A Guide to October 2024 Photo Awards & Opportunities

PhMuseum 2024 Women Photographers Grant, Getxophoto Open Call, W. Eugene Smith Grant, Charta Award, Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT Award, and Andy Rocchelli Grant are among the opportunities we selected this month.

PhMuseum 2024 Women Photographers Grant

Deadline 10 October / Entry fee €30

Now in its 8th edition, the Grant aims to empower the work and careers of female and non-binary professionals of all ages and from all countries working in diverse areas of photography. The main recipients will share a total of €10,000 in cash. First place will receive €5,000, second place will receive €2,000, and third place will receive €1,000. Additionally, the New Generation category will be awarded €2,000. Among the prizes is a solo exhibition at PhMuseum Lab in Bologna, Italy, in 2025, with travel, accommodation, and production costs included. Rita Puig-Serra, Sara Bastai, and Sayuri Ichida are among the exhibited artists in the past editions.

In addition, up to 40 shortlisted works will be screened at PhotoVogue Festival, March 6-9, 2025, in Milan, Italy, while the Vogue Italia photography department, led by Alessia Glaviano will further select a work among all of the submissions for an online featured interview. PhMuseum's team will also select 6 photographers from all the applicants, who will be granted a 60-minute online portfolio review with a mentor of their choice from the PhMuseum Education program.

The jury composed of Gem Fletcher (Writer and Host of The Messy Truth podcast), Farah Al Qasimi (Visual Artist), Danaé Panchaud (Curator, Museologist, Lecturer, and Director of Centre de la photographie Genève), and Pixy Liao (Visual Artist) will also assign honorable mentions to highlight projects they highly took into consideration.

You can apply by 30th September with a €30 entry fee. Discover more on PhMuseum's website.

Getxophoto Open Call 2025

Deadline 31 October / Entry fee €22

First they pressed the PAUSE button, then the PLAY button, and now they’re hitting REC. The round red symbol, always so easy to find on cameras and electronic devices, takes its name from record, to save, film or register. Whether still or moving, the relationship between the image and memory is a central theme in visual studies that has captured the attention of great minds in the past such as Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag and Georges Didi-Huberman. But what remains of this relationship today in contemporary image technologies?

Getxophoto's Open Call offers the opportunity for visual artists and photographers from all over the world to exhibit their works under the theme REC. Selected artists will benefit from an exhibition at the 19th edition of the festival, June 2025 (expenses will be covered by the organisation), a €500 fee as a festival participant, and accommodation for two nights during the Opening Week plus travel support up to €150. María Ptqk (Independent Curator, Cultural Researcher and Curator of Getxophoto Festival), María Wills (Independent Curator and Researcher), Carla Bacelar (Vice-President of the Board and Producer, Encontros da Imagem) and Verónica Fieiras (Editor, Founder of Chaco editorial and Director of Escuela Migra) are the experts taking care of the selection.

More information on Getxophoto's website.

W. Eugene Smith Grant 2024

Deadline 9 October / Entry fee €54

Designed to encourage and support visual storytellers whose photographic work renews the tradition of W. Eugene Smith’s dedicated compassion, the 2024 edition of the W. Eugene Smith Grant consists of $30,000 (€26,900) granted to a photographer and project that seem 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. An additional $10,000 (€8,900) Fellowship grant will be awarded and $7,500 (€6,720) will be given to a finalist. 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.

Find out more on their website.

Charta Award 2024

Deadline 10 October / Entry fee €25

Held by Charta, a biennal contemporary photography festival focused on photo books and independent publishing, the open call welcomes international artists who incorporate the photographic medium in their artistic practice and have produced a project that could be printed in the book format. The selected work will be published and produced by Yogurt Editions in an edition of 500 copies. The artist will receive 30 free copies of the book and 10% royalties on copies sold, with a six-monthly report.

You can apply by 10th September. Find out more on Charta Festival's website. 

Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 Award

Deadline 6 October / No entry fee

Aimed to discover and appraise the creative efforts of young artists who demonstrate the power of the image in their works, the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT and ISSP Gallery are looking for portfolios of artists who stimulate discussion and offer diverse ideas. Young artists from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are invited to submit their work. One selected artist will be offered a solo exhibition at the ISSP Gallery in Riga in April 2025, within the framework of the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT programme. The gallery will also host the RPB award ceremony. The prize recipient will be determined by an international jury comprised of Adam Mazur (Art Critic, Historian and Curator), Kulla Laas (Artistic Director of Tallinn Photomonth), Paulius Petraitis (Artist and Curator), Santa Hirša (Art Historian and Critic) and Iveta Gabaliņa (Artist and Curator of the ISSP Gallery).

In addition, the VV Foundation will choose a laureate for a €1,000 cash prize and an opportunity to spend a month working at their residency PAiR (Pāvilosta Artist in Residency) in Pāvilosta, Latvia. The founders of the independent publishing initiative NoRoutine Books, Gytis Skudžinskas and Vilma Samulionyte, will select one of the participants for their own award – the opportunity to publish a photo book.

Discover more on Riga Photography Biennial's website.

Andy Rocchelli Grant 2024

Deadline 15 October / No entry fee

Andy Rocchelli was an irreplaceable fire starter, and to make sure that his values as a photographer and as a person can continue to burn, since 2021 CESURA has established a Grant in his name to allow an author or new talent to create a photographic book in full freedom of expression, as Andy would have wanted. Artists and photographers of any age and nationality, including collectives, are welcome to submit a dummy accompanied by the submission form. The selected photographer will sign a regular publication contract with Cesura Publish, which will edit, produce and distribute the winning book. Plus, the author is entitled to 15 free copies. The jury is composed of Arianna Arcara, Lucia Rocchelli, Alex Majoli, plus other two other professionals who will be announced shortly.

Find out more on Cesura's website.

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Other Deadlines

Pride Photo Award 2025 / Deadline 6 October / No entry fee

Whether through documentary photography that highlights news events, and the realities of daily life, or whether through artistic expression using portraiture, collage, photographic intervention, or AI, Pride Photo is looking for works that represent a broad spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ community and open up our perspective on inclusivity, and the Queer community, as well as the way we think and question established ideas of engagement. Selected photographers will receive a €500 fee and will be displayed in the Pride Photo Exhibition 2025. The jury is composed of Mohamad Abdouni, Lee-Ann Olwage, J.G. Basdew, Dilys Ng and Maurits de Bruijn.

Diecixdieci Call For Photobooks 2024 / Deadline 15 October / Entry fee €15

The Diecixdieci Collective announces a call for photobooks for the 8th edition of the Diecixdieci Festival of Contemporaty Photography to be held in Gonzaga (Province of Mantua) from November 16 to 24, 2024. The selected work will be printed by Fotofabbrica of Massimiliano Carraglia, which is the technical sponsor of the Diecixdieci Festival, and will be exhibited during the Festival 2025. The jury is composed of Aaron Schuman (Photographer, Curator and Educator), Massimo Sordi and Stefania Rössl (Omne Curators and Artistic Directors), Daniele Cinciripini and Serena Marchionni (Ikonemi Founder), and Giulia Boccarossa (Book Designer).

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Visit our awards page or download our iOS awards app to get a complete view of the best photography opportunities that are currently open for entry.