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Previous Grant Recipients
Summer ‘07 Grant Recipients
Kekeli Inc — $1,500 to establish a school of photography. Kekeli develops new economic options for youth (ages 13-17) in Ghana who are currently living on the streets in urban areas or are doing hazardous work, such as mining, quarrying or going to sea. The school will train the youth to use photography as a way to earn a living.
BioCommunications Association — $1,060 to conduct a workshop on “Jewels of the Night: Studio Techniques for the Photography of Living Arthropods.” The workshop, to be held at the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute in Tucson Mountain Park, will cover photographic techniques, ethical and legal treatment of animals, the basics of containment and safety, and advanced methods for specialized environments.
Atlanta Celebrates Photography — $1,500 to support a day-long workshop on “Preparing for Portfolio Reviews.” The workshop will be held in conjunction with ACP’s annual Portfolio Review & Walk in October. Its goal is to better prepare photographers at all levels for opportunities in Atlanta and elsewhere: to take part in portfolio reviews, seek gallery representation, and approach editors and curators.
North American Nature Photography Association — $1,500 for the NANPA Infinity Foundation. The Foundation provides scholarships to high school students for a week-long program during the NANPA annual Summit. There, professional nature photographers instruct them in techniques of landscape, telephoto and macro photography. Students shoot images of wildlife or natural araas, attend information sessions by experts, and meet editors for top nature magazines.
The Center for Photography at Woodstock — $1,500 to support a December 2007 regional portfolio event, “the Portfolio Reviews at Woodstock.” The event’s goal is to enhance professional opportunities for photographers who live in upstate New York; attendees will network with their peers and with representatives of galleries, stock agencies, museums and artist spaces.
Passion and Profession — $1,500 to provide scholarships for a weekend retreat seminar titled “Achieving Balance Between Passion and Profession.” Held in October at Lake Geneva, WI, the seminar program will examine the tension between creative endeavors and business practices.
Summer ‘06 Grant Recipients
The Center for Photography at Madison (Wisconsin) has been given $1,500 in support of the 2006 PhotoMidwest event. Held biennially since 2000, the month-long festival draws photographers and visitors from a seven-state midwest region to participate in a wide range of activities at more than 100 local venues. Highlighting this year’s event are workshops presented by acclaimed documentary photographers Jill Freedman and Alec Soth.
Blue Earth Alliance educates the public about threatened cultures, endangered environments and other social concerns. The ASMP Foundation has awarded a grant of $1,500 to enable publication of a new edition of Shooting from the Heart, a how-to book for photographers who wish to embark on not-for-profit projects. The new edition is scheduled for initial release at SPE’s annual conference to be held in March 2007.
The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, now in its 35th year, educates college students, working journalists, educators and editors about the business of photojournalism. As part of the early December conference, members of ASMP’s Atlanta chapter conduct portfolio reviews with students and also serve as volunteer workshop leaders. The Foundation is supporting the Seminar with a grant of $1,500.
Achieving Balance Between Passion & Profession is a two-day retreat for students and new professionals. Conducted by the Chicago Midwest chapter of ASMP each year since 1997, P&P includes scheduled shooting assignments, individual and group critiques, one-on-one discussions, and presentations by established photographers, designers, photo buyers and reps. The Foundation’s grant of $1,500 is underwriting the event.
Winter ‘06 Grant Recipients
AINA Photo, a Paris-based branch of AINA, Afghanistan’s Media and Cultural Center, trains Afghan men and women in photojournalism. Its goal is to build local talent and foster free expression, in a country where even the possession of photographs was forbidden by the Taliban. The agency has received a grant of $1,500 for its “Afghanistan through Afghan eyes” program to help support photojournalism students develop their skills.
The Society for Photographic Education has been awarded $1,500 to help support student portfolio reviews at the 43rd Annual SPE National Conference to be held in March 2006 in Chicago. SPE portfolio reviews provide a structured, yet casual, environment in which emerging photographers can present their portfolios, receive mentoring and critical feedback, and connect with gallery directors and curators.
The Sante Fe Center for Photography offers symposia that educate photographers in key aspects of the business side of fine-art photography: marketing and promotion, book publication, and working with collectors and curators. SFCP has been granted $1,500 to help support the symposium titled “The Creative Edge: The Business of Being an Artist,” to be held January 21 in Santa Monica, CA.
FotoFest, an photographic arts and education organization based in Houston, Texas, is the creator of the international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art as a showcase for important new photographic talent. FototFest was awarded $1,500 to help support speaker expenses at a workshop called “Making the Most of Digital Technologies” which will be presented at the 11th Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art, to be held in Houston, Texas in March and April of 2006.
The Central Florida chapter of ASMP has received $350 to help support a student seminar series to be presented over the coming four months. Led by Amanda Sosa Stone, a creative consultant and artist representative, the series will provide instruction on assisting, corporate and editorial photography, and business practices in photography.
Summer ‘05 Grant Recipients
Aperture Foundation was organized in 1952 by photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan and Minor White, historian Beaumont Newhall and writer Nancy Newhall. It began by publishing a periodical dedicated to the advancement of fine photography. Over the years, it has developed a comprehensive program of publications, exhibitions and public programs that reach an audience of 250,000 each year. The ASMP Foundation’s grant of $1,500 will support “Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context,” a series of panel discussions featuring the leading photographers, artists and authors of our time. Presented free of charge at the New School University, the series reaches thousands of students, emerging artists, professional photographers and the general public.
PhotoAlliance was founded three years ago to support and revitalize the photographic community in the San Francisco Bay Area. ASMP Foundation’s grant of $1,500 will anchor next year’s funding for PhotoAlliance’s ongoing Emerging Artist Lecture Series and its first annual Pacific Rim Lecture, where renowned Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe is slated to be the featured speaker. The Emerging Artist Lecture Series