📸 ⭐️ May 2025 Photo Contests + Grants

Photographers,

This month's contests and grant opportunities for photographers include a self-portrait prize with a winner receiving an exhibition and a £10,000 cash prize, opportunities for children under 15, and a call for photographers who capture “mountain culture,” as well as exhibitions for analog photographers.

Many contests are closing this month, so, as last month, premium subscribers will receive two emails with listings.

Here are my top picks for May closings. Good luck!

Doug Pensinger Photography Fund (DPPF)

The Doug Pensinger Photography Fund (DPPF) supports emerging and early-career sports photographers by providing financial grants, mentorship opportunities, and career development resources. The DPPF aims to foster inclusivity and diversity within the sports photography community and offers merit-based access to its programs. Applicants must have less than three years of cumulative paid professional sports photography experience. The program is open to international applicants, but it does not provide visa support.

Prize

7 Photographers will receive:

• $5,000 Grant for career development.

• Expenses-paid trip to the next DPPF Sports Photography Gathering (2026).

Development Grants:

• Up to 3 additional photographers will receive a $2,500 Development Grant for demonstrating significant challenges that have impacted their ability to advance their careers.

Mentorship Opportunities:

• Up to 3 grant winners will receive a year-long mentorship with leading industry professionals from the DPPF Advisory Board.

3. Entry Fee and Deadline

• Entry Fee: Free.

• Deadline: May 2, 2025

Project Groundswell

Project Groundswell invites photographers and lens-based artists to submit projects that focus on climate action. The initiative aims to deepen understanding, amplify hope, and inspire further action by showcasing efforts to combat climate change. Artists are encouraged to engage with a broad range of climate actions, including reducing carbon emissions, promoting biodiversity, addressing greenwashing, or advancing climate justice. The call welcomes diverse approaches, from documentary to conceptual, as long as the work is relevant to climate action.

Prize

Four Overall Winners will receive:

• €5,000 fee.

• Museum-quality printing and framing for a major four-person touring exhibition.

• A monograph photobook with an introductory critical essay.

• Exhibition at Fotohof, Photo Museum Ireland, Cortona On The Move Festival, and Imago Lisboa Festival in 2026.

• Up to €800 for travel and accommodation to attend two exhibitions.

Twelve Finalists will receive:

• €1,000 fee.

Entry Fee and Deadline

• Entry Fee: Free

• Deadline: May 1, 2025

• Eligibility: Open to artists of any nationality based in Europe (including EU Member States, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, UK, and more).

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