Like we said yesterday: we love seeing great organizations support artists making exciting and challenging new work. One of the best places to present your photographs before the photography world's most discerning eyes is by applying to the Aperture Portfolio Prize. If you're readers of this blog, you're likely already quite familiar with Aperture; Publisher Lesley A. Martin was one of our HHS! Guest Curators, and they're host to myriad fantastic lectures, events, parties and exhibits all year long. They're a nonprofit comprised of gallery, publishing house, magazine and more, and consistently produce beautiful displays (both in-print and on walls), of contemporary photography.

The Portfolio Prize, which closes for deadlines next Wednesday, July 14th, aims to "identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists whom we can help by bringing them to a wider audience." They looking specifically for work that hasn't been widely seen or published elsewhere, and for images that have been made within the last five years.

Each entrant can submit up to two separate portfolios of fifteen images each, and also designate if they'd like their work to be considered as a book proposal. A team from Aperture, including work scholars and staff, will review all the submissions.

Untitled, n.d., from the series The Edge by 2009 Aperture Prize-winner Alexander Gronsky

The first prize winner will take home $5,000 and will be slated for an exhibition at Aperture Foundation. So: got some free time this weekend? Put on your editing cap and pull together your best portfolio for Aperture.

So you've entered, or are preparing to enter, HHS! 2010. You've already gone through the laborious and yet self-edifying process of culling your work down to a discrete set of strong, stand-alone images, and you've penned a thoughtful and engaging artist's statement. Now that you've crossed that off your to-do list, why stop there? Get as much artistic mileage from this as possible! Who's to say that whatever you're thinking and making might not resonate on a wide-scale with a variety of different audiences?

This Saturday, May 15th, is the deadline for the inaugural Daylight Magazine/Center for Documentary Studies Photo Award. All of the entries are submitted electronically, so you've still got plenty of time to enter.

Daylight Magazine is the result of the work of the Daylight Community Arts Foundation, which works with established and early-career artists, scholars and journalists to showcase contemporary photography and to share stories from underrepresented communities.

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke has long been a staple in the photography community, promoting collaborative and in-depth documentary work for decades. From the CDS website:

CDS promotes documentary work that cultivates progressive change by amplifying voices, advancing human dignity, engendering respect among individuals, breaking down barriers to understanding, and illuminating social injustices. CDS conducts its work for local, regional, national, and international audiences.

This is the first year of the international competition, and there are two award categories: A Project Prize and a Work-In-Process Prize. The roster of jurors are exactly the sort of people that you'd want to take a good look at your work:

Vince Aletti, writer/critic, the New Yorker magazine;
Darius Himes, editor/curator, Radius Books (who also happens to be on the HHS! panel)
Julie Saul, gallery owner/director, Julie Saul Gallery;
Alec Soth, photographer;
Hank Willis Thomas, photographer;
Jamie Wellford, international photo editor, Newsweek;
Taj Forer and Michael Itkoff, editors, Daylight Magazine
Alexa Dilworth, publishing director, CDS
Courtney Reid-Eaton, exhibitions director, CDS

PROJECT PRIZE
For an extended documentary project or fine art series. Edit photographs with care as the project photographs will be judged on the coherence of the work as a whole. The full panel of jurors will choose one First Prize Winner. Each Guest Juror will also select one photographer to receive a Juror's Pick Prize and write a short statement about why he or she choose the work.

The First Prize Winner will receive a solo exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies, a multimedia Daylight podcast, a feature in CDS's newsmagazine Document, presentation in Daylight and CDS online galleries, and $1,000 for exhibition-related expenses.

Juror's Pick Winners will be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies and featured in Daylight and CDS online galleries. Ten Honorable Mentions will be named on Daylight and CDS websites.

To enter, submit: 20 images, a one-page artist's statement, and CV. $60
Deadline to enter: May 15, 2010, 8 P.M. (EST)

WORK-IN-PROCESS PRIZE
For a documentary or fine art essay/work-in-progress from a single body of images, the full panel of jurors will choose one First Prize Winner. Each Guest Juror will also select one photographer to receive a Juror's Pick Prize and write a short statement about why he or she choose the work.

The First Prize Winner will be featured in print in Daylight Magazine and CDS's news magazine Document, as well as in Daylight and CDS' online galleries and be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies.

