A Guide to May's Photography Open Calls, Awards and Opportunities

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grants, Women Photograph Grants, Arles Book Awards, and PhMuseum Days 2022 Open Call are offering great opportunities and prizes for photographers at all stages of their careers. Read more to find out which one adjusts to you and how can they help you develop a career as a photographer.

Women Photograph Grants / Deadline 15 May / Fee None

Women Photograph has opened the submissions of their 2022 grants to all women, nonbinary, and intersex documentary photographers of any nationality. This year they are offering; the Women Photograph Project Grants and the Women Photograph + Leica Grant

The Women Photograph Project Grants consists of four prizes of up to $5,000, applicants might participate in one of the following: news focus, sports, arts & entertainment, and video or multimedia. Three additional grants, supported by Nikon USA, will be open to work from any genre. This grant counts with a jury formed by Mona Boshnaq (The New York Times), Allison Stewart (Godfrey Dadich), Alissa Ambrose (Stat News), Candida Ng (Afp), and Brian Frank (Photographer). 

The Women Photograph + Leica Grant will award a $10,000 prize to a photographer focused on an ongoing documentary project, who can demonstrate a long-term commitment to their story. A substantial amount of work must have been completed and the photographer must have a clear vision of the future of the body of work. Funding should primarily be used to support the production of new work. This grant will be judged by Victor Caivano (AP), Veronika Chatelain (Open Society Foundations), Maura Friedman (National Geographic), Lisa Larson-Walker (ProPublica), and Danielle Villasana (Photographer). Find out how to apply on their website.

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grants / Deadline 31st May  / Fee $10 to $50


The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is offering 3 grants; The Eugene Smith Grant, The Howard Chapnick Grant, and Eugene Smith Grant for Student Photographers. The 31st of May is the deadline for submissions. Each program will count on a different international jury of three members.  

The Eugene Smith Grant is their annual initiative designed to help a photographer begin a photographic project or help complete an ongoing one. Looking for a photographer whose proposed project seems 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. For 2022, the amount of the W. Eugene Smith Grant is $40,000. An additional $5,000 grant will be awarded as a Fellowship, and two finalists deemed worthy of special recognition will each be given a grant of $2,500.

Established in 1996, the Howard Chapnick Grant is dedicated to supporting leadership in the fields of photojournalism and documentary photography, such as editing, research, education, and management. The Howard Chapnick Grant offers $10,000. The grant may be used to finance any of a range of qualified undertakings, which might include a program of further education, research, a special long-term sabbatical project, or an internship to work with a noteworthy group or individual. 

Aiming to encourage and support students the Eugene Smith Grant for Student Photographers is looking for a photographer and project that seem most likely to use exemplary and compelling photojournalism and documentary photography to address an issue related to the human condition. Applicants should submit ongoing work from a project that would likely benefit from the $5,000 grant. One of the images from the winning project shall become part of the W. Eugene Smith Legacy Collection at the International Center of Photography in New York. This grant has a reduced entry fee of $10 USD. Find further details on all the grants on their website

Rencontres d'Arles Book Awards / Deadline 27 May

Created at the founding of the festival, the Rencontres d'Arles Book Awards support each year with renewed fervor, the extraordinary creativity of photographic publishing, and strive to be one of the major actors for its wide dissemination. Since 2015, The Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’Ecriture et la Littérature is the main partner of these Awards.

The 2022 Book Awards grants nowadays three categories of books. The Author Book Award rewards the best author project for a contemporary photography work. It is endowed with 6,000 euros. The Historical Book Award rewards the best documented book on photography or about a photographer. It can either be a thematic or monographic book. The Photo-Text Book Award is endowed with 6,000 euros rewards the best book in which photographs and words contribute equally to the work. It is endowed with 6,000 euros. Application is open to all photography books and catalogues that have been published between june 1, 2021 and may 27, 2022. Applicants must forward one application form completed for each book by categories, together with one copy of each book submitted.

