Workshops, Grants, Contests, and Deadlines

At a time when many parts of the MENA region are experiencing conflict, instability, and profound social transformation, it feels especially important to create space for artists. Not to simplify or overlook these realities, but to recognize that image-making and storytelling remain essential. They allow for nuance, for complexity, and for forms of connection that can bring people together across distance, difference, and difficulty. This open call invites photographers and video makers to submit work across all genres, including fashion, documentary, conceptual, and experimental practices. Rather than proposing a single narrative, it seeks to embrace the multiplicity of visual languages and lived experiences across the region.

Gomma funds and supports emerging talents as well as established photographers. The consistent, superior quality of the shortlisted and finalists of the Grant is recognised by publishers as well as curators and regularly gains press attention, worldwide. The artists shortlisted and awarded have successfully grown their careers and their reach internationally.

The theme of this contest is ‘What inspires you?’. We invite photographers from all corners of the globe to capture the essence of what inspires them, and to showcase their unique vision and perspective.

Participants sign up for twenty-minute face-to-face reviews and receive candid feedback about their images, as well as information on getting their work exhibited and published.

Scotiabank CONTACT is requesting submissions for the 2023 Burtynsky Grant—a $5,000 annual grant to support a Canadian artist in the creation of a photobook.

The Queens Museum (QM) is pleased to launch its eighth iteration of the QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists in New York City. Two visual artists will receive $20,000 each and professional development consultations from QM staff members working toward an artist’s project. Each fellow will also receive mentorship from a New York-based established artist. The fellowships will culminate in solo project exhibitions at the Queens Museum in 2028. The duration of each fellowship is one year, culminating with the opening of the fellow’s exhibition.

The Berryman Award is open to U.S.-based editorial cartoonists for work that exhibits power to influence public opinion, plus good drawing and striking effect. The cartoons should represent the highest standards of journalism.

The Lucie Foundation is proud to support professional and emerging talent with vision and dynamic ideas that challenge and progress the art form of still photography into work that compels. Our support of photography is broad, from Fine Art to Documentary and Photojournalism, to digital and film-based works. Our concern is to support photographers producing work that is at once gripping, and original. The Lucie Foundation is proud to offer four cash grants and a variety of prizes to support the work of emerging and established photographers.

The award seeks to encourage journalists to cover the challenges and opportunities for people and society in the face of significant demographic trends.

Reminders Photography Stronghold is a curated membership gallery in Tokyo making multi-photographic activities possible (exhibitions, workshops, events, photobook room, photographers in residence, photography grants, publishing). Photographers, curators, gallerists, book publishers and organizations as either initials or a group are eligible to apply.

Each year, Center for Book Arts awards up to six New York-based emerging and mid-career artists with space, time, and financial support to explore the production and exhibition of artists’ books and related work in a year-long residency.

Filter Photo is pleased to announce Context 2025, our eleventh annual spring open call for photography-based work. This year's exhibition will be juried by Shana Lopes, PhD, Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA.

All types of photographic work will be considered for this annual survey exhibition of contemporary photography. This open theme allows for the widest understanding of current photography practices.

Context 2025 will open on March 7th and will remain open through April 19th. A juror’s choice award and an honorable mention will be awarded. The juror’s choice award includes a $500 cash prize.

The Eidolon Grant aims to identify phenomena, collections, histories, practices, and trends within vernacular photography with the aim of offering new interpretations and analyses. Thematising both photographic heritages and contemporary photographic practices is Eidolon’s mission and we invite you to join us in this important exploration. Each chosen project will contribute to the enrichment of their institution's program in the coming year.

The LensCulture Art Photography Awards celebrate visionary image-makers who work with photography and photographic practices to create stunning new works of art. We welcome photographers and artists from every corner of the world to share work that surprises, challenges, delights, or expands our appreciation of the photographic medium. There are no strict rules for this award. We’re excited to see every kind of creative approach — from conceptual and experimental projects, to prints made for gallery walls, to analog materials, montage, cameraless techniques, and new forms. If your work pushes boundaries, invents its own language, or blends photography with other media, this competition is for you. What matters most is your unique vision — and the mastery with which you bring that vision to life.

