7th Annual International Documentary Photography Award
About the International Documentary Photography Award
The International Documentary Photography Award encourages personal involvement in social issues and promotes socially conscious documentary photography. It is open to all fully-matriculated undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of degree major, gender, ethnic background, or country of residence.
NOTE: No high school submissions.
The subject matter is entirely the choice of the student. However, it should clearly document a person, group of people, place, event, or happening of social relevance. Submitted images should be arranged and presented to clearly tell the story of what is being documented.
The project does not have to be about people. Environmental issues, including land use or misuse, urban or rural issues, global or local events, will all be considered. The key is to indicate through your photographs that you are involved and can communicate your feelings about the subject you are documenting.
The medium of capture is not important. Images may be made with a cell phone, DSLR camera, view camera, or any other capture device, film or digital.
International Documentary Photography Award
$1000
About the Judges
Anne E. Havinga is the Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Chair of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she has been on staff since 1989. She looks after a collection that ranges from early daguerreotypes to contemporary photography. Her many exhibitions have ranged from the beginnings of the medium to recent work.
Graham MacIndoe is an NYC-based documentary photographer and associate Professor at Parsons, The New School. Graham has published and exhibited his work widely, including solo exhibitions at the Matadero Arts Center in Madrid in 2022, the National Arts Club in New York City in 2021, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 2018, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2017. His work has been included in exhibitions at ICP NYC, The Museum of the City of New York, and City Art Space in Rochester.
Jill Enfield is a fine art photographer, educator, and author. Her concentration is historical techniques and alternative processes, with annual workshops and lectures in locations around the world. She has taught at Parsons The New School of Design since the late 1980s.
Scholarship Award: $1000US
Deadline: January 1, 2024
(The full application must be electronically received by 23:59 PDT, January 1, 2024)
Notice of Award: The successful award winners will be notified by e-mail no later than March 1, 2024. The award will be mailed to the recipient as a bank check on or before April 1, 2024 (recipients outside of the US will receive their reward via Paypal).
To find out the award recipient, contact the Award committee after April 15, 2024, at scholarships@anchellworkshops.com.
This is a blind judging. The judges will not know the applicants name, school, ethnic origin, country of residence, or gender. While you may include captions, do not include any identifying information on the essay or in the photo file that might indicate your name, school, ethnic origin, your country of residence, or gender unless this can be inferred by the nature of the images (example: the documentary is about your family and your ethnic origin can be identified).
- Completed on-line application
- Photocopy proof of college/university enrollment for the academic year of application
- 350-words or more about your documentary photo project, including who, what, where, when, and why. Include the project title on the essay.
- Drag and drop 12 - 20 JPEG (.jpg) photos onto the application form in the order you want them viewed. We recommend you use sequential numbering to name your image files (e.g., 01-[Name of Project].jpg, 02-[Name of Project].jpg, etc.).
Optional: You may caption the images by submitting the captions in the same order as the photos in a .txt or Word document along with your photos.
Selection is based upon the application submission and the student's demonstrated interest/involvement in using photography to document a person, group of people, place, event, happening of social relevance, or of personal importance. Awards are solely at the discretion of the Award Committee.
To submit your application for the documentary photography award CLICK HERE.
All submitted photos and essays must be the original work of the applicant. Applicants and winners will retain all copyright to the original material they submit. Only one submission may be entered per student, per year. Duplicate entries will be disqualified. By submitting an application to the Anchell International Documentary Photography Award, you certify that all the information you have provided is accurate and complete.
The applicant automatically grants Anchell Photography, Inc. (API), its agents and/or representatives permission to:
- Use their name, photo, essay response, and award amount, if any, in announcements or articles (i.e. social media, newsletter, etc) issued by API.
- Post the applicant’s name, college or university, photographs and an essay on anchellworkshops.com website.
- Call and/or send information to the applicant regarding their application.
Winners will be notified via email, and announced publicly, as well as on API social media pages.
Winners must show proof of enrollment or graduation during the posted dates, above, to an accredited college, university or vocational/trade school within 21 calendar days of being notified by submitting either a copy of the tuition bill or a letter of proof from the school. In the event a winner cannot prove their enrollment to an accredited college, university or vocational/trade school, API will revoke the award for that individual and award it to the first runner-up.
The winner agrees to provide individual high-resolution jpeg images or high-resolution scans of original prints or negatives for reproduction by API. The images or scans must be received with a signed statement granting API the right to use them, according to the stipulations above, prior to the award being released.
Email communications to API, the company, its agents and/or representatives may be retained in order to process or respond to inquiries or application as related to the scholarship. API, its agents and representatives will not knowingly sell, share, rent or otherwise transfer information other than in accordance with the terms set forth under “Terms & Conditions,” above.
E-mail all inquiries to: scholarships@anchellworkshops.com
Alternately, you can submit your scholarship application through Fastweb or Scholarships.com.