June's Photography Awards and Opportunities

An Open Call from Photo Vogue Festival, Cortona On The Move’s Happiness ONTHEMOVE Award, Prix Levallois, and our own Mobile Photography Prize are among the top opportunities currently open for submissions. Check out how they can support the development of your work and career.

An Open Call from Photo Vogue Festival, Cortona On The Move’s Happiness ONTHEMOVE Award, Prix Levallois, and our own Mobile Photography Prize are among the top opportunities currently open for submissions. Check out how they can support the development of your work and career.

PHmuseum 2021 Mobile Photography Prize / Deadline: 17 June / Entry fee: $25 - $35

The PHmuseum Mobile Photography Prize is back to engage image-makers in the research we started a couple of years ago to understand how mobile devices are influencing photography and the way we document. The theme of this, the third, edition is Portraits - a reflection on identity, representation, and self-representation in the digital age. With part of Generation Z (born 1997-2012) and the whole Generation Alpha (2010 onwards) being the first people in human history to have full consciousness of their image and own portrayal since a very young age, we aim to explore how mobile phones and the digital environment are influencing the perception of the self and the way we live.

What does it mean “to be present” in a digital world base on representation? With this open call, we will explore such relevant questions and look for photographs that could help us document and understand this constantly evolving phenomenon. Images that can provoke new reflections to understand how the millenary human fascination for representation and self-representation is approaching this digital era.

The open call offers $5,000 in cash for the mobile photos of the year, inclusion in our third 200-image photobook on mobile photography, and feature in a physical exhibition at PHmuseum Lab in Bologna, Italy. Plus features on BuzzFeed News and C41 Magazine. To participate, you are invited to enter one or more images taken with a mobile device. You can upload photos from your desktop computer, phone gallery and Instagram library. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel comprising Cindy Sissokho (Cultural Producer, Curator, and Writer), Alana Celii (Photo Editor, The New York Times) Cristian Rahadiansyah (Festival Director JIPFest), and Sara Urbaez (Photo Art Director, Square). The deadline is set for 17 June. Learn more and apply at phmuseum.com/m21.

Prix Levallois / Deadline: 27 June / No entry fee

Created in 2008, the Prix Levallois is a springboard for young international photographic creation, looking to support artists under the age of 35 working with any form of photo-based expression. “Today, photography is, without a doubt, the most frequently-used means of capturing the world around us, representing its landscapes, inhabitants, political events, festive gatherings, beliefs and so on” write Catherine Dérioz and Jacques Damez, the artistic directors and curators of the Prix Levallois. “In the selection of projects nominated for the Prix Levallois, the ongoing objective is to take into consideration the diversity of photographic practices as well as the quality, the originality and the demanding nature of the work” they continue.

As in all the previous editions, an independent jury will assign both a Laureate Award and a Special Mention. The panel this year is composed of Moshe Rosenzveig (Founder of Head On Photo Festival & Artistic Director), Paul-Antoine Briat (Co-founder of YellowKorner), Laurent Baheux (Awarded wildlife photographer), Agnès Grégoire (Director of the Editorial Board of PHOTO Magazine), and David-Xavier Weïss (Deputy Mayor in charge of Culture, Youth and Events for the City of Levallois). A separate Audience Award will be assigned following an online vote that gives a voice to all photography enthusiasts. The Laureate winner will receive a €10,000 Grant while the Special Mention awardee will win a DSLR camera. Photographs of the three winners will be displayed at the Galerie L’Escale in Levallois between October and November. The final deadline is 27 June. No entry fee. Visit prix-levallois.com for more information.

Photo Vogue Festival Open Call / Deadline: 25 June / No entry fee

© Osborne Macharia. Exhibitor at the 2019 edition of Photo Vogue Festival

From celebrating the female gaze in fashion photography to highlighting diversity behind and in front of the camera, Photo Vogue Festival has always tried to challenge the danger of single, monolithic stories, and to push a multiplicity of points of view. For its sixth edition, titled Reframing History, the curators want to explore projects that have reclaimed an alternative, different way of telling a tale. “It could be a work that reclaims an aesthetic, an idea of beauty that has been diminished, stereotyped or exoticized”, they write. “It could be a project that aims to dismantle discriminations and social prejudices. It could even be a work that tells a well-known fictional story from a new point of view. The important thing is the authors challenging the mainstream narrative, providing a new, alternative point of view, reclaiming their space and the power of representation.”

This year, the Open Call will run on Photo Vogue, Picter, and Instagram until June 25 and it is completely free of charge. With regard to Photo Vogue, the PVF team will follow the usual process of assessing the related images and uploaded projects, while on Instagram all you have to do is use the hashtag #VIreframinghistory. For Picter, every author will be able to submit a maximum of 10 images from one project and up to three videos that tackle the theme Reframing History.

Two winners (a photographer and a video maker), deemed by the international jury to have submitted the two most significant and interesting projects, will each receive a €5,000 cash grant offered and paid by Studio RM to be used to further their artistic endeavours. An additional two applicants will be afforded the opportunity to exhibit their projects at the festival and on Studio RM's social media. This is a unique occasion to showcase your work to renowned curators, photo editors, and artists and continue building your career. More details can be found at vogue.it.

