7.7 An off-shoot of the Barcelona-based collective RUIDO Photo, 7.7 is a photo project that calls into question the idea of photo projects, calling for instead for a different kind of story-telling, and for a “photography of proximity and profundity, a photography where the stories that are told contain all the hues found in this world we live in.” 7.7’s critical and political manifesto is clearly designed to shake the viewer out his or her complacency, and the stories collected on the site, effective and moving photo documentaries, achieve the goal. 7.7 has also initiated a photo contest, inviting like-minded photographers to submit work for publication and for a 2000 euro prize.  

Africa Photographic Awards A large-scale photo contest with many categories to enter and prizes worth the equivalent US $300 000.00, the South Africa-based Africa Photographic Awards benefits the Tomorrow Trust, a non-profit that helps to educate orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa and elsewhere.  

Alicia Patterson Fellowship Award Founded with a goal of boosting the quality of American print journalism (including photography), the Alicia Patterson fellowships are generously funded 6 month or 1 year stipends open to fulltime American print journalists or foreign journalists who work fulltime for an American print publication. Although they seem to ignore the implications of the digital revolution, the rules for applying for the fellowships are clearly outlined on the site, and no one should miss the wonderful biographical story of newspaper publisher and foundation namesake Alicia Patterson. 

American Illustration/American Photography Well regarded for its juried annual of North American contemporary photography, American Photography is recognized as a top-flight showcase for editorial, advertising, fine art and experimental work. Open to submissions from photographers, creative professionals, representatives, students and teachers of photography as well as international photographers with North American representation or those who have been published or exhibited in North America, AP is interested in cutting-edge work from the diverse areas of photography and has been know to give newcomers pride of place alongside established names. Winning work appears in single page format in the AP annual, said to be a beautifully packaged “snapshot” of current photography that is consulted by top creative professionals who search out new photographic talent, including art directors, photo editors, art buyers, gallerists, and publishers. 

Angkor Photography Festival Competition Cambodia’s legendary temples of Angkor serve as a backdrop for a new and decidedly different sort of photography festival. The Angkor Photo Festival explores two major themes: Asian photography and photographers, and social responsibility. The organizers are wonderfully successful at blending these streams and creating a program that showcases photojournalism and fine art photography about Asia, while also initiating projects that bring photography’s empowering possibilities to some of the people who most need it. This vision has been compelling enough to attract an impressive list of major international photographers into spending ten days in the shadow of the temples, leading free workshops for emerging Asian photographers and participating in photo-based outreach programs for the street kids of Siem Reap. The Festival offers contests and awards that highlight and support these aims. Examples include the award for Best Reportage by a Young Asian Photographer, photojournalism contests that help to illustrate major international issues and a new media photo contest. These prizes seem directed at not only energizing a new generation of photographers in Southeast Asia, but also to bringing their contributions to the larger world. APF’s sharp website does a very good job of transmitting the Festival’s positive energy, sending the message that, for all the right reasons, this is the place to be in late November.  

Aperture Portfolio Prize The Aperture Foundation, an extension of the well-respected Aperture Magazine, (founded by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Minor White and others) offers the Aperture Portfolio Prize, designed to shine a spotlight on emerging and unpublished photographic talents. As the aim is to introduce promising young photographers to a wider audience, the work of the first prize winner is featured on Aperture’s website for a year and written up in the Foundation’s widely circulated newsletter. First prize also includes a cash award of $2,500.  

Art of Photography Show Art of Photography Show could be a great big springboard for photographers of any description; after all, for the price of submitting them, photos are judged and selected by a top curator, hung in a group show at recognized venue backed by plenty of publicity, a published catalogue and a gala opening party to boot! Supported by a long list of recognized underwriters, the show welcomes submissions from all over the world and offers $10 000 in awards and a list of “tangible benefits” that are described on the home page. 

Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar Founded in 1973 by a group of newspaper, magazine and wire-service photojournalists, the Atlanta Seminar is a venerable institution and has long been the meeting place for working photojournalists. The seminar consists of a lecture series with a lineup of notable guest speakers working in the field, hands-on workshops dealing with techniques, technology and issues in photojournalism, as well as a merchant’s display of the latest photo gear. The annual portfolio review is one of the event’s most popular functions, with editors from all over the country critiquing portfolios of students and professionals. The non-profit also hosts an annual digital photo contest, awarding over $5,000.00 in prizes for a surprisingly wide range of editorial photographs. Categories range from “Sports News” to “Feature Picture.”  

BJP International Photography Award The British Journal of Photography’ International Photography Award rewards both a single image and a body of work with up to 30 pictures with professional prints by an esteemed European lab and an exhibition at London’s AOP Gallery, as well as camera prizes that bring the total prize fund to a healthy £12,000. Winners in this relatively young competition have been truly international and have often gone on to receive other prestigious awards.  

Center Formerly the Santa Fe Center for Photography, Center Carries out a mission to support committed photographers. Center’s many programs and endeavors have turned the non-profit into one of the more dynamic photo organizations on the scene these days. In order to introduce important photo projects and to create networks for photographers and their supporters, Center has initiated annual events such as photographic teaching awards, and project and single photo competitions. There is also Review Santa Fe, the annual conference for photographers and picture professionals that offers portfolio review sessions, educational seminars and intensive retreats on relevant issues in photography. Oh, and let us not forget Center’s workshops and seminars or its web site’s excellent resource center.  

CIWEM’s Environmental Photographer of the Year Initiated by the British non-profit Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), which is concerned with understanding and protecting water resources for the public good, this photo competition aims to raise awareness of climate change. The field is open to submissions in a number of broad categories that promote a wider understanding of the “causes, consequences and solutions to climate change.” The winning images as well as the “honorable mentions” are united in a traveling exhibition and can also be seen in the online galleries on CIWEM’s site.  

Crossing Point Residency Photo-Festivals believes that mobility is an intrinsic part of the creative artistic process that can truly enhance and enrich an artist’s work. With this in mind, Photo-Festivals invites a photographer to travel and attend for the first time a photography festival in Europe. Crossing point residency is designed to help photographers create links with other international photographers. The artist in residence is placed in a shared house to exchange experiences and photography practice with his or her peers. Photo-festivals arranges meetings and portfolio reviews to help photographers to create contacts with practitioners in the field of contemporary photography. 

Editorial Photographers Award Founded by editorial photographers for editorial photographers, EP has become an instrument for change that its members wanted to see in their profession, frankly addressing issues from wages to copyright infringement. Always a strong advocate for photographers’ rights, Editorial Photographers extends its support to coming generations of professional photographers through the EP Education Grants Competition. Although the rules for applying to the competition are hard to find on the site, the benefits of winning are well documented: beyond the $1000 cash award, and other photo-related prizes, winning students have a gallery of their work on EP’s site, which is a recognized resource for editors, art directors and directors of photography looking for new talent.  

European Publishers Award for Photography by Dewi Lewis The well-regarded independent publishing house, Dewi Lewis Publishing, know for its roster of British and international photography stars, is also one of the founding collaborators on The European Publishers Award for Photography. A collaboration between British, French, Greek, German, Spanish and Italian publishers, the competition requires the submission of a substantial, completed and unpublished photographic book project and is open to photographers from around the world. The winning project is then published in book form simultaneously by each of the publishers in their own country, giving photographers tremendous exposure. 

Future Generation Art Prize The Future Generation Art Prize established by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation is a worldwide contemporary art prize to discover, recognize and provide long-term support to a future generation of artists. Twenty shortlisted artists will be selected to show their work in an exhibition at the Pinchuk Art Centre (Kiev). These artists will be judged by an international Jury who will award one main prize and up to five special prizes. The first prize will receive $100,000. 

Gordon Parks Competition Images of “culture and diversity” were themes in the work of celebrated African American Life Magazine photographer Gordon Parks. The Community College of Fort Scott, Kansas, honors the legacy of this favorite son with the annual Gordon Parks International Photography Competition. The Gordon Parks Center awards prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250 to documentary and news photographers working in Parks’ idiom. The competition’s site is slim on visuals; one has to download the competition rules to see a gallery of past winners, and without examples of Park’s work, it is difficult to guess just what kind of work the Center rewards. 

Grange Prize An unusual and wonderfully inclusive format for a competition, the Grange Prize offers a substantial award ($50 000!) to one of four Prize finalists, two of whom are from Canada and two from a partner country that changes annually. The Art Gallery of Ontario (in conjunction with the travel points company, Aeroplan) works with a new international museum every year to select two Canadian and two international contemporary photo artists, whose work is then showcased online where the winner chosen by public vote. All four photographers are awarded residencies and all are featured in exhibitions at the AGO and in the partner country. The work is typically high caliber, and this open and generous style of spotlighting new talent surely helps to strengthen cultural ties between nations and brings a wider audience to look at and think about contemporary photography.  

Henri-Cartier-Bresson Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson and his family came up with the concept of a foundation that would preserve his work in its entirety, while offering an exhibition venue for photographers and other visual artists. Opening its doors a year before Cartier-Bresson’s passing in 2004, the Foundation extends its support of photographers by offering a major international grant of 30,000 euros. This award is meant to support a reportage photography project “that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.” Applicants are nominated by museums, publishers, and galleries, and are generally well-established. The winning project is exhibited at the HCB Foundation’s gallery in Paris. 

Hey Hot Shot! Calling itself “the best thing going for emerging photographers,” Hey Hot Shots is a competition that offers up and coming photographers a modest cash prize and the invaluable gifts of expert feedback and gallery exposure. New York photo gallery owner Jen Beckman founded Hot Shots as a means of discovering rising talents and has brought in curators, editors, collectors, established photographers and tastemakers of all descriptions to help review the submissions that come in from the world over. Winners gain much needed visibility in a two week group show at Beckman’s Spring Street gallery, and from among these Beckman chooses the “Ultra,” the top of the class, whom will be represented by the gallery with all the benefits this brings.  

Hillman Foundation Journalism Awards One of the important legacies of Sidney Hillman, noted labor leader and an architect of the New Deal, is the Hillman Foundation Journalism Awards, a long-running and prestigious recognition of excellence in promoting social and economic justice in journalism. Photojournalism is among the 6 categories where an annual $5000 prize is awarded by a panel of top ranking editors, photo editors, producers and publishers.  

Humanity Photo Award The photographic study of disappearing cultures is rewarded through this prize, which is the result of an unusual and heartening alliance between the Chinese government (through the China Folklore Photographic Association), UNESCO and the Ford Foundation. Supported by its international partners, the CFPA has opened up this biennial competition to international photographers who document folk culture and traditions from around the world. Prizes are awarded in a number of thematic categories, where the judging system does not always allow for a first prize winner. In fact, the competitive aspect of the award is understated-the site is very discreet about amount prizes awarded. The documentary importance and humanity of the work seems to be the central focus of this competition. 

ICP Infinity Awards for Excellence in Photography From their elegant digs on New York’s Avenue of the Americas, the International Center for Photography compliments its comprehensive mission as a school, a museum, and a centre for photographers with its equally wide-ranging Infinity Award for Excellence in Photography. Prizes for writing, publishing, and art- as well as photojournalism and applied photography- assure that the work rewarded reflects the broad range of ICP’s investigations of photography’s role in contemporary culture. 

Independent Photographers Terry O'Neill Award Named for the British photographer famous for his repertoire of celebrity images, the Independent Photographer’s Terry O’Neill Award rewards established and emerging talents with cash prizes as well as publication of their work in major British magazines. Rules for applying are listed on the home page.  

IPA - International Photography Awards As it should be, the scope of this competition is fairly broad and inclusive: professional and non-professional photographers compete in separate categories for everything from best Advertising to Fine Art photographer. Professional and amateur winners in all categories then go on to compete for the annual “Photographer of the Year” award that is announced at the “Lucies,” a celebrity awards event that has been characterized as “the Academy Awards of photography.” 

LACDA International Juried Competition The Los Angeles Center For Digital Art, a showcase for the cutting-edge in digital art, is behind the Top 40 Juried Competition that invites international entries in “all styles of artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images.” Winners, the “Top 40,” receive a large format museum-grade print of their winning work, which is particularly useful given that images will be shown both at a LACDA group gallery show as well as at the Digital Studio Gallery in the California Museum of Photography. It’s good to be seen. 

Landscape Photographer of the Year Great Britain’s varied geography is the subject for a photo competition that rewards the winner with the title of “Landscape Photographer of the Year” as well as the considerable prize of £10 000. Surprisingly, the competition is international, open to anyone wishing to submit images of the British landscape in the adult, youth and National Parks categories. Other awards include landscape photography workshops with Charlie Waite, an established name in the field and initiator of the prize.  

Lange-Taylor Prize Inspired by Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor’s groundbreaking work “American Exodus,” The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University offers a $10.000 prize to encourage collaborations between documentary photographers and writers. The prize emanates from the Center’s comprehensive Documentary program, which features photography, filmmaking, writing, oral history, and audio projects. Other Documentary Center endeavors include The Lewis Hine Documentary Initiative which assists young documentarians to continue Hine’s life’s work- documenting the lives of children. 

Les Rencontres Arles Awards Ever a center for artistic inspiration, the beautiful Provencal town of Arles plays host to one of the world’s biggest annual photo meets. In 2002 Les Rencontres created a special award to highlight promising new artists. Emerging photographers are proposed for the award by a group of nominators, all directors of “internationally reputed bodies.” From this pool of talent, established photographers participating in Rencontres choose the winners. This “inter-generational” support and recognition is part of what makes photo festivals like Arles part of the foundation of the international photo community.  

Light Work, Syracuse NY One of the many ways the Light Work organization supports photo and digital imaging artists is through its two awards - Artist in Residence Program ($4000 stipend) and the Annual Grants in Photography ($2000). Impressively equipped community photo labs offer the tools to advance photo projects, while experienced Light Work member-photographers serve as mentors to those seeking knowledgeable help. Light Work’s other activities include mounting exhibitions in Syracuse University’s Robert B. Menschel Media Center, offering lectures and classes, and publishing Contact Sheet, a graceful monograph series.  

Lucid Art Foundation The Lucid Art Foundation is interested in exploring the “phenomena of the inner worlds and deep levels of consciousness through visual arts, lectures, artist seminars, exhibitions, publications and by other means.” The practical work to this end involves supporting artists through educational and residential programs, managing a the Foundation’s collection and archive, collaborating with museums and cultural institutions who share the Foundation’s interest, as well as organizing public lectures by art historians, scholars and artists in Lucid Art’s Northern California base. 

Lucie Awards In the spirit of the Oscars, photography now has its own glamorous awards event. During the black tie gala evening, celebrity super models and Hollywood actors present the silver “Lucie” statuettes to an honor role of the living icons of photography.  

Magnum Foundation Young Photographer in the Caucasus Awards In fostering the work of next generation of photojournalists, the Magnum Foundation looks far a field, and offers a substantial prize ($5000) for outstanding documentary work of social importance by a young (post 1975) photographer from the Caucasus region. This incredibly diverse area, which includes Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and several Republics in the Russian Federation, often seems to fall off the “Western” radar between crises. Seeking out and recognizing young, talented local photojournalists seems an excellent way to bring images with a Caucasian perspective to the international media. Details for eligibility are outlined on Magnum’s site. 

Michael P Smith Grant The New Orleans Photo Alliance created the Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography (MPS Fund) to honor the life and work of one of New Orleans’ most legendary and beloved documentary photographers. Open to emerging and established photographers residing in the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, the MPS Fund awards one $5000 grant annually to a photographer whose work combines artistic excellence and a sustained commitment to a long-term cultural documentary project. 

National Portrait Gallery Competition Britain’s National Portrait Gallery offers the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009, a competition open to photographers from around the world, and intended as a showcase for the great diversity of styles and ways of interpreting the concept of portrait in contemporary photography. The winning work is displayed at the Portrait Gallery, as well as a generous cash award. 

Overseas Press Club of America Awards Founded on the eve of the World War II, the Overseas Press Club has a longstanding reputation of defending the interests of American foreign correspondents while highlighting their best work. The Club’s prestigious annual awards recognize outstanding American reporting of international news in print journalism, radio and television, editorial cartoons and photojournalism. OPC award winners often go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.  

Photo District News Photo Annual Contest “We’re looking to see your most compelling, provocative and emotional work,” these are the instructions for the PND Photo Annual Contest, an initiative of the indispensable Photo District News magazine and website. There are two awards in this contest: the Nikon Storyteller Award, which rewards compelling visual stories, and the Marty Forscher Fellowship, which recognizes students and young professionals with a talent for humanistic photography. Cash prizes range from $1500 to $3000, and winners’ work will be featured in PDN’s print and online magazines.  

Photo Espana Every year Madrid hosts this month and a half long photo event that centers around a circuit of more than 50 exhibitions of international photography, all exploring a given theme. Among the activities that round out the event are a photo-centric film festival, a portfolio review by photographers and photo-related professionals, lectures, discussion forums. Professional photographers lead workshops and master classes. 

Photographers Giving Back Award A prize that rewards both photographers and the causes they document. A recent organization founded in Sweden, the PGB Award is offered with the intention to support the work of photographers who aim to create change in the situations they witness. The twist here is that the Award goes not only to photographers, but also to charities that address the needs that the photos reveal. Professional and amateur photographers are welcome to submit work online. 

Photography Book Now Offering serious recognition for the self-published photo book, the Photography Book Now contest’s greatest appeal may be the stellar jury of photo editors, publishers and curators that review the entries. Sponsored by Blurb, an online self-publishing business, the contest has three categories: Fine Art, Editorial and Commercial and is open to all self-published photo books that are outside of the “art book” realm.  

Picture Editors Awards The category “Royal Photographer of the Year” should be a subtle clue that this competition was conceived for U.K. press photographers. Print media photo editors from all over the U.K. and Ireland assemble annually to reward outstanding photojournalism in a number of categories, including “Photographer of the Year.” Prizes, funded by corporate sponsors such as Getty Images and Nikon, are also offered for best student work and best newspaper.  

Picture This: Caring for the Earth, UNDP–Olympus-AFP Foundation Photo Contest Jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, the Olympus Corporation and the AFP Foundation, “Picture This: Caring for the Earth” is a photo contest that invites Africans, or people living in Africa to submit images that speak of Africans, particularly women, as “stewards and protectors of their environment.” The Picture This organizers want to tell a story through documentary pictures of grassroots, positive change in the face climate change. The judges are internationally known figures in photography and the environmental movement, and the rewards are substantial. Winning photos and photo essays are showcased on the websites of all three sponsors and displayed in at least two exhibitions in Africa and the United States, moreover, first prize winners will be flown to New York for an awards ceremony, and one first prize winner in the professional category will also be eligible for a fellowship through the Agence France Press Foundation.  

Pictures of the Year From its modest beginnings in 1944 as a college-sponsored contest to encourage American state-side press photographers, the Missouri School of Journalism’s annual photo contest has grown in stature to become a respected institution, one supported by National Geographic, Fujifilm and MSNBC. The awards are offered in four divisions: General, Newspaper, Magazine, and Editing, and are decided upon by an impressive group of invited judges.  

Puffin Foundation Named for a bird that has been saved from extinction by the actions of concerned citizens, The Puffin Foundation’s main mission is to support and fund artists and art organizations that are often marginalized due to their race, gender, or social philosophy. This rather unassuming website reveals the Foundation’s wide ranging activities and the organization’s surprising financial clout. Puffin projects include an exhibition space on New York’s Lower East Side, cultural spaces in Teaneck N.J. and Columbus, Ohio, as well as support for Teaneck’s International Film Festival and the Off World Theater in New York. The organization does much of its work through grants to artists and institutions, and rules for applicants and types of grants are outlined on the site. Puffin’s biggest grant is perhaps the one that best expresses the Foundation’s commitment to supporting other voices: the annual Puffin/Nation Creative Citizenship Award is a substantial $100,000 “stipend” given to an American citizen who has challenged the status quo "through distinctive, courageous, imaginative, socially responsible work of significance."  

Pulitzer Prize This is perhaps the most recognized prize in American print journalism. Although the prize was founded in 1917 (with a legacy from newspaper man Joseph Pulitzer), it was not until 1942 that the Pulitzer Prize Board included photojournalism as a prize category. Today, the $10.000 prizes for “Breaking News Photography” and “Feature Photography” are often awarded to the entire photo staff of a newspaper for excellence in reporting of local, national, and international stories. The web site is well-designed and fascinating archive of literary and journalistic history.  

Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, one of the oldest museums of anthropology in the world, continues the work of recording of human culture through the Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography which funds “established practitioner of the photographic arts to create and subsequently publish through the Peabody Museum a major book of photographs on the human condition anywhere in the world.” Nominations for the Fellowship are received from an international panel of curators, educators, and independent photo professionals, and a committee of three judges selects the winner. Beyond the publication of their work, Gardner Fellows receive a “generous stipend” and the possibility of an exhibition.  

RSPCA Young Photographer Award The UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) hosts the long-running Young Photographer Awards (YPA), a competition that aims to inspire kids to develop both an interest in photography, as well as curiosity about and respect for the animals around them. Open to children in the UK and Ireland from under 12 up to 18 years, the competition is generously supported by Olympus, who offers cameras and gear to the winners. The design of this site shows off the excellent work of these young photographers to its best advantage, and makes the YPA look like one of the most appealing photo competitions around.  

Sierra Art Trails Photo Competition In the Californian Sierra Foothills, the non-profit arts group Sierra Art Trails is doing its part for cultural tourism in the area by organizing open studio tours and exhibitions of work by local artists, and this photo contest is both meant to support participating photographers and to illustrate Sierra Art Trails activities. Photographers submitting work are encouraged to take an artistic approach to portraying artists in their element.  

The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography With a rich prize and symbolic gold medal handed out annually by a Swedish philanthropic organization, the Hasselblad Award is not unlike a Nobel Prize for photography. Influential photographers at the height of the their careers are nominated for the 500,000 SEK (approximately 70,000 USD) prize offered by the family foundation of the famous Swedish camera company. Previous winners include Irving Penn, Robert Frank, Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman. The Hasselblad Foundation not only crowns the achievements of established photographers, but offers research grants and travel stipends to emerging Swedish photographers. 

The Purpose Prize Recognizing the vitality, experience and, above all, creativity of social innovators over 60, the Purpose Prize offers five $100,000 and five $50,000 awards as “a down payment on what these 60-plus innovators will do next.” The biographies of previous award winners show a diverse group of incredibly creative and committed individuals with amazing track records in initiating positive change.  

Tierney Fellowship The Tierney Fellowship’s aim is to help promising emerging talents make their way through the difficult first years of a career in photography by supporting them through the creation of a new body of work. By supporting Fellows financially and technically for a year, the Tierney Fellowship not only aims to encourage new work, but also to create a sense of community for each other as current and past recipients meet in seminars and critiques. Applicants must be from Tierney Partner Institutions and may only apply online.  

Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan Something like a Cannes Festival for photojournalism, Visa Pour L’Image, is one of the largest and most important photojournalism conferences in the world. Meeting every year in Perpignan, France, thousands of international photojournalists congregate in the streets, hotels, and exhibition halls. The festival allows them to connect with peers, see each other’s work, meet photo editors, publishers, and image agency representatives. The focal point of the event is the nightly “soirées,” where thousands of images depicting realities from around the world are projected on a giant outdoor screen in Perpignan’s Campo Santo. Prizes, called “Visa D’or,” are awarded for Best Daily Press, Best Magazine and Best News photos. 

Women's Studio Workshop Specializing in photography, printmaking, hand papermaking, ceramics, letterpress printing, and book arts, the Women's Studio Workshop invites artists participate in a variety of programs including a studio residency designed to support the creation of a new body of work. The six to eight week residency comes with generous stipends and unlimited studio time, backed-up by technical assistance from WSW staff.  

World Press Photo The Dutch organization World Press Photo has been running a truly international press photography competition for fifty years. The winners are from around the globe and the galleries of past and present entries show the rewarded work to be compelling views of both the celebrated and untold stories of the year.