Competitions and grants

Learning goal

You will be able to assess photo competitions and project grants as tools for getting your name known and developing your work, choose the one that suits you and prepare a strong application. You will weigh the visibility, exhibition, catalog and prize a competition can provide together with the entry fee and the conditions in the terms. You will read the competition terms carefully, recognize a rights grab clause that leaves all rights to the photos to the organizer, and check whether copyright stays with you. For a project grant or support program you will prepare an application portfolio that tells your idea, your selection, your timeline and yourself. You will make sure the people appearing in the frames you send to a competition or an application know about it and give their permission, and stay away from frames and titles that present people of different skin tones in stereotyped or degrading ways.

The question

A new sheet has been pinned to the club's board: a photo competition titled "Neighborhood" by a municipal culture center. The prize is small, but the selected photos will be shown in an exhibition and printed in a catalog. Your friend wants to enter right away. Looking online the same evening, they find several more competitions opened the same month: one has a high entry fee, one doesn't say who is on the jury, and at the very bottom of one's terms it says the frames sent will from then on be considered the organizer's.

And someone from the club tells them about a project grant; they say your friend could get support to expand the neighborhood series. How do you get your name known? Which door should you apply to, which should you stay away from, and how should an application be prepared?

Context

While working with conceptual photography you turned an abstract thought like starting again into a sentence you could shoot (Lesson 26.8). In the selection lesson you narrowed the archive in rounds and built a series in which every frame does a job (Lesson 26.9). In the previous lesson, too, we talked about reading stock agencies' terms and getting written permission from the people visible in the frames (Lesson 28.10).

This lesson looks at the ways of making photography visible and supporting a project, rather than selling it. Competitions and grants can make a photographer's name known to a jury, an exhibition audience or an institution; but they aren't all the same, and each comes with a cost or a condition. No competition or institution names are given here; these announcements change every year and the terms of each must be read separately. For the legal interpretation of terms, it helps to consult a lawyer when needed.

Simple explanation

Why enter a competition, and which one?

A competition can give a photographer several things: passing through a jury's eyes, appearing in an exhibition or catalog, winning a prize and a line to add to the résumé. But not being selected in a competition doesn't measure the value of a photo or a photographer; it reflects the jury's view that year and that competition's theme. Competitions are only one of the ways of getting your name known; an exhibition, a publication, a photobook or a long-term project can do the same job.

When deciding which competition to enter, a few questions are asked: does its theme fit your work and style, who is on the jury and do you know their work, which photos were selected in past years, is the organizing institution reliable, is the prize and visibility worth the entry fee? An entry fee is the price paid to send photos to a competition. Some competitions give students or first-time entrants the option to apply for free. A fee on its own isn't bad; but when a high fee combines with a small prize and an unclear jury, the competition may be serving the organizer more than the photographer.

What do you look for in the terms?

Competition terms are the document that sets a competition's theme, entry conditions, file formats, deadlines, judging criteria and how the photos sent will be used. The terms are read from start to finish before applying. Frames that don't meet technical conditions such as file size, border or signature are often not even considered; rules about editing and manipulating the photo also vary from competition to competition.

A rights grab clause is the condition in the terms saying that the copyright or usage rights of the photos sent are left to the organizer, often without time limit and without restriction. In most reliable competitions copyright stays with the photographer, and the organizer takes the right to use the photos only for the competition's promotion, exhibition and catalog, crediting the photographer's name. A transfer of all rights can mean the photos may later be used in advertisements or for sale without anything being paid to the photographer. When such a condition is seen, not entering the competition is often the best decision. The details of copyright will be taken up in a separate lesson in the next module.

The terms may also contain conditions about the people visible in the frame. Many competitions ask for a model release for frames with recognizable people. Even if permission isn't asked for, telling a person and getting their permission before taking their face to a competition, an exhibition and a catalog means not seeing them only as material. Frames and titles that present people of different skin tones as "exotic," poor or suffering figures can damage the dignity of the people photographed, even if they catch some juries' attention; the story of these frames needs to be built through their eyes and the titles kept plain.

How is a grant application prepared?

A project grant is financial or in-kind support given by an institution, a foundation or a support program for a particular photography project to be realized. Grants usually evaluate not finished photos, but a project's idea, method and likelihood of being realized. Residency programs, that is, programs that give a photographer a place to stay and the chance to work for a while, are also within this family.