Each year, an open-call application is made available in each of the seven active partner cities. Supporting artists equitably is a critical part of the Artadia Award process: the organization considers the unique populations of each community and are proud to reflect the country’s diversity with an Awardee pool that is over 50 percent female and over 40 percent persons of color. In addition to financial support, Awardees can participate in the Artadia Network to receive structured opportunities for valuable new connections and resource sharing as well as receive a dedicated webpage on Artadia’s online Artist Registry. Connections fostered by Artadia have facilitated major steps in Awardees’ careers.

The Independent and Freelance Photojournalist Award recognises excellence in independent visual reporting across three categories: Spot News, Environment, and Solutions. Each category winner receives a USD 5,000 cash prize, with three equal winners recognised annually. Photojournalism demands strict ethical standards. Images must present an accurate and honest account of events, without manipulation, alteration, or distortion. Integrity and impartiality are fundamental. Entrants may submit one 12-image essay per category that addresses urgent, underreported, or impactful global issues. Through this award, Xposure supports independent photojournalists and amplifies visual storytelling that informs, challenges, and resonates worldwide.

This year’s team of reviewers includes incredibly talented editors and photographers from companies and publications such as National Geographic, Associated Press, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Reuters, and more.

The program offers funding to independent presses with a history of artists’ book publishing, acknowledging awardees’ accomplishments in past work and providing the capacity-building funds to enable future book projects and publisher sustainability. In 2024, three unrestricted grants of $10,000 USD will be awarded to three independent artists’ book publishers. Printed Matter will also extend a featured exhibitor presence at a forthcoming Printed Matter’s NY or LA Art Book Fair to selected presses.

The Bill Lane Center for the American West has been supporting journalism about the West and its environment for more than a decade. Our Western Media Fellowships provide opportunities for journalists working in all kinds of media — newspapers, magazines, radio, television, online, multimedia, video, film, data visualization and mapping, and books. The fellowship enables journalists to interact with Stanford researchers, scholars, and students; develop or work on a project of their own design; and spur new coverage and understanding of the American West

Exposure welcomes diverse and innovative submissions from photographers and visual artists around the world who incorporate, celebrate or challenge the photographic medium within their practice. Submissions will be reviewed by our juror, award selection committees, and the Exposure team. Selected works will be shown at Contemporary Calgary as part of the 2025 Exposure Photography Festival.

The program combines online seminars, critiques with guest artists, and one-on-one sessions, as well as optional in-person and online workshops. Working with several instructors throughout the program, while also receiving assignments and feedback from guest critics, participants will have both continuity and variety of support. The learning process will be based on regular production of physical maquettes, which will lead participants to deepen their understanding of the book form and allow them to continue redefining it for themselves. Reading and writing assignments, as well as individualized exercises throughout the year will develop the skills and knowledge necessary for a photobook maker.

Delfina Foundation is pleased to announce a new open call for artists from Portgual and Portugese-speaking African Nations. In partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), Delfina Foundation welcomes applications from contemporary visual artists from Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe for a residency in London. This residency will take place from 28 June to 17 September 2027 during Delfina Foundation’s summer residency season.

Earth Partner exists to harness the power of creative expression and captivating visual storytelling to advance climate action through culture.

The competition is open to everyone, amateurs and professionals alike.

This award aims at recognizing and disseminating the best images that singularly demonstrate social inequities, injustices, and/or human rights abuses, or the situations that either foster or fight them. By giving this competition the name of the photographer and international aid worker Luis Valtueña, we pay tribute to his memory and the other three humanitarian aid workers of the association murdered in Rwanda (1997) and Bosnia (1995) out their duties. It is also our wish to highlight the human values they represent. The submitted images must narrate a story related to one of these topics: health, natural disasters, humanitarian action, international cooperation, social exclusion, violation of human rights, armed conflicts, vulnerable groups, refugee and/or migrant populations.