Juror's Pick Winners will be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies and also be in Daylight and CDS' online galleries.

To enter, submit: 5 images, a one-page artist's statement, and CV. $30.
Deadline to enter: May 15, 2010, 8 P.M. (EST)

Download the full submission guidelines here and start applying right here!

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and The Honickman Foundation have announced that the one and the only William Eggleston will judge this year's CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography competition. Eggleston follows a line of renowned photographers who have judge the prize in the past including Robert Adams, Robert Frank and Mary Ellen Mark.

The winning photographer receives a $3,000 grant, publication of a book of photography, and inclusion in a website presenting the work of the award winning artists. Eggleston will also write the introduction for the book, which will be published by Duke University Press in association with CDS Books of the Center for Documentary Studies.

The competition is open to U.S. citizens of all ages who have not yet published a book-length work (described as: a publication which contains more than thirty of the photographer's images, and is sold through conventional book distribution channels). Each applicant must submit forty images from a larger body of work that, if he or she wins, would be the body of work from which the images for the book are selected. There is a $50 fee for entry and images should be submitted in digital form, on a CD.

In addition to Eggleston, all entries will be reviewed by a panel of photographers and editors, who will select 12 to 25 finalists by November 15, 2010. Finalists will be asked to submit ten sample prints from the body of their submitted work for the judge's review. The final winner will be publicly announced in January 2011.

Though Eggleston's groundbreaking work was in his use of color photography, this competition is open to both color and black and white submissions. Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies says of the addition of Eggleston as a judge, "William Eggleston brings to the First Book Prize his singular vision on the ordinary, his democratic view of the everyday...We could have no one better to locate the next great American photography book than him, no one more acute in seeing the brilliant fibers of the ever-present."

I had the opportunity to meet Eggleston in-person a few years ago at the unveiling of his monograph, 5"x7". Wearing a baby blue suit, jade cufflinks and a kerchief in his pocket, he'd lost none of his Nashville charm over the years. Most would agree that Eggleston's influence on the photography of the everyday is ineffably great, and that however common it has become to take photos of milk cartons and living rooms and women's hair, that perhaps there is something in the eye of one of the original beholders, that still sees something more than the rest of us.

Submissions for the 2010 competition will be accepted from June 15 to September 8, 2010. For guidelines on how to apply, FAQs and details about the award, visit the competition website.

3rd Ward, the Brooklyn-based gallery, workshop and member-based design center where you can take classes on everything from circuitry to urban ecology to portrait photography has an open call to artists through March 1st, 2010.

The 2010 Winter Solo Show is a juried international at competition for work in all mediums: sculpture, photography, painting, printmaking, illustration, installation, graphic design, video and more. One selected artist will receive:

• + A $5,000 cash grant
• + A solo exhibition in 3rd Ward's gallery
• + A 3-month residency at 3rd Ward with a private live/work studio & access to all facilities
• + Airfare & shipping to and from 3rd Ward if you are not a NYC resident
• + A 2-page spread in 3rd Ward's Quarterly Magazine
• + Lots of NYC exposure!

The applications will be judged by Carol Lee (Editor, Paper Magazine), Dan Deacon (Sound artist + electronic musician), Rostarr (artist) and Paolo Salvagione (Design Engineer, The Long Now).

Sound good? Read more details on the site and you can apply right here 'til March 1, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. (EST).

Steep Rock Campus in Connecticut

Calling all photographers: it's time to wake up from your holiday daze and submit your applications to the Steep Rock Arts residency. Applications are due December 31st, so you only have a few days left!

Steep Rock Arts Association is a non-profit organization whose campus is situated on a 100-acre estate in Connecticut where emerging visual artists are provided with time and space to develop their work in a creative environment. From their site:

Residencies are awarded competitively, at no cost, to national and international emerging artists. Applicants are evaluated by a panel that includes a variety of professionals in the art field. Those selected will be awarded an eight week Residency. Each artist will receive a $10,000 stipend to cover the cost of materials and transportation.

That sounds perfect to me, however, this residency may not be for everyone:

All applicants should consider that the residency is an opportunity to have two months in solitude. Residents are on their own for most of the time in a small town. Neighbors are friendly and there are nearby shops—but it is a small, quiet village. Residents should feel comfortable working and living on their own (or with their families).

