12th edition
The PhMuseum Photography Grant is an annual initiative that recognises the importance of photography and visual storytelling.
Over the years it has grown into a leading photography prize, with previous editions having awarded work by photographers like Max Pinckers, Poulomi Basu, Jacob Aue Sobol, Diana Markosian, Alejandro Cartagena, Bieke Depoorter, Camille Lévêque, and Tomas van Houtryve, among many others. Now in its 12th edition, the initiative is designed to support the production and promotion of visual projects through cash prizes, exhibitions at international festivals, educational activities and exposure on online media.
The theme is open. All approaches are welcome, from traditional documentary photography to experimental ways of telling a story or sharing a concept. Applicants retain full image copyrights. You can see all the prizes and learn how to apply below, while you can check FAQs here. Thanks for considering this opportunity and best of luck with your applications!
Closed
22 February
Shortlist announcement
April
PhEST's team will select a work from all the submissions to be granted a solo show during the 9th edition of the festival to be held in Monopoli, Italy in September 2024.
Maria Ptqk, head curator of Getxophoto, will select a project from all the submissions to be awarded an exhibition during the 18th edition of the festival which will be held in Getxo, Basque Country, Spain in June 2024. In addition to the show production, the winner will receive an artist fee of €400 and accommodation for 2 nights during the Opening Week.
PhMuseum's Director Giuseppe Oliverio will select a project among all of the submissions to be exhibited at PhMuseum LAB, Bologna Italy, in January 2025. The prize includes travel, accomodation and production costs.
All up to 40 shortlisted projects will be screened at PhMuseum Days 2024 and Kranj Foto Fest 2024 international photography festivals.
Our team will select 6 photographers from all the applicants, who can select a free 60-minute online portfolio review with a mentor of their choice from the PhMuseum Education individual program.
The Studio by Tara Laure Claire (AKA Tara Sood)
Yes, you retain full copyright at all times. By applying you just grant us a license to publish your work in the Grant’s results page and for promotion of future editions of our grants program. In both cases, we will get in touch with you to inform you. For more info, please check the Grant's Terms and Conditions.
That passage of the T&C is necessary to point out that we are not liable in case one of the subjects portrayed in your work complains and/or even starts legal actions against us because he/she did not consent to that photo. For this reason, we will not ask for the model releases, unless those kind of situations arise. Bearing that in mind, please feel free to apply, unless you think there might be any risks in that sense. For more info, please read our Terms and Conditions.
You can upload a minimum of 5 photos and a maximum of 20 photos, according to the nature of your projects and your personal choices at the moment of editing it.
The maximum size allowed is 5MB, yet we recommend you upload lighter files in a good resolution since our platform is programmed to automatically compress to make the navigation faster. As a reference, we suggest you to upload a file where the resolution is 72 dpi with at least 1000px on the shortest side, and weighting around 2MB. This will also speed up the upload process.
You can upload photos in JPG and PNG format. TIFF, GIF, and other formats are currently not allowed.
You can select the cover photo of your submission at the moment of uploading the photos of your submission. Please notice that it can be cropped into a squared format, for the shortlists and results announcement.
The text shall be a description of your project in which you explain its concept/story and provide all the relevant information. There is no character limit, yet we recommend you to stay within 500 words. We also recommend you to explain briefly what the project is about in the first paragraph. Then develop the concept/story in the next 2-3-4 paragraphs, trying to be exhaustive yet clear and succinct. The judges will review several projects per day, so helping their work will be an advantage for you.
As an independent organisation with no donors no sponsor behind, we need the entry fee to run the open call (human resources, technological infrastructure, judges, etc…). The entry fee also invites applicants to take the submissions seriously.
Currently, the accepted methods are Credit/Debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal.
You will see a confirmation message just after completing the payment, and receive a confirmation email at the email address associated with your PhMuseum account. You will also see a copy of your submission in the submissions section of your PhMuseum profile. If you grant us the permission to share the submission as Featured Submission on social media, you will also see a copy of your submission in your PhMuseum's Account. You can edit its privacy settings or any other info from the posts section.
You can always download it from the link you will find in the submission confirmation email. Alternatively you can go orders section of your PhMuseum's Account - just be sure to have logged in, then you can find it from the menu in the top right corner.
There is no limit to the number of projects you can present, yet you need to create a separate submission for each one of them.
Sure, you are welcome to upload diptychs, triptychs, and multiple images. The important thing is to respect the limit of 20 uploads/files per entry. Just to be clear, a diptych or triptych count for 1 upload/file.
If you apply before the Early Bird Deadline, you can modify it within 48 hours from that deadline. If you apply later, you can modify it until the Final Deadline.
When you successfully complete your application, we store it in the judges' review system. At the same time, we create a copy into your PhMuseum profile. You can edit the latter, yet those changes will not affect your Grant's submission.
Your submission is always private unless you are shortlisted for or awarded a prize. When you apply though, we can create a copy of your submission as a public post in case you select that option - so that our community of photographers, photo editors, and curators can also enjoy it. If you change your mind, you can provisionally remove it from the public website and put it into Draft mode. To do so, after you have successfully submitted your project to the Grant, go to the Posts section of your profile, and click the edit button of the content you want to modify. Once in edit mode, you will be able to untick the "Public on the website" option at the bottom of the page. This makes the post a draft, and you will be the only one who can see it. Please note that this change does not affect your Submission, stored in the Grant Review System.
Yes, collaborative projects are accepted.
Yes, the independent panel of judges has changed from the previous editions, and they will assign the prizes according to their own criteria. So you’re welcome to present again the same project.
We do not take or store any payment details on our servers. Our payments are securely processed via Stripe, a widely recognized service through which we accept payments. Here you can learn more about their security procedures: https://stripe.com/docs/security/stripe. Alternatively you can also pay with Paypal.
Please double check your email and password combination. If your browser automatically fills your username, please insert the email address associated to your account instead. Should you still have issues, drop us a line at support@phmuseum.com.
In order to recover your password please go to https://phmuseum.com/forgot-password and follow the guided steps to reset your password. For security the reset password link you will receive to your email account expires after 60 minutes. In that case you will need to ask for a new one always at https://phmuseum.com/forgot-password.
You are welcome to submit mixed media projects as long as photography and its language are at the core of your submission. If you use generative AI programmes you must mention so in the project text and refer to your working process and possibly the archive you are employing. As references, you can check The Book Of Veles by Jonas Bendiksen and POST by Sander Coers.