This Grant is designed to help a photographer begin a photographic project or help complete an ongoing photographic project. The Judges will be looking for a photographer whose proposed project seems most likely to use exemplary and compelling photojournalism and documentary photography (possibly supplemented by or incorporating multi-media) to address an issue of import and impact related to the human condition: social change, humanitarian concern, armed conflict, or other topics of interpersonal, psychological, cultural, social, environmental, scientific, medical and/or political significance, ideally expressing an underlying acknowledgement of our common humanity.

The Howard Chapnick Grant supports leadership in fields such as editing, research, education, and management--activities essential to photojournalism and documentary photography that complement the creation of images. The grant recognizes programs–rather than individuals–that significantly contribute to the field of documentary photography through education. Education, as defined broadly, could include not only direct learning, but also research, publication, archives, exhibitions, online resources, and social media dissemination–but only if these activities are dedicated to knowledge sharing purposes intended to effect change.

The W. Eugene Smith Grant for Student Photographers is designed to encourage and support students whose photographic work renews the tradition of W. Eugene Smith’s humanistic and compassionate photography. Special consideration will be given to work that promotes social change, that embraces new technologies and image distribution, and that seeks to integrate the tradition of photography and social change with contemporary practice.

Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards are run by photographers for photographers. TPOTY is truly global – wherever you live in the world and whether you are amateur or professional, beginner or expert, young or old, Travel Photographer of the Year is for you!

The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism provides experienced journalists with grants up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories that delve into critical economic, financial or business issues across a wide array of subjects. You don’t need to be a business reporter to apply; many of our previous Fellows have been generalists, or cover beats such as health care, education or the environment. Others have focused on issues such as economic inequality or corporate accountability.

Scholars may propose topics that relate to the visual arts, their history, practice, theory, or interpretation. Any proposal that contributes to understanding the nature of artistic activity and the intellectual, social, and cultural worlds with which it is connected is welcome. Attention will be given to proposals that promise to deepen, transform, or challenge those methods currently practiced within art history or that have the prospect of enhancing an understanding of the role of images in other disciplines in the humanities. All fellowships are intended to nurture a variety of disciplinary approaches and support new voices in art history.

Scholars from any discipline whose research engages the art, craft, and visual culture of the United States are encouraged to apply, as are those who foreground new perspectives, materials, and methodologies. Fellowships are residential and support full-time research in the Smithsonian collections. SAAM is devoted to advancing inclusive excellence in art history and encourages candidates who identify as members of historically underrepresented groups to apply. Applicants must identify a member of SAAM’s research staff to serve as primary fellowship advisor in order to hold a residency at this museum. They are encouraged to notify the potential advisor in advance of their application.

The Meeting Place Portfolio Review provides photographic artists with a unique chance to showcase their work to leading arts professionals from around the world. The event truly is a "meeting place" where artists can connect with Reviewers—including curators, gallery owners, photo editors, book publishers, and collectors—to network, collaborate, exchange ideas, and build lasting relationships. In many cases, Reviewers can play a crucial role in advancing careers, offering opportunities such as exhibitions, acquisitions, gallery representations, or publications. 

This year, we’re looking for stories of hope and resilience across Wellcome’s core areas of focus, and the spaces where they intersect. The prize is open to photographers from all areas – both professional and amateur – and aims to highlight stories of health, medicine and science that align with Wellcome's research programmes. Each year, a commission is developed alongside the competition, featuring the work of one or more photographers and focusing on a specific theme. From a molecular process in a single cell to the impact of a disease across an entire community, we’d like to see imagery exploring health, medicine and science.

Each year, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar hosts an international photography competition that receives content from some of the world's top photojournalists.