Applications can be submitted online but remember that they are due by December 31st, so get cracking! Winners will be notified by mid-February.

In memory of photographer Tracey Baran, who passed away in 2008 after a brief illness while at the height of her short-but-prolific career, the School of Visual Arts is hosting a benefit auction for an annual grant given in Tracey's name. The auction is ongoing through September 30th on iGavel.com and will provide proceeds for the grant, which is open to emerging female photographers from the United States.

The auction features the above image, I Miss You Already by Tracey Baran, and work by Elinor Carucci, Jen Davis, 20x200 edition-maker Scott Eiden, Jack Pierson, Brian Finke, Allen Frame, Bill Jacobson, Carrie Levy, Joseph Maida, Jan Staller, Jonathan Torgovnik and Ann Weathersby among many others.

An exhibition of Tracey's work, Pictures of Tracey is also currently on view at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects through October 17th. Additionally, an online exhibition of works by Tracey, curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips, will be on view starting today through October 5th at Women in Photography.

We are so pleased to see yet another grant opportunity for emerging artists in conjunction with the remembrance of a talented young photographer. Please take the time to view the Women in Photography gallery, bid on the auction pieces, and if you are in New York, stop by Tracey's exhibit.

PICTURES OF TRACEY
Photographs by Tracey Baran (1975-2008)
September 12- October 17, 2009
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects
535 West 22nd Street, 6th floor
Open: Tuesday—Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Hey, all you Bay Area artists! Southern Exposure, the SF-based art-education and community center located in the Mission has announced several grants available to visual artists working in San Francisco and Alameda counties.

Individuals are awarded up to $3,500, for projects that contribute to the community and upon completion, are publicly accessible for viewing. Since the inception of the grant program, $95,000 has been awarded to 33 Bay Area visual arts groups and projects, including Hamburger Eyes, Practice + Practice, Rowan Morrison Gallery, the Underground Art Crew and many, many more.

There is an information session available to those interested in the grant on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at Receiver Gallery, also a previous grant recipient:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
6:00 PM - 7:30 pm
Receiver Gallery
1415 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

To apply, download the guidelines & application at Alternative Exposure and be sure to also check out the projects of previous grant recipients The deadline for all applications is November 6, 2009.

We're pleased to pass along info that there's yet another great grant opportunity being offered to you photographers for all those projects you've been putting off until 2010:

Too much chocolate, which connects photographers of all ilks over the web is partnering with Kodak in an inaugural grant program that will provide 10 photographers with film for a personal project to be completed in 2010. All photographers who do not currently have representation are eligible to apply. The projects of the grant recipients will be exhibited online, in print, and in gallery spaces.

The cost of submission is only $10, so we encourage you to submit your work to this fantastic group of panelists:

Marcel Saba, Director of Redux Pictures
Clinton Cargill, Associate Picture Editor of the New York Times Magazine
Conor Risch, Features Editor of PDN
Andy Adams, Editor / Publisher of Flak Photo
Alison Morley, Chair of ICP's Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program
Audrey Jonckheer, Director of Worldwide Pro Photographer Relations at Kodak
Jake Stangel, Founder / Editor of too much chocolate

An FAQ about the grant can be found here and submission info will be available on too much chocolate on September 1st.

Untitled from the series Mongolia: The New El Dorado by Carlo De Keyzer

The Open Society Institute is now accepting submissions from both established and emerging photographers for their Moving Walls 17 exhibit. Moving Walls, founded in 1998, is committed towards supporting photography exploring humanitarian issues around the world. Applicants are asked to submit a body of work reflecting a complete body of work focused on a human rights or social issue and the OSI lists a number of topics of ongoing interest to them. These include: statelessness, migration, LGBTQI issues, Muslim communities in Europe, Women in post-conflict countries, economic downturn in the United States, Public health issues, and many others which you can see on the guidelines page for entering the competition. These topics are only meant to serve as an example—rather than a comprehensive list—of the types of portfolios of interest to Moving Walls.

Seven portfolios of 15-20 images will be selected from the pool of applicants, which must be accompanied by a one-page statement, and bio. The images must be submitted both as prints and in digital form. Submissions will be accepted through October 23, 2009 and the selected artists will be notified in late December 2009.

