A Guide To June 2026 Photo Awards & Open Calls

Deloitte's Photo Grant, Verzasca Foto Open Call, The Bowness Photography Prize, DongGang International Photo Festival Open Call, Hariban Award - International Collotype Competition, and 100 Book Award are among the opportunities we selected this month.

Deloitte's Photo Grant 2026

Deadline 14 June / No entry fee

The 2026 edition of the award centers on the theme Proximities, inviting photographers to explore the social, economic, and relational dimensions of closeness and distance in contemporary life. Participants are encouraged to use photography to examine how modern challenges – such as economic polarization, technological mediation, and social fragmentation – shape our interactions, while also highlighting the resilient connections that still hold communities together.

The call is divided into two submission categories with distinct prizes and requirements. The Nominations Section features professional photographers selected by ten international cultural figures, with the prize recipient receiving a €50,000 grant, a solo show at Triennale Milano, and a published catalogue. Concurrently, the Open Call Section is available to amateur and professional photographers under the age of 35, requiring a project description, a budget estimate, a 10-image portfolio, a CV, and an industry reference letter. The Open Call prize recipient will receive €25,000 to execute their project, a feature in the current Triennale exhibition, and a dedicated solo exhibition in the next edition of the award.

In addition to President of the Deloitte Foundation Guido Borsani and jury president Denis Curti, the selection committee includes Barbara Čeferin, Suzanne Cotter, Bruce Gilden, Bernardino Guedes de Castro, Carlos Idun-Taiwah, Sunyoung KIM, Katarzyna Sagatowska, and Alec Soth.

Submissions are open until 14 June with no entry fee. Learn more on their website.

Verzasca Foto 2027 Open Call

Deadline 10 June / No entry fee

Transitioning to a biennial format, the 2027 Verzasca Foto Festival invites international photographers to submit documentary, narrative, or conceptual projects that engage with rural, peripheral, and marginal landscapes. Rather than simplifying or idealizing these areas, the open call seeks works developed over time that reveal the living, rooted, and often invisible daily practices that sustain local economies, languages, and relationships.

The festival specifically supports emerging talent and aims to foster visual arts outside of dominant urban centers. Selected works will be exhibited directly within the natural surroundings of Switzerland's Verzasca Valley – including its woodlands and historic stone villages – creating an intimate, informal space that merges contemporary photography with the local Alpine territory.

Find out more on the festival's website.

The Bowness Photography Prize 2026

Deadline 14 June / Entry fee €34

Organized by the Museum of Australian Photography, the award is open to Australian citizens and residents for at least 12 months. The prize invites analogue and digital still image-based submissions, including multi-panel and experimental photo-based works produced since 1 April 2025.

A judging panel of two guest experts and a museum representative digitally reviews all entries to select the finalists, whose works are then exhibited and judged in person. The prize recipient receives a $50,000 in cash, and the selected artwork is acquired into the museum's permanent collection. Additionally, two Honourable Mentions receive $2,500 each, and all finalists are eligible for the $10,000 Wai Tang Commissioning Award. To further support participating artists, the Bowness Family Foundation also provides a guaranteed AUD $400 loan fee to all shortlisted photographers.

DongGang International Photo Festival 2026 Open Call

Deadline 1 June / No entry fee

Held in Yeongwol, Korea, the 24th DongGang International Photo Festival invites individuals and collectives to submit a series under the theme The Silence That Shapes. The festival interrogates how human beings understand the world, exploring the gap between our projected interpretations of nature – such as our anxieties, longings, and sense of the sublime – and what the natural world truly is in its inherent silence. The selection committee will choose between 15 and 20 artists to be featured in the festival, where their work will be reviewed by an international panel of influential photography experts.

Among the selected participants, one standout artist will be named Artist of the Year and awarded a solo exhibition at DIPF, with all production, printing, framing, and presentation materials provided, alongside covered travel and accommodation expenses to attend the opening. Additionally, the grand prize recipient will benefit from a year-long exhibition and extensive long-term festival representation.

Applications are open until 1 June. Learn more on their website.

Hariban Award - International Collotype Competition 2026

Deadline 15 June / Entry fee €34-42

Presented by Benrido, the Hariban Award combines contemporary black-and-white photography with collotype, a 170-year-old analogue printing technique utilizing glass plates. Open to both professional and amateur photographers, the competition allows applicants to submit a single monochrome series.

The Grand Prize recipient receives a two-week residency in Kyoto, Japan, to attend a hand-printing workshop and collaborate with Benrido’s master printers to produce eight collotype prints of their work. These prints will be featured in a solo exhibition the following Spring and published in the official Hariban Award 2026 catalogue in April 2027. Additionally, the competition features the Juror’s Choice Award, the Benrido Award (selected by CEO Takumi Suzuki), and Honourable Mentions for runners-up. Prize recipients of these secondary categories receive dedicated commentary, features within the official publication, and personal copies of the hand-bound, collotype-printed catalogue. Submissions are evaluated by an esteemed international jury consisting of Diane Dufour, Erin O'Toole, KIM Jeong Eun, and Leo Rongone.