The Trebek Initiative is a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society funding storytellers, educators, conservationists, innovators and researchers who are documenting Canadian and Indigenous land, wildlife, water, culture and history. The Trebek Initiative’s mandate is to “ignite a passion to preserve across Canada”. This is accomplished by widely sharing the stories and discoveries of Trebek Grantees. In addition to funding, Trebek Grantees also receive mentorship and networking opportunities, storytelling support and opportunities to present their work on stage or virtually. Select Trebek Grantees will also receive the title of National Geographic Explorer.

This is an open call for photography submissions for our 13th annual exhibition. This year, InFocus Photo Exhibit & Awards welcomes submissions from photographers around the globe for a special open-theme exhibit. Any subject matter. Any style. Any genre of photography. Literally, “Anything Goes” … well, almost anything! Send us your favorite and most creative photographs for the opportunity to be a part of this special annual exhibition.

Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, The Webbys is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS)—a 2000+ member judging body. The Academy is comprised of Executive Members—leading Internet experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities—and Associate Members who are former Webby Winners, Nominees and other Internet professionals.

Every year, Zeiss provides a wide selection of lenses for still and cinema cameras for students to “test-drive” while on campus. Students are invited to submit their work made with these lenses to the competition, in two categories: 1) Still Images (any genre, from fine art to documentary to commercial) or 2) Short Films (documentary and/or narrative).

Each year, an open-call application is made available in each of the seven active partner cities. Supporting artists equitably is a critical part of the Artadia Award process: the organization considers the unique populations of each community and are proud to reflect the country’s diversity with an Awardee pool that is over 50 percent female and over 40 percent persons of color. In addition to financial support, Awardees can participate in the Artadia Network to receive structured opportunities for valuable new connections and resource sharing as well as receive a dedicated webpage on Artadia’s online Artist Registry. Connections fostered by Artadia have facilitated major steps in Awardees’ careers.

Over two days, 30 influential gallery owners, curators, and publishers from local and national photography communities will meet with 70 artists at The Slate Hotel March 12-13, 2027.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is a vital source of funding for the visual arts and art history in Virginia. VMFA is committed to supporting professional artists as well as art and art history students who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline and, as such, has awarded nearly $6 million in Fellowships to Virginians. The Fellowship Program was established in 1940 through a generous contribution made by the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg. 2024 marks the 84th anniversary! Offered through VMFA Statewide, Fellowships are still largely funded through the Pratt endowment, supplemented by the J. Warwick McClintic Jr. Scholarship Fund.

ACC supports artists, scholars, arts professionals, and organizations through fellowships and grants that advance cultural exchange between the U.S. and Asia, and within Asia. Through these immersive experiences, participants step outside their daily life, engage deeply with new cultural contexts, expand their perspectives and creative practice, and develop relationships with peers across borders. After their fellowship or grant, participants join ACC’s global alumni network, continuing to build connections and contribute to cross-cultural understanding through their work.

In partnership with Stadt-Salzburg, this program is an opportunity in July 2026 for visual artists living within the State of Minnesota to participate in a 4-week individual artist residency at the Künstlerhaus in Salzburg, Austria. Thanks to support from the City of Salzburg, the selected visual artist receives a live-in studio for one month at the Künstlerhaus and a 600 Euro stipend for food. Travel expenses to Salzburg and back to Minnesota are not covered.

The Monochrome Awards is primarily aimed at people of whom photography is a passion and a way of life. It is a platform where professionals and amateurs can enter their shots amongst a sea of ambitious and creative community of photographers from around the world for a chance to win $3000 and an opportunity to show their work to an international audience.

The Hopper Prize supports individual artists through two primary modes: unrestricted grant-making and an online digital archiving platform.

Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights (March 18-24th) at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will be selected by our jury and invited to spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. One full scholarship and five partial scholarships will be awarded. Student discounts and need-based scholarships will be available to those selected who qualify. Attending artists receive ten formal reviews by speakers and reviewers and take part in artist lectures, panel discussions, peer reviews, informal Q&A sessions, and additional evening programming over the seven day event. At the end of the event, one grand prize winner will be awarded the Charcoal Publishing Prize. The winning project will be published and distributed worldwide by Charcoal Book Club, the first book-of-the-month club dedicated exclusively to photobooks.

