Resource: Photo Contests and Grants Calendar

Photography Contests and Grants Calendar for 2025

Photography offers many opportunities to showcase your talent and receive support through contests and grants. Below is a curated list of key photography contests and grants for 2025, including specific grants aimed at documentary photographers who are People of Color, Women, or Indigenous.

Major International Grants

Magnum Foundation Fund

  • Amount: Project-based funding (varies)

  • Focus: In-depth documentary projects addressing critical social issues

  • Eligibility: Priority given to photographers from underrepresented regions and communities

  • Deadline: Various

  • URL: https://www.magnumfoundation.org/programs

  • Note: Particularly supportive of innovative approaches to documentary storytelling

National Geographic Storytelling Grants

  • Amount: Up to $30,000

  • Focus: Projects documenting cultures, species, and critical issues facing our world

  • Eligibility: Open to photographers worldwide with proven ability to complete complex projects

  • Deadline: Rolling throughout 2025

  • URL: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/funding-opportunities/grants/

  • Note: Emphasis on projects with clear conservation, scientific, or cultural impact

The Eugene Smith Grant

  • Amount: $40,000 (main grant), plus several $5,000 fellowships

  • Focus: Humanistic photography projects that follow in the tradition of W. Eugene Smith

  • Eligibility: Open to photographers worldwide

  • Deadline: April 2025

  • URL: https://www.smithfund.org/eugene-smith-grant

  • Note: One of the most prestigious documentary photography grants globally

The Alexia Foundation Grant

  • Amount: Professional grant $20,000, Student grant $1,000

  • Focus: Projects that promote world peace and cultural understanding

  • Eligibility: Professional and student categories

  • Deadline: January 2025

  • URL: https://www.alexiafoundation.org/grants

  • Note: Strong emphasis on social justice and human rights photography

Grants for Underrepresented Photographers

Women Photograph + Nikon Grants

  • Amount: Five grants of $5,000 each

  • Focus: Long-term documentary projects from women and non-binary photographers

  • Eligibility: Women and non-binary photographers with at least 5 years of experience

  • Deadline: May 2025

  • URL: https://www.womenphotograph.com/grants

  • Note: Additional mentorship opportunities available

Indigenous Photographer Fund

  • Amount: $10,000

  • Focus: Documentary projects by Indigenous photographers about their communities

  • Eligibility: Indigenous photographers worldwide

  • Deadline: October 2025

  • URL: https://www.nativephotographers.org/opportunities

  • Note: Includes mentorship component with established Indigenous photographers

Black Women Photographers Grant

  • Amount: $5,000

  • Focus: Documentary and editorial projects

  • Eligibility: Black women and non-binary photographers

  • Deadline: March 2025

  • URL: https://www.blackwomenphotographers.com/grant

  • Note: Includes portfolio review and mentorship opportunities

The Serendipity Arles Grant

  • Amount: €5,000

  • Focus: Documentary and contemporary photography

  • Eligibility: South Asian women photographers

  • Deadline: August 2025

  • URL: https://serendipity.gallery/arles-grant

  • Note: Includes exhibition opportunity at Rencontres d'Arles


Notable Documentary Photography Contests

World Press Photo Contest

  • Prize: Various monetary awards plus worldwide exhibition

  • Categories: Contemporary Issues, Environment, General News, Long-Term Projects, Nature, Portraits, Sports, Spot News

  • Deadline: January 2025

  • URL: https://www.worldpressphoto.org/contests

  • Note: Most prestigious photojournalism contest globally

Pictures of the Year International (POYi)

  • Categories: Multiple documentary and news categories

  • Eligibility: Professional photojournalists

  • Deadline: January 2025

  • URL: https://www.poy.org/competition

  • Note: One of the oldest and most respected photojournalism competitions

The Aftermath Project Grant

  • Amount: $25,000

  • Focus: Documentary projects exploring post-conflict stories

  • Deadline: February 2025

  • URL: https://theaftermathproject.org/

  • Note: Particularly interested in under-reported aftermath stories

Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Grants

  • Amount: Ranging from $5,000 to $20,000

  • Focus: Supporting photographers dedicated to capturing environmental issues and solutions

  • Eligibility: Photographers deeply connected to and documenting within their local communities

  • Deadline: Not specified in the available information

  • URL: https://vitalimpacts.org/pages/the-vital-impacts-environmental-photography-grant

  • Note: Seven grants are named after exemplary environmental leaders, aiming to support solution-oriented environmental stories.

Fine Art Grants That Support Documentary Work

Light Work Grants

  • Amount: $3,000

  • Focus: Photography and digital media projects

  • Eligibility: Residents of New York State (outside NYC)

  • Deadline: April 2025

  • URL: https://www.lightwork.org/grants

  • Note: Strong history of supporting documentary projects

Aperture Portfolio Prize

  • Prize: $3,000 and exhibition

  • Focus: Contemporary photography across all genres

  • Eligibility: International, emerging photographers

  • Deadline: January 2025

  • URL: https://aperture.org/portfolio-prize

  • Note: Often awards documentary and socially engaged work


CENTER Santa Fe's Photography Grants

Project Launch Grant

  • Amount: $5,000

  • Focus: Career-launching opportunity for photographers with a completed project

  • Eligibility: International photographers

  • Deadline: March 2025

  • URL: https://centersantafe.org/launchgrant

Project Development Grant

Excellence in Teaching Award

Additional Resources


Emergency Grants

The following organizations offer emergency funding for photojournalists in crisis or needing rapid project support:

Mentorship Programs

Note: All deadlines are subject to change. Always check the official websites for the most current information and application requirements.

