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The W. Eugene Smith Grant

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$30,000

Due: October 7, 2026

No essay

No min. GPA required

No transcripts required

Eligibility

The W. Eugene Smith Grant, with an application deadline in October, offers numerous awards of $30000 each.

Description

The W. Eugene Smith Grant is designed to encourage and support visual storytellers whose photographic work renews the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's dedicated compassion as evidenced during his 45-year career as a photographic essayist. Special consideration will be given to work that promotes social change, that embraces new technologies and image distribution, and that seeks to integrate the tradition of photography and social change with contemporary practice. The judges will be looking for a photographer and project that seem 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: social change, humanitarian concern, armed conflict, or other topics of interpersonal, psychological, cultural, social, environmental, scientific, medical and/or political significance, ideally expressing an underlying acknowledgement of our common humanity. Applicants may submit either a biography or a CV. Applicants must also submit a project description, which is a concise synopsis or summary of the project. This outline should be brief but comprehensive. Ideally, the project will be journalistically realizable, visually translatable, and humanistically driven. Applicants must also submit a project proposal that should go into greater detail, describing the practical aspects of the applicant's plan. It should explain how the applicant will use the Smith Grant funds to launch or complete the project. Applicants can submit up to 40 images total. These should consist of representative images from the project being proposed to the W. Eugene Smith Fund. Or, if a new project, the applicant can include in their submission past work clearly marked as such, that represents the candidate's vision and their ability to execute the project being proposed to the fund. No AI generated imagery is allowed. Please visit the award's website for more information.