The OSI has provided tremendous support to a huge roster of talented photographers including Edward Burtynsky, Ed Kashi, and our own JBP artist and Hot Shot Nina Berman. Click over to Moving Walls to see some of the fantastic slideshows and essays from previously exhibited photographers.

The Aperture Foundation is teaming up with the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund to support five emerging photographers—including Fall 2006 Hot Shot and 20x200 artist Shen Wei—in documenting New York City's green carts. Focusing on these mobile produce stand, located on street corners all over the city, the photographers have been asked to apply their own style of portraiture, landscapes, and street photography to this project. Photographers LaToya Ruby Frazier, Thomas Holton, Gabriele Stabile, and Will Steacy have also been selected to participate and we are thrilled to see these fine emerging artists have the opportunity the embark on a project unifying their individual artistic visions with a project embracing these historical and timely landmarks of New York City streets.

artdaily.org writes,

The photographers will capture the Green Carts in designated neighborhoods in all five boroughs over the next eighteen months, photographing not only the carts themselves, but also the stories of the vendors, customers, and communities around them. The photographers are: LaToya Ruby Frazier, Thomas Holton, Gabriele Stabile, Will Steacy, and Shen Wei. The overall goal is to raise awareness about the geography of healthy food options and its relationship to a community's health, and to document the challenges and opportunities of starting a new business. Each of the five professional photographers brings a unique artistic vision and point of view to this effort.

Aperture will exhibit the works created in September 2011 as well as publish images throughout the project in their quarterly, Aperture Magazine. Congratulations to all of the photographers; we look forward to seeing the images you create!

Submissions are due next Thursday, July 16th for the prestigious Aperture Portfolio Prize, so head on over and check out the guidelines because the deadline is fast approaching! The judges (including Lesley A. Martin who is one of our very own Hey, Hot Shot! panelists) are looking for an innovative photography portfolio of up to 15 images created in the last five years. One caveat: you have to be an Aperture subscriber to enter.

Here's what's at stake:

First prize is $2,500. The first-prize winner and runners-up are featured in Aperture's website for approximately one year. Winners are also announced in the foundation's e-newsletter, which reaches thousands of subscribers in the photography community.

Be sure to check out last year's winners, which includes Runner-up Colin Blakely, a Winter 2007 Hot Shot and two-time 20x200 edition-maker. In fact, Colin won for the very same portfolio that was the source of his two wildly popular prints on 20x200!

P.S. Both of Colin's prize-winning 20x200 prints (below) have sold out in the smaller sizes. But don't worry, they're both still available in our 30"x40" size for $2000!

Recollection of the Battles Fought Maintaining the Home Front by Colin Blakely

The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between by Colin Blakely

Hahnemühle, purveyors of fine art papers that have filled many-a-portfolio book over the years, is celebrating their 425th Anniversary (yes, you read that right) with a photo competition that will award winners €36,000 in non-cash prizes (vouchers for products, gift certificates, etc). Submissions of four photographs printed on Hahnemühle FineArt DIN A4 paper paper along with an entry form must be sent in by mail by next Tuesday, June 30th. Prizes will be awarded in the categories of: People & Portrait, Landscape & Nature, Architecture & Still Life, and Student Awards and the winning images will also be shown in a touring exhibition in London, Berlin, Paris, New York and Tokyo among other cities.

For additional information and an entry form, see the Hahnemühle website.

For all of you past, present, and future Hot Shots and contenders, here's another great photo competition for you to apply to: The Ian Parry Scholarship. First a little bit about the scholarship, The Ian Parry Scholarship was created to honor Ian Parry, who died at the age of 24 while on assignment for the The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. The prize aims to support the career and art work of photography students and young artists alike.

Contenders should submit a portfolio of their work and a brief synopsis of the project they would like to undertake upon receiving the scholarship. The winner will recieve a prize of £2,500 towards his or her proposed project. The scholarship is sponsored by The Sunday Times, Getty Images, Canon, The Getty Images Gallery, The British Journal of Photography, and The Frontline Club. Needless to say, there will be some great people checking out the applicants.

If you'd like to apply, act fast! The deadline for this commendable award is June 24th, 2009 (less than a week away). For more information about the award and submission guidelines, make sure you check out The Ian Parry Scholarship website.