The purpose of our grants is to support and encourage visual storytellers to create a long-term documentary photography project with local communities who are working to protect the environment and wildlife. Vital Impacts will be awarding two $20,000(US) grants to support the development of a documentary project on the work of an environmental story over the course of twelve months. The grants are for two separate photographers working on two separate projects. The grants will fund visual stories that highlight solution based environmental initiatives. It is designed to give the recipients time, mentoring and intellectual freedom to produce a body of work over twelve months. The Vital Impacts team will provide mentorship and guidance to the recipients of the grant over the course of its implementation.

Created in 1993 to further FCA's mission to encourage, sponsor, and promote work of a contemporary, experimental nature, Emergency Grants provide urgent funding for visual and performing artists who: - Have sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of funding - Incur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates

The "Memorial María Luisa International Mountain and Nature Photo Contest" is created as a means of remembering María Luisa Alvarez Alvarez, as a mountaineer who lived friendship intensely in the mountains and everywhere. Yet it is in the mountains where her joy, her songs and the nostalgia for the happy days that we lived with her will remain for ever. She died in a mountain accident on 18th November 1990. For this reason, the founders of this Memorial, named after her, decided that the mountains, nature and any thing related to them are the subject of the photos.

Whether you shoot in the wilderness or at the heart of an urban environment, Wildlife Photographer of the Year is open to everyone.

The Ellie Awards honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design.

To recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding reporting directly to the public which materially increases the public's knowledge and understanding of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related fields.

The Peabody Awards honor a diverse range of stories distributed via television/streaming media; radio and podcast; and the Internet.

The interactive and immersive cycle of the Peabody Awards honors stories in formats such as games, virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive journalism and documentary, co-creation, and social video, released for at-home engagement on consumer-level hardware. Interactive, immersive, and/or participatory experiences must be core to the project and essential to the storytelling

Hot Docs is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers. Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organization of Canada (formerly the Canadian Independent Film Caucus), a national association of independent documentary filmmakers. In 1996, Hot Docs became a separately incorporated organization with a mandate to showcase and support the work of Canadian and international documentary filmmakers and to promote excellence in documentary production.

The Annual Photography Awards are dedicated to preserving the craft as a contemporary medium of fine art, and is motivated to helping artists rise in their careers.

The Anderson Center’s Winter Retreat program is a short-term residency during the organization’s off-season for artists and writers seeking concentrated creative time for reflection and the advancement of their personal artistic goals. A Winter Retreat at the Anderson Center is a fee-based opportunity for up to four artists at a time to live in community and fellowship while working on their own projects in the inspiring setting of the historic Tower View Estate.

The Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency (JTHAR) is an artist-centric nonprofit residency that awards an international community of artists the gifts of time and space amidst the extraordinary natural beauty of Joshua Tree National Park. Seven week residencies include scholarship funds, living accommodations, and studio space designed to accommodate a broad range of artistic activity and open studio events. JTHAR respects the critical role artists play in our society, and it aims to foster creativity, trust, courage, diversity and acceptance by facilitating opportunities for exploring, experimenting, quiet reflection, engagement and cross-cultural exchange with the vibrant local community. JTHAR establishes space for inspiration to happen, so artists can do the work of innovating, changing the cultural landscape and generating a fresh look at the way we connect to each other and to the world.

Cultivate is pleased to announce La Baldi Residency for artists, writers, and researchers. The multi-disciplinary residency welcomes individuals and collaborative teams. Located in the historic village of Montegiovi, Italy, in southern Tuscany, the self-directed international residency is an opportunity to experiment, develop ideas and projects, dream, explore, rejuvenate, research, and investigate the land and culture of this special area.

