photo by Kelly Shimoda, from The Pollinators, 2008

In honor of the almighty Pulitzers, I've spent the morning compiling a list of contests, grants, fellowships and publishing opportunities that are particularly geared to you photojournalists out there. I can't claim all the research credit here; I reached out for help to Kelly Shimoda, of Veras Images, a "collective of emerging international photographers based in New York who have assembled to provide coverage of compelling feature stories, under-reported topics, and significant social trends."

Luckily for me, Kelly is a keeper of the contest list for Veras, and passed on her info. Remember dudes, you must spread your application seeds far and wide to gather the fruits of your photographic labor. Go to it!


*and send me any we missed; obviously there are scads.


In no particular order....


World Press Photo
The contest is open to all professional press photographers. There is no entry fee.
Not only photographers, but photo agencies, newspapers and magazines from anywhere in the world are invited to submit their best news-related pictures of the previous year. Both single images and photo stories are eligible. The results are published on this website. Entry forms for the contest come out in October.

National Press Photographers Association
Loads of contests and grants happening here. Best to go to the site.

Alexia Foundation
The professional Alexia Grant recipient will receive $15,000 for the production of the proposed project (there is also a student category). The Alexia Grant was not established with the single purpose of rewarding the best photographers -- this is not a portfolio competition. The grant will be awarded to a photojournalist who can further cultural understanding and world peace by conceiving and writing a concise, focused, and meaningful story proposal, and who can demonstrate the ability to visually execute that story with compelling images. There is no mathematical formula for determining grantees, but the proposal and photography must both be considered of the highest quality.

The F award
Fabrica and Forma, International Center of Photography (Milan), are proud to launch the second edition of the F Award, an international contest for concerned photography open to photographers from all over the world.

Inge Morath Award
Magnum Photos announces the fifth Inge Morath Prize to be awarded to a woman photographer under thirty years of age. The $5000 prize is given to assist in the completion of a long term documentary project. Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum for almost fifty years. She died in January, 2002. As Inge devoted much of her enthusiasm to encouraging women photographers, this award is given as a tribute by her colleagues.

Leica Publishers' Award
The Leica European Publishers' Award for Photography is a photography award, handed out once each year by the photo book publishing firms Actes Sud (France), Apeiron Photos (Greece), Dewi Lewis Publishing (UK), Edition Braus im Wachter Verlag (Germany), Lunwerg Editores (Spain), Peliti Associati (Italy), Mets & Schilt (The Netherlands) and Leica.. To be eligible for submission, photographers must submit completed and unpublished photo projects in book form. The project of the winning participant is published by the participating publishing firms in the relevant country and in the relevant language in a total of 5,000 copies.

Aperture Portfolio Prize
The purpose of the Portfolio Prize is to identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing their work to a wider audience. In choosing the first-prize winner and runners-up, we are looking for work that is fresh and that hasn't been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.
First prize is $2,500. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured on Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant
The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is presented annually to a photographer whose past work and proposed project, as judged by a panel of experts, follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's compassionate dedication exhibited during his 45-year career as a photographic essayist. For 2007, the grant will be $30,000, with an additional $5,000 in fellowship money to be awarded at the discretion of the jury. The grant program is independently administered by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.

Alicia Patterson Prize
The Alicia Patterson fellowships are open only to U.S. citizens who are fulltime print journalists, or to non-U.S. citizens who work fulltime for U.S. print publications, either in America or abroad. The aim of the trustees who established the foundation was to improve the quality of U.S. print journalism. The fellowship stipend is $35,000 for twelve months and must cover your travel and research costs. Winners are expected to begin their fellowships within the first three months of the calendar year. Fellowships last 12 months.

Soros Foundation: Moving Walls 15 Documentary Photography Exhibition
Moving Walls is an annual documentary photography exhibition produced by OSI, a private operating and grantmaking foundation that works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. The exhibition series is an artistic interpretation of the obstacles--such as political oppression, economic instability, and racism--that society often erects, and the struggles to tear those barriers down. Since its inception in 1998, Moving Walls has featured nearly 100 photographers whose work addresses a variety of social justice and human rights issues that coincide with OSI's mission.The Open Society Institute encourages photographers to submit documentary work of national or international subjects that coincide with the issues and geographical areas that are principally of concern to OSI.

Amnesty International Media Awards
The annual Media Awards recognize excellence in human rights reporting and acknowledge journalism's significant contribution to the UK public's awareness and understanding of human rights issues.

Visa Pour L'image
Many Awards Available, including the Canon Female Photojournalist of the Year, the Care International Award for Humanitarian Reporting, and the City of Perpignon Young Reporter Award.

Toscana Photographic Workshops - Boulat Scholarship
To honor the memory of Alexandra Boulat, who taught  at TPW in these last years, TPW has created a special scholarship. This will consist in the possibility to attend a workshop in Tuscany for free (included room and board - not including travel expenses) and work under the guidance of  master photographers. It will be offered to a young photojournalist, male or female, under 35 year old.

Gordon Parks International Photo Competition
An integral part of the Gordon Parks Celebration for Culture and Diversity will be the Gordon Parks International Photo Competition which has been conducted by Fort Scott Community College since 1990. More than 3,100 individuals from around the world have participated in this annual program that, inspired by the photography of Gordon Parks, reflects important themes in life such as social injustice, the suffering of others, and family values.

Center (Santa Fe)
The competitions are open to all photographers, national and international, except Center employees, board members, advisory council members and contest sponsors.
Work derived from all photographic processes, both traditional and digital, are accepted, as well as mixed media work that is photo-based. Both fine art and documentary photography are welcomed. Work that has been published in book-length form by a photographic publishing house or university press is not eligible for the Project Competition. Previous winners of the Project Competition may not enter again with the same body of work.

The Berenice Abbott Prize for an Emerging Photographer
The Julia Dean Photo Workshops is Proud to Announce The Berenice Abbott Prize for an
Emerging Photographer. Prize includes A Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera, plus all expenses paid for a one-person exhibition at the Julia Dean Gallery at Venice Beach, California.

FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography 
Now in its 14th year, the International Fund for Documentary Photography competition remains one of the premiere photography programs in the world. As the core program of FiftyCrows, the Photo Fund supports emerging documentary photographers whose outstanding ability in visual storytelling leads us to a better understanding of our common humanity.

National Geographic Grant
*do this one next year, the deadline was Feb 15.
Following its long tradition of supporting and fostering new photographic talent, National Geographic magazine will again award an annual grant of $50,000 to a professional still photographer. In addition to the grant, the magazine will assign a photography editor to provide guidance for a project undertaken by the grantee. The grantee will have full access to all of the facilities provided to the magazine's regular contributing photographers.

Puffin Foundation Grants

The Puffin Foundation Ltd. continues to make grants that encourage emerging artists in the fields of art, music, theater, dance, photography, and literature whose works due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired. The Foundation does not have the means to fund large film/documentary proposals, grants for travel, continuing education, or the writing or publishing of books. Average grants are: $1,000.00 - $2,500.00