100 Book Award

Deadline 14 June / No entry fee

Presented by Kult Books, the 100 Book Award celebrates small-scale publishing by selecting one or two photographic projects to be produced next Spring in a limited print run of 100 copies. The call is open to artists working primarily with photography across all styles, while other mediums like writing or drawing can be incorporated.

The selected projects will be designed by Janne Riikonen, assigned an ISBN, added to the Kult Books catalogue, and distributed internationally via bookshops, book fairs, and online platforms. The selected artist will receive three complimentary copies of the publication and the exclusive option to buy up to 20 additional copies at a 60% discount. Shortlisted creators will be contacted around mid-June 2026 for a video call to discuss the project's timeline and final terms.

You can apply until 14 June with no entry fee. Find out more on their website.

Metamorfosi Residency 2026 Open Call

Deadline 30 June / No entry fee

The Italian Cultural Institute in Prague (IIC Prague), in partnership with MUNAF – National Museum of Photography, is launching an open call for an artist residency titled Metamorphosis. Open to Italian artists, the program invites applicants to submit a visual arts project exploring the concept of change and transformation across unrestricted themes and mediums, though a connection to the host territory is highly encouraged.

The residency will take place at the IIC Prague guest house for three to four weeks between Autumn 2026 and Spring 2027, split into an initial planning and site-visit phase followed by the execution of the work. It will conclude with a public presentation of the artist's research. The selected photographer will receive a total all-inclusive grant of €5,000 covering the artist's fee, production costs, travel expenses, meals, and any other residency-related activities.

Learn more on IIC Prague's website.

Encontros da Imagem Portfolio Reviews 2026

Deadline 8 June / Entry fee €30

The annual portfolio reviews for the Encontros da Imagem International Photography and Visual Arts Festival will return to Braga, Portugal, on 8-9 October 2026. The open call is an opportunity for photographers to promote their work, establish network connections, and receive expert feedback from an international jury that includes curators, writers, and artists.

From the submissions, 32 photographers will be selected to travel to Braga for the in-person event, where they will deliver a 10-minute public presentation and participate in eight individual, 10-minute critique appointments with the jurors. The overall prize recipient will receive a €3,000 cash prize, a dedicated solo exhibition at the 2027 edition of the festival, and a feature publication in KATALOG magazine. Furthermore, three runners-up will receive Honorable Mentions, and their works will be showcased in a video projection during the 2027 festival cycle.

Check more on their website.

Star Photobook Dummy Award 2026

Deadline 8 June / No entry fee

The Star Photobook Dummy Award is an annual initiative launched in 2021 by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, in collaboration with publishers Phree, Ediciones Posibles, and RM, to honor the memory and creative legacy of graphic designer Inés Casals. Participation is strictly by nomination, with a designated international committee and an advisory board. The jury will evaluate the submissions based on concept, design, and narrative, seeking projects that reflect human values such as empathy, intimacy, resilience, and irony, while avoiding clichés.

The prize recipient will receive full structural support during the final design, ideation, and optimization phases, backed by a €10,000 contribution. This fund covers the printing and publication of the dummy into a bilingual English and Spanish photobook with a minimum print run of 800 copies. Beyond production and professional advisory sessions, the award includes comprehensive national and international distribution, alongside targeted promotional mailings to 50 influential contacts across the global photographic and publishing sectors.

Find out more on their website.

VAiF26 Portfolio Open Call

Deadline 15 June / No entry fee

The Visual Arts International Festival (VAiF26) invites emerging and established photographers from Greece and abroad to submit contemporary works. The initiative aims to showcase portfolios that exhibit strong thematic coherence, a distinct personal visual language, and a contemporary artistic approach, using the medium for documentation, research, storytelling, or personal expression. The selected portfolios will be featured in a group exhibition in Thessaloniki, Greece, in November 2026 as part of the festival's main programming.

The jury will consist of Stergios Karavatos (Independent Curator), Stefanos Kesidis (Artistic Director, Organizer of VAiF), Anastasia Markidou (Associate Professor, Director of the "FEM" Postgraduate Studies Program), and Manolis Skoufias (Director of Studies, ESP+).

VAiF26 Photobook Open Call

Deadline 15 June / No entry fee

International photographers, designers, publishers, and creative studios are welcome to submit projects that explore visual storytelling through the book form. Embracing the photobook as a distinct narrative world, VAiF26 accepts self-published books, publishing house collaborations, zines, and dummy photobooks.

A jury is composed of Elena Karathanasi (Curator and Graphic Design Lead at VAiF), Alexandra Moschovi (Academic Scholar, Art Critic, and Curator), and Alexander Supartono (Art Historian and Curator) will select the projects to be featured in a group exhibition in Thessaloniki, Greece, in November 2026.

Find out more on their website.

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