LIAEP seeks applications from dedicated artists who create work of exceptional quality and whose work and career is at a level to benefit from international exchange with peers.

SIPA is one of the photo contests with the highest international participation ever. 2022 edition has received nearly 48.000 images from amateur and professional photographers from 156 countries worldwide.

The Anderson Center at Tower View's Artist Residency Program is an opportunity in June, July, August and October 2026 for early career, mid-career, and established artists working across all disciplines and based anywhere in the world. The program is interdisciplinary and the organization welcomes applications from a wide range of creative and intellectual genres, including those that don't fit neatly into one category. Selected artists receive live/work space, fellowship & exchange within a 5-artist cohort, chef-prepared meals, and more.

The Early Career Artist Residency Program is an opportunity for early-career artists living within the state of Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City in need of focused time and dedicated space in an inspiring residency work environment that empowers them take risks, embrace challenges, and utilize unconventional approaches to problem-solving. Thanks to support from the Jerome Foundation, a month-long cohort of five artists will each receive a $625/week stipend, a travel honorarium, documentation support, and more.

The CatchLight Global Fellowship focuses on the power of visual storytelling to change the world. We support individuals looking to cultivate significant audience engagement with inventive methods of distribution that will increase the impact of their work.

The annual photo contest rewards photographers for the best single exposure pictures contributing to the past year of visual journalism.

Whether entered as singles or stories, these pictures are judged in terms of their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about our world.

The Sidney Hillman Foundation awards the Hillman Prizes for Journalism in the U.S and Canada, as well as the monthly Sidney Awards for investigative journalism in service of the common good.

Established creative and non-fiction writers, artists not requiring exceptional facilities, composers, filmmakers, and activists working for social justice are eligible applicants. Residents are chosen by an Admissions Committee of accomplished authors and artists. The committee is particularly interested in fine work which evinces social and ecological concern and is aimed at a general audience. International applicants are welcome.

Open to professional and non-professional, old and young, the Awards celebrate the very best in food photography and film from around the world.

The Satellite Fund, administered by SPACES and supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, is an opportunity for Cuyahoga County artists, curators, and cultural producers to create a public visual art project in Cuyahoga County. This grant is not only for established visual artists in the community, but also for emerging artists, creative professionals, and any Cuyahoga County resident with a strong vision and demonstrated ability to complete the proposed project. The scope is purposefully broad; we want this opportunity to be as accessible and far-reaching as possible to ensure we represent Cuyahoga County to the fullest.

In addition to financial support, SPACES will provide access to our on-site artist workshops that is outfitted with tools and equipment to facilitate the production process. SPACES’ Artist Initiatives Coordinator will also assist grantees in securing a public display space (outside of SPACES) in Cuyahoga County. Additionally, awardees will receive a one-year SPACES Artist level Membership, which gives free access to networking and artist professional development opportunities throughout the year.

The John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, which carries a $5,000 prize, is given annually for news reporting that makes an exceptional contribution to the public’s understanding of environmental issues. The award was founded in 1993 by family, friends and colleagues of John B. Oakes (1913-2001), who was an environmental journalism pioneer, the founder of the modern op-ed page, and the editor of the editorial page for the New York Times from 1961 to 1976. It recognizes journalists whose work meets the highest standards of journalistic excellence.

The residency is available to emerging and practicing artists, book artists, letterpress printers, and photographers who combine word and image. The residency is designed to help the chosen artist(s) complete their proposed, editioned project by providing studio space, funding, housing if needed, and the support of a curious, interdisciplinary arts community. The Book Artist in Residence has 4-week, unlimited access to our dedicated Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio, which includes two Vandercook presses (a Universal I and a Universal III), a photopolymer platemaker, and bindery equipment. The studio is also adjacent to our alternative process photography lab, a center of activity for students working with a wide range of historic techniques. The selected artist(s) could be on campus at the shoulder seasons of our programming, where the low-residency MFA students come in November and May for critical review of work.