Arild Slicing Meat, 2009 by Erika Larsen

The 2009 Women in Photography grants have been announced and we are ever so excited that Erika Larsen has been named the recipient for a $3000 WIP-Lightside Individual Project Grant for her series Sami, The People. In this series she will be exploring the hunter-gatherer culture in a small village of indigenous inhabitants located in Northern Scandinavia. In her own words she describes her intent with the work as, "I have come on a search to understand the primal drive of the modern hunter by taking an inclusive look at an original hunter-gatherer society. I have come to see if when the land speaks there are those that can interpret its language. I have come in search of silence so that I could begin to hear again."

This isn't the first time that Erika has created a body of work exploring hunting culture and modern society's connection to it. Head on over to her website to look at two of her previous series The Hunt and Young Blood -- work that has won her a 2008 World Press Award, a 2008 Jersey State Arts Council Grant, and an accolade from Review Santa Fe; In addition to being featured in American Photography, Communication Arts Photography Annual, and Photo District News.

Erika's solo show is launching on wipnyc.org today, though its only just the beginning; Make sure you follow Erika's progress on her website.

The grant was awarded by Women in Photography, an organization co-founded/curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips (who you will recognize as a second edition 2008 Hot Shot!). The site features women from all experiences and ranks, so it is very exciting for Erika to be joining the club of very talented previous winners.The bimonthly shows on wipnyc.org are surely not to be missed and of course you can subscribe to their mailing list as well.

To be considered for a Women in Photography grant next year, you can submit up to five images and follow the guidelines detailed on the site.

The winner of this year's Emerging Photographer Grant is Alejandro Chaskielberg, whose essay The High Tide explores fictional scenarios staged by real people in the Parana River Delta. Shot in the glowing light of a full moon, the images are a far cry from "traditional" documentary images, where capturing fact is often the declared motive.

Chaskielberg writes,

My photographs set out to document the life and work of the islanders of the Delta. Using long-time exposures with full moon, they have allowed me to light part of the landscape artificially and also give the islanders a strange timelessness: an unknown source of light floods the scene with unreality and mysterious....

I am interested in the poetical and visual power of the water, and the relationship of the people and the environment. I think that the health of this resource is a worldwide problematic issue today.

My intention is to work with photography in the border between reality and fiction.

The grant is funded by The Magnum Foundation and $10,000 goes to Chaskielberg for continued work on personal projects.

See additional work on his website.

Magnum Photographer David Alan Harvey initiated the Emerging Photographer Grant last year along with other members of Magnum Photos Inc. The winning photographer will be selected this weekend at the currently on-going LOOK3 Festival in Charlottesville, NC for a $10,000 one-time grant. Last year, the Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to Sean Gallagher for his essay on the environmental "desertification" of China. Moving photo essays ranging from an essay about poverty in rural Kentucky to another about the water reserves or the Parana Delta in South America were submitted by this year's talented finalists. These two essays, and the 8 others that make up the ten finalists are available at burn magazine, Harvey's journal for emerging photographers. See their essays here:

In the Mood for Love by Cristina Faramo
The White Family by Carl Kiilsgaard
Nordeste by Marco Improta
American Dreams by Victor Cobo
Thirst For Grit by Lance Rosenfield
Missing Link by Tatiana Grigorenko
Lords of the Ring by Eric Espinosa
Sakhalin by Michael Christopher Brown
Aftermath by Simona Ghizzom
Trapped by Jenn Ackerman
The High Tide by Alejandro Chaskielberg

For information on this year's winning photographer and next year's Emerging Photography Grant, stay tuned to burn magazine.

Ms. Jen Bekman will serve as juror to the Photographic Center Northwest's 14th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, Photo-Op. Winning images will be exhibited at PCNW in Seattle July 13th - September 4th, 2009. In addition, cash awards in the amount of $1,000, $500, and $250 will be awarded to first, second, and third prize winners; each will also receive a $75 gift certificate of Blurb Scrip.

Photographers of all levels and processes are encouraged to apply; the juror will look for work reflecting a larger series. The entry fee is $47 with a minimum of five images. Submissions will be received until 9:00 p.m. on Friday, May 15th.

More information about the competition and entry forms are available at PCNW's website.

The Inge Morath and Magnum Foundations have announced the sixth annual Inge Morath Award, created in memory of the Austrian-born photographer affiliated with Magnum Photos for half a century. $5,000 is awarded on an annual basis to a female documentary photographer under the age of 30 to support a long-term project, a grant that reflects Morath's dedication towards supporting female photographers.