An application portfolio is the whole of the documents submitted to a grant or support program that together tell the project's idea, selection, timeline, budget and the photographer's background. The heart of the portfolio is a short, clear project text starting from the concept statement: what do you want to do, why, how, with whom and in how much time? Beside the text are added a small selection showing the project's direction, a realistic timeline, a budget with its items written one by one and a short résumé. Every program asks different questions; instead of sending the same portfolio everywhere, each application needs to be adapted to that program's questions. Being turned down is normal in this process; many photographers get support after applying several times with the same project. Following the application calendar in advance also helps: many programs take applications once a year and in certain months, while a portfolio left to the last day often goes with a hastily written text and an incomplete budget.

Visual evidence

Your friend puts three competition announcements side by side and asks each the same questions. The "Neighborhood" competition has two documentary photographers on its jury, a low entry fee, and its terms say copyright will stay with the photographer and the photos will be used only for the exhibition and catalog. The high-fee competition's jury is unclear; another has a condition transferring all rights without time limit. Your friend decides to apply only to the "Neighborhood" competition.

To the people appearing in the four frames they will send, the vendors at the harvest festival and the men playing backgammon, they show their photos, say they want to send them to the competition, and get their permission. They write the title of a dark-skinned vendor's portrait with their name and the name of their stall, instead of the first word that came to mind, which defined them only by their tiredness.

The same month they prepare a portfolio for the project grant: a one-page project text describing spreading the neighborhood series across four seasons over a year, a dozen frames showing the project's direction, a timeline divided into months and a budget with its items written out. In the competition they are selected for the exhibition; for the grant, on the other hand, they aren't accepted on their first application and keep the jury's short note for the next application.

Common mistakes

Summary

Competitions can provide visibility, an exhibition, a catalog and a prize, but not being selected doesn't measure a photo's value; which competition to enter is chosen by weighing the theme, jury, organizer and entry fee, and the competition terms are read from start to finish to check whether copyright stays with the photographer and whether there is a rights grab clause. For project grants an application portfolio made of the idea, selection, timeline, budget and résumé is prepared and adapted to each program; permission is obtained from the people in the frames, and people of different skin tones aren't presented with stereotyped or degrading frames and titles.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will assess a competition and prepare a draft grant application.

1. Find two or three competitions open in the field you are interested in; for each, write in a table the theme, jury, organizer, entry fee, prize and exhibition or catalog opportunity.
2. Find the copyright and usage conditions in each competition's terms and summarize them in one sentence; if there is a rights grab clause mark it, and decide with your reason whether you will enter.
3. If there are recognizable people in the frames you are thinking of sending, write their permission status; rewrite the titles so they don't define people only by a condition or by their appearance.
4. For a project, prepare a one-page project text, a selection of ten to fifteen frames, a timeline divided into months and a draft budget with its items written out.

Check yourself

• Can you explain with which questions you weigh whether a competition suits you?
• Can you recognize a rights grab clause in the terms?
• Does your application portfolio clearly tell your idea, method and timeline?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What does not being selected in a competition show?

• A) That the photo is worthless
• B) That the photographer is untalented
• C) That jury's view that year and the competition's theme
• D) That you should never apply again

2. If the terms say "all rights to all photos sent pass to the organizer without time limit," what is this?

• A) A rights grab clause
• B) An entry fee
• C) A model release
• D) A file format condition

3. What is the heart of a grant application?

• A) Only the ten best photos
• B) The list of prizes
• C) The camera's make and model
• D) The project text telling what will be done, why, how and in how much time

4. If a portrait to be sent to a competition includes a dark-skinned vendor, what should be done?

• A) Writing the title so it defines them only by their tiredness
• B) Getting their permission and writing the title with their dignity in mind
• C) Blurring their face
• D) Changing the frame's color

Answers

1. C — Competition results are a jury's choice on a particular theme and don't measure a photo's absolute value.
2. A — A transfer of all rights without time limit can lead to the photos being used anywhere without payment to the photographer.
3. D — Grants usually evaluate not finished work but the project's idea and feasibility.
4. B — The permission of the person in the frame and a title that respects their dignity keep them from being reduced to material.

Summary card

• A competition is a path, not a measure.
• Weigh the theme, jury, organizer, fee and prize.
• Read the terms; recognize a rights grab clause and stay away.
• Grant portfolio: idea, selection, timeline, budget, résumé; adapt it to each program.
• Get permission from the people in the frame; respect their dignity in titles.

Bridge to the next lesson

There is a small prize from the competition and some money saved from the café jobs. Your friend is thinking of investing this money in a new camera body; everyone at the club is talking about a newly released model. The older member, on the other hand, reminds them that they still work with a single lens and a single reflector, that their bag is falling apart, and that none of their equipment is insured. Which equipment should you spend your earnings on? The next lesson takes up investing first in lenses and light, then in the body, and equipment insurance.