(Updated February 2025)

Kata-Kata Minta Maaf(6).png

Did you know that an editor can help you home in on the right images for contests and grants?

An objective, outside opinion and fresh look at work can help you craft a contest or grant entry that connects with the judges.

I've created contest edits for numerous photographers who went on to win World Press Photo, POYi, Communication Arts, and other major awards.

contact me

Moving Walls deadline one week away

from: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/guidelines The Open Society Institute invites photographers to submit a body of work for consideration in the Moving Walls 18 group exhibition.

Moving Walls is an exhibition series that features in-depth and nuanced explorations of human rights and social issues.  Thematically linked to OSI's mission, Moving Walls is exhibited at OSI’s offices in New York and Washington, DC and includes seven discrete bodies of work.

Moving Walls recognizes the brave and difficult work that photographers undertake globally in their documentation of complex social and political issues.  Their images provide the world with human rights evidence, put faces onto a conflict, document the struggles and defiance of marginalized people, reframe how issues are discussed publicly, and provide opportunities for reflection and discussion.  Through Moving Walls, OSI honors this work while visually highlighting the mission of our foundation to staff and visitors.

For participating photographers, a key benefit of the program is to gain exposure for both the social justice or human rights issues they photograph, and for themselves as photographers.  When the tour ends, photographers may keep their professionally-produced exhibition to use however they wish.

Ian Parry Scholarship Deadline is July 2

For those of you under 24, from http://www.ianparry.org/

The Ian Parry Scholarship 2010 deadline is Friday 2nd July. Applications are digital. FTP instructions and application forms are available from http://www.ianparry.org/

The Ian Parry Scholarship is designed to award young photojournalists with a bursary that will enable them to undertake a chosen project and raise their profile in the international photographic community. The Scholarship is aimed at traditional or contemporary photojournalism and photographers with strong story telling capabilities.

Ian Parry was a photojournalist who died whilst on assignment for the Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. He was just 24 years old. The Scholarship was set up by Aidan Sullivan and Ian’s friends and family in order to build something positive from such a tragic death.

The competition is for photographers on full-time photographic courses or who are 24 years or under. The prize is £3,000 towards an assignment, a commission for Save The Children plus £500 for runners up. Entrants must submit: A digital portfolio of 12 images to our FTP following our guidelines An application form A brief synopsis of a project they would undertake if they won the award

We are delighted to announce the continued support of the Sunday Times Magazine, which publishes an extended feature of all the finalist’s work and World Press Photo who will automatically accept the winner onto their final list of nominees for the Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam.

Once again, our extremely popular and well-attended print exhibition will take place in London at the Getty Images Gallery. The exhibition will run for one week from the 18th August 2010.

Thank you for your interest and continued support, Best wishes Rebecca

Contact: Rebecca McClelland, Deputy Director becky@ianparry.org http://www.ianparry.org/

Fabrica F Award Deadline Extended

from http://www.fff.ph/ Fabrica, the Benetton Group’s communication research center and Forma, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia (international photography center) launch the third edition of the F Award - international award for concerned photography.

The F Award aims to involve photographers from all over the world.

The F Award aims to award photography that documents and criticizes, that tells a story: dramas, struggles, abused rights, but also dignity; pain and consolation, desperation and hope; the loss of everything and the triumph of life’s new possibilities and lastly the things that people do to face all of this. In a word, life.

The F Award aims to promote photography as a means of transmitting information and creating awareness. Without photography what would we know of hunger in the world, of the likely outcome of every war, of the living conditions of “the other half” to quote the work of one of concerned photography’s pioneers?

The F Award is inspired by the following words, published in 1972 by Cornell Capa: “They are concerned photographers. They take sides. They are people who wanted to show things that had to be corrected…wanted to show things that had to be appreciated”. The Concerned Photographer, Editor Cornell Capa, Grossman 1972

What to do: photographers who would like to participate should propose a series of photographs by June 7th, 2010 that would be part of a wider project that the prize will help finance.

The jury is formed by international personalities and is chaired by Peter Galassi, Director of Photography at MOMA, New York.

The other jury members are:

Monica Allende, Director of Photography, The Sunday Times Magazine Enrico Bossan, Director of Photography, Fabrica Melissa Harris, Editor, Aperture Roberto Koch, President, Forma Paolo Pellegrin, Photographer Magnum Photos Urs Stahel, Director of the Museum of Winterthur (Zurich)

The jury will award the most interesting project with a contribution of euro 20.000 and the possibility of publishing a book.

A special section, F25, for photographers under 25 will see the winner awarded with a one year scholarship in Fabrica’s photography area.

For further information:

Fabrica Press Office Angela Quintavalle angie@fabrica.it ph: +39-0422-516209 www.fabrica.it

Forma Press Office Laura Bianconi lbianconi@formafoto.it ph: +39-02-58118067 www.formafoto.it