Happiness ONTHEMOVE Award / Deadline: 14 June / No entry fee

We Are Humans is the central theme of the 2021 edition of Cortona On The Move, a collective narrative of our very being as humans in which the sharing of emotions through images will play a leading role. “In 2021, Happiness takes on a special meaning, based on intimacy, hope, and visions for the future”, write the curators. “The challenge we propose to professional and emerging photographers is to document what happiness means in this historical contingency. A theme to be interpreted through one’s own vision, creativity, and sensitivity, to be developed in its complexities.”

One winner will receive a prize of €3,000 and a featured screening during the opening days of the festival, which is set to open on 15 July. The jury will work exclusively online and is composed of professionals and experts in the field, namely Elena Boille (Deputy Editor and Photo Editor Internazionale), Arianna Rinaldo (Artistic Director of Cortona On The Move), Gaia Tripoli (Photo Editor The New York Times), James Wellford (Senior Visual Editor/Producer National Geographic), and Paolo Woods (Photographer).

To participate, photographers should send a minimum of eight and a maximum of 15 images, an introduction to the proposal in English no longer than 4,000 characters, a biography, and a short statement describing how the submitted material is attached to the term “Humans. The deadline to apply is 14 June and entry is free. Further information can be found at cortonaonthemove.com/en/open-calls.

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OTHER DEADLINES:

Royal Photographic Society Postgraduate Bursary / Deadline: 14 June / No entry fee

As part of The RPS remit as an educational charity, they offer an annual bursary of £3,500 in support of a postgraduate student. For this award, photography is interpreted in its widest sense to include digital and traditional photographic media, the art and science of photography and image-based written work. Applications are invited from postgraduate students on courses in photography or undertaking research in photography, and applicants can apply at any stage of their studies but must demonstrate a specific outcome for their proposed project.

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Light Work Artist-in-Residence Program / Deadline: 1 July / Entry free: US$10

Light Work is calling for applications to participate in its annual international residency program open to all artists working in photography or image-based media, from any country. 12 to 15 artists will be handpicked by a jury, including one artist co-sponsored by Autograph ABP and one artist commissioned for Urban Video Project (UVP). Those selected will be invited to live in Syracuse for one month and will receive a US$5,000 stipend, an apartment to stay in, a private digital studio, a private darkroom, and 24-hour access to the facility. Participants are expected to use their month to pursue their own projects: photographing in the area, scanning or printing for a specific project or book, and so on.

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Charta Dummy Award 2021 / Deadline: 9 July / No entry fee

The Charta Dummy Award is open to visual artists who use the photographic medium and have already made a book dummy of their project. The curators are looking for outstanding works, distinguished by an original approach to both contemporary languages and storytelling. Artists are invited to submit a physical copy of their dummy. The final shortlist will consist of a selection of 25 book dummies to be exhibited in Rome during the Charta Festival 2021. One of the shortlisted dummies will be awarded the Charta Prize and will be published by Yogurt Editions with a production worth €5,000.

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The Ian Parry Scholarship / Deadline: 9 July / No entry fee

Created to celebrate the life and work of Ian Parry, a photojournalist who died while on assignment in 1989, this annual international photography contest has helped launch the careers of many of the finest photographers working in the profession today. It is a prize aimed solely at young photographers who are either attending a full-time photographic course or are under 24 years of age and it plays an important role in drawing attention to global issues that are often overlooked by mainstream media. This year’s IPS is divided into two categories: The Sunday Times Award for Achievement and The Canon Award for Potential, with each winner to be granted a US$3,500 cash prize and the opportunity to attend a portfolio review day with industry experts in London.

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Lucie Photo Book Prize / Deadline: 15 July / Entry fee: US$35 - US$55

Run by the Lucie Foundation, the Lucie Photo Book Prize aims to support photographers in producing and promoting their photobooks through monetary prizes and exposure opportunities. The contest is divided into two separate awards - the Traditional Prize (worth US$3,000) and the Independent Prize (worth US$2,000). The Traditional Prize will be awarded to a photographer, editor, curator, or publisher whose book is commercially produced and distributed, while the Independent Prize will be granted to a photographer, editor, curator, or publisher whose book is published and distributed independently. The winners plus a selection of top finalists will also have their work displayed in New York City at a date to be set in 2022 as part of the Lucie Foundation’s annual programming.

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

© Yasmine Kazeem
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© Yasmine Kazeem

© Lionel Jusseret, from the series Kinderszenen. 2020 Prix Levallois winner
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© Lionel Jusseret, from the series Kinderszenen. 2020 Prix Levallois winner

© Osborne Macharia. Exhibitor at the 2019 edition of Photo Vogue Festival
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© Osborne Macharia. Exhibitor at the 2019 edition of Photo Vogue Festival

© Stephanie Gengotti, from the series Circle Love. 2019 winner
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© Stephanie Gengotti, from the series Circle Love. 2019 winner

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