A pre-jury composed of photographic publishing professionals meets in mid-June and is in charge of drawing up a shortlist of about twenty works per category. According to a new curatorial dynamic, only the shortlisted books will be presented to the public, in a dedicated place during the whole period of the festival in Arles, as well as during the Jimei x Arles festival, which will take place from next fall, 2022. All shortlisted candidates will be asked to send during summer a second copy of their book so that the Rencontres d'Arles library can include a copy that has not been shown to the public. A jury of photobook experts will name the Book Awards winners during the opening week of the festival. The grant will be equally divided between the publisher and the photographer (or to all the authors in case of collaborative or collective works) after the awards ceremony.

Trieste Photo Days: URBAN Photo Awards  / Deadline May 31 / Fee €10-€40

URBAN Photo Awards restarts for the thirteenth edition offering over €15,000 in cash prizes. The prize counts with a jury chaired by photographers Nino Migliori and by Susan Meiselas, who will accompanied by other recogniezed practitiones such as Jérôme Sessini, documentary photographer and member of the Magnum Photos agency, and Manfred Baumann, internationally renowned portraitist. 

Photographers can apply in three sections. The Single Pictures (four thematic areas: Streets, People, Spaces, Creative) offering a 1st prize of €2,000. The Projects and Portfolios with a €2,000 prize for the first Portfolio winner. The Book Award, recognizing the sketches of photographic books, offering a prize of €500 for the first winner, and €500 for the Best Author. 

As part of the prizes, they will be hosting an award ceremony for all the winners and a gala dinner and hospitality during Trieste Photo Days 2022 Festival. The winners' photographs will be published in international magazines and in the eighth volume of URBAN unveils the City and its secrets. As partners of the awards, dotART, Trieste Photo Days festival, and Matrix4Design will also be presenting various prizes to be revealed in the upcoming weeks on URBAN’s website. Stay updated and apply here

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OTHER DEADLINES:

PhMuseum Days 2022 Photo Festival Open Call  / Deadline May 12 / Fee 18-25€ 

Under the theme Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow, the festival will take place between 23 September and 2 October 2022 in Bologna, Italy. This opportunity offers various prizes to be part of the main program, among which 3 individual exhibitions, a collective show of 40 images, and feature in a collective projection of 20 works. Find out how to apply here.  

Cortona On the Move Award / Deadline 16 May / Fee None

Cortona On The Move has partnered with LensCulture 4 years ago to facilitate access to this organization, which develops and promotes broad opportunities for creative and professional photographic career development. This award offers up to 5000 € pus the publishing of the winner's photographs, find out how to participate on their website.

The Hopper Prize / Deadline 17 May / Fee $ 40

Offering grants and cash prizes of up to $3,500 per winner, and including features and extensive exposure The Hopper Prize accepts submissions through a bi-annual open call. Each grant cycle is juried by a new team of contemporary curators who select grant winners on the basis of artistic excellence and the promise of future potential. Learn all about it on their website.

PhotoVogue´s Global Open Call / Deadline June 25 / Fee None

PhotoVogue is looking for visions that push the boundaries of the current fashion landscape. Wanting to highlight the next generation of socially conscious fashion image-makers. Artists who are a driving force for change and whose work can engage in a dialogue with different genres, from documentary to art. Find out further information on their website.    

InCadaqués International Photo Festival 2022 / Deadline 15 July / Fee 22€

InCadaqués International Photo Festival 2022 takes place in the Spanish village of Cadaqués. This 6th Edition offers a first prize that consists of a selection of 10/15 photographs that will be exhibited at the Festival. Plus, a second prize, offered to 14 runners up, consists of a selection of 3 images per author that will be also exhibited during the festival. Find out how to apply on their website.

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

© Golden
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© Golden

© Salih Basheer
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© Salih Basheer

© Rencontres d'Arles
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© Rencontres d'Arles

© Jose Antonio Flores Garcia
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© Jose Antonio Flores Garcia

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