Submission will be accepted through April 30, 2009 and a winner and two runners up will be announced on July 9, 2009 on the Magnum Foundation and Inge Morath Foundation websites.

More information and application details are available at the Inge Morath Foundation website.

Women in Photography, co-founded 2008 Hot Shot Cara Phillips and Amy Elkins last summer to showcase the works of female art photographers, has announced their first grant, funded by Lightside Photographic Servces and co-sponsored by LTI. One grant will be awarded in the amount of $3,000.00; applications will be accepted online at wipnyc beginning on April 1, 2009 at 12 a.m., when the submissions will be possible through the site.

The grant award-winner will be announced at the National Arts Club on June 10th, 2009, where a slideshow of the winner's work will also be presented.

Visit Women in Photography for more information about curators Elkins and Phillips, and look forward to the grant application on April 1st.

The Open Society Institute's Documentary Photography Project has opened their 2009 competition for distribution grants ranging from $5,000 - $30,000. Eligible photographers must have already completed a body of work surrounding issues of social justice, and would use the grant in partnership with a non-profit organization, NGO, or a community-based organization as a means for enacting social change through photography.

Former Hot Shot, Nina Berman was awarded an OSI Distribution Grant in 2005, surrounding her body of work, Purple Hearts, exhibited at Jen Bekman Gallery during the Fall, 2008. She used her grant to travel around the country with injured former soldier, Robert Acosta, making multimedia presentations to high school and collage-aged audiences where there is active military recruitment.

Please visit the website for additional information about eligibility, to apply, and to learn about previous grantees. Applications will be accepted until June 19, 2009.

The deadline for the 50th Annual Communication Arts Juried Photography Competition is just a scant 36 hours away! Any photographs produced or published between March 12, 2008 and March 6, 2009 are eligible for submission and winning images will be published the Communication Arts Photography Annual and on commarts.com. Images will be selected by a jury of designers, art directors, and photographers from all over the country.

Submissions are being accepted in the following categories: Advertising, Books, Editorial, For Sale, Institutional, Multimedia, Self-Promotion, and Unpublished. Visit the site to see entry fees for single images and series' of work (limited to five photographs).

Click here to apply and for more information regarding the competition.

Blurb has announced the second annual Photography.Book.Now International Juried Competition awarding $25,000 to the photographer with the best self-published book. The competition will be juried by Darius Himes, a Hey, Hot Shot! panelist, writer, editor, and the founder of Radius Books, a non-profit company dedicated to the visual arts. (Take a look of some of his required reading!).

In 2008, Jen Bekman artist, Beth Dow (whose work will be exhibited by the gallery's booth at the PULSE New York Art Fair this week) took the grand prize for her project, In the Garden, a collection of platinum palladium prints exploring cultivated landscapes.

Applicants can apply to Fine Art, Editorial, and Commercial categories through July 16th, 2009 and in addition to the grand prize winner, a first-prize winner in each category will have the opportunity for a private portfolio review with the panel.

More information about the application and award are available at Photography.Book.Now.

Magnum Photos and HP have announced the inaugural Magnum Expression Photography Award which aims to raise awareness and inspire change through photography. This year's theme is "Communities."

From the Magnum blog:

A sense of community is at the core of our lives, in some cases it unites us and in others it divides us from one another. This universal force is omnipresent in humankind and our diverse forms of expression, from acts of benevolence and kindness to movements of oppression and isolation. Each manifestation of human action has its causes and effects, its beneficiaries or victims. These impulses and actions are shaped by our individual identities and reflect our collective spirit. The judges urge participants to embrace the theme of communities and consider the expansive nature of how it pervades our lives and affects our perceptions. Participants' submissions may be for a completed project or one that is ongoing.

The award will be juried by four Magnum photographers: Alec Soth, Jonas Bendiksen, Paolo Pellegrin and Susan Meiselas, and one HP large format printing representative will select 20 finalists. The winner will receive a $10,000 grant, HP's large format Designjet Z3200 for fine art printing, archival pigment inks, fine art paper and additional prizes from contributing partners Blurb & PhotoShelter.

