards; while you may not qualify this year, now is a good time to start working on a body of work to submit next year.
Name: Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2011
Website: http://www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/#/en/applying/to-take-part
Deadline: March 1st, 2011
Prizes: “Award will receive a Leica M9 camera and a lens worth 9,500 euros in addition to a cash prize of 5,000 euros. For the “Newcomer Award” the prize has also been increased. The winner will receive a Leica M9 camera and a lens.”
Pro or Amateur: Prospective Professionals Age 25 and under
Country of Residence: Worldwide
More: “The “Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award” competition is open to any (prospective) professional photographer aged 25 or under at the time of entering. To take part, participants must send in a series of photographs taken in 2010 or long-term projects containing at least one photo from 2010.”
Name: The Henri Cartier-Bresson Award
Website: http://www.henricartierbresson.org/prix/PRIX_reglem_en.htm
Deadline: March 1- 31, 2011
Prizes: €30,000
Pro or Amateur: Both
Country of Residence: Worldwide, 18 and older
More: “The HCB Award is open to photographers of all nationalities who have already completed a significant body of work with an approach close to that of documentary. There is no age limit. The winner must use the prize for carrying out a project which would otherwise be hard to accomplish within the normal conditions of his activity. Candidates should be nominated by an institution. Applications from individual photographers will not be considered.”
Name: Getty Images Grants For Good
Website: http://imagery.gettyimages.com/getty_images_grants/overview.aspx
Deadline: March 1st, 2011
Prizes: 2 x $15,000
Pro or Amateur: Professional Working With Communication Agency
Country of Residence: Worldwide
More: “Selection of grant winners will be based on judges’ determination of applicants’ ability to execute the submitted project with compelling visual narrative. Applications will be judged based on portfolio imagery that is very strong, technically and conceptually, and whose clear, concise proposals demonstrates a close collaboration with the creative communications agency and the nonprofit, to ensure that the new imagery meets the organization’s strategic communications needs. Proposals should be very clear about how the imagery would be developed and about how the organization would use the images effectively.”
Name: Burn Magazine Emerging Photographer Grant
Website: http://www.burnmagazine.org/emerging-photographer-grant-2011/
Deadline: May 1st, 2011
Prizes: $15,000
Pro or Amateur: Emerging (typically Amateur)
Country of Residence: Worldwide
More: “Funding is designed to support continuation of a photographer’s personal project. This body of work may be of either journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperatives. The primary intent is to support emerging photographers who will become the icons of tomorrow.”
Name: Audience Engagement Grant
Website: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/engagement/guidelines
Deadline: May 13th, 2011
Prizes: $5000-$30,000
Pro or Amateur: Both
Country of Residence: Worldwide
More: “The Audience Engagement Grant (formerly called the Distribution Grant) supports photographers to take an existing body of work on a social justice or human rights issue and devise an innovative way of using that work as a catalyst for social change. We are interested in well-designed projects that inspire audiences visually and create meaningful interactions with photographic content.
Projects should combine existing bodies of work with programming or tools that give viewers a deeper, more nuanced understanding of issues and empower them to participate in the process of improving their own or others’ realities. Projects should also include a partnership between a photographer and an organization that combines expertise in documentary photography with experience working on the topic or community the project addresses.”
Name: Light Work Grants
Website: http://lightwork.org/grants/
Deadline: March 31, 2011
Prizes: 3 x $2000
Pro or Amateur: Both
Country of Residence: Only certain central New York counties
More: “Light Work Grants were established in 1975 to encourage new work and scholarship in Central New York.”
Some Older Comments