There is no fee or geographic constraints to apply and two honorable mentions and the remaining 17 finalists will also receive awards. The award is open for submissions on March 16th and closes on May 31st, 2009. Finalists and winners will be selected in June 2009.

More information and a press kit are available at the Magnum Expression site.

Attention, California artists! Any photographer born in California (whether currently residing there or not) is eligible for the 2009 James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography administered by SF Camerawork in conjunction with The San Francisco Foundation.

Winners will be awarded a $3,750 cash price and an opportunity to participate in an exhibition at SF Camerawork. The competition will be juried by Allan deSouza, Professor of New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute and Cathy Kimball, the Executive Director at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

Applications are available for download on the site and due tomorrow, February 28th, 2009. Winners will be announced in early April.

Tanqueray® Gin and Magnum Photos are teaming up to offer a £5,000 grant for photographers residing in the United Kingdom.

From the Magnum blog:

The makers of Tanqueray® Gin have teamed up with the world's most prestigious photo agency, Magnum Photos, to offer amateur photographers the chance to win £5,000 and have their work showcased alongside Stuart Franklin, the president of Magnum and some of the world's greatest photographers in a unique exhibition....

Alongside the project, a competition is being run by the makers of Tanqueray gin to give ten amateur photographers a chance to feature in the exhibition as well as winning a top prize of £5,000. Entrants will need to capture their interpretation of a 'Taste for Life' and provide their own rich, intense moments. To help guide entrants there will be six categories to enter covering adventure, relationships, glamour, cocktails, achievements, festivals and celebrations.

All entrants will be judged by a panel of experts including Stuart Franklin, President of Magnum Photos, Jeremy Langmead, Editor of Esquire magazine, Alan Sparrow, Picture Editor of Metro, Nicky Catley, Picture Editor of The Daily Telegraph and Kristof Fahey, Vice President of Marketing for Yahoo! Europe.

See more about competition details at A Taste For Life.

For another grant opportunity open to all emerging photographers, see David Alan Harvey's 2009 Emerging Photographer Fund. $10,000 will be awarded to the winning photographer and the deadline for submissions is March 15, 2009.

Happy Friday y'all. If your weekend is reserved for working to get your work out there and applying for grants - I bet at least part of it is, (hopefully Darius' encouraging words were/are a good motivator) - I have good news! Kara's filled you in on the Emerging Photographer Fund (thank you Kara!) and I have two more upcoming opportunities:

1) LMCC's Workspace Residency Program's Open Call for Applications

Workspace is a studio residency program for emerging visual artists and writers focused on the creative process. Residents receive free studio space in Lower Manhattan for nine months, a modest one-time stipend (depending on funding), access to a community of peers, professional development in the form of weekly group and individual meetings with arts and literary professionals called Salon Evenings, and exposure to new audiences through presence on LMCC's website and public programs like the final Open Studio Weekend.

Workspace is open to emerging professional visual artists and writers working in a range of disciplines and genres.

Applications due April 9, 2009. Apply here.

2) Rhizome Commissions 2010

Rhizome awards grants to emerging artists for creation of new media art. By new media art, we mean projects that creatively engage new and networked technologies to works that reflect on the impact of these tools and media in a variety of forms. Commissioned works can take the final form of online works, performance, video, installation or sound art. Projects can be made for the context of the gallery, the public, the web or networked devices. Rhizome Commissions awards generally range from $1,000 to $5,000.

Applications due April 2, 2009. Apply here.

In the next couple days we'll also be making an announcement about the opportunities we offer photographers right here ...

Image by 2008 Emerging Photographer Fund grant winner Sean Gallagher

Dear Emerging Photographers,

I was perusing a blog last night written by a certain gallery owner, and I awoke with an ineffable desire to share some information that I read therein:

EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER GRANT 2009

A $10,000 grant will be awarded in early 2009 to a worthy emerging photographer from the readership here whose work is on the highest level. Funding would be designed to support continuation of this photographer's personal project. This body of work may be of either journalistic mission or purely personal artistic imperatives...
The Emerging Photographer Fund grant was initiated by David Alan Harvey in 2008, and is awarded by the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit created by the the member photographers from Magnum Photos, Inc. A five person jury will be named to review your work.

The DEADLINE for submissions is MARCH 15, 2009. No exceptions.

Complete grant details here.

Best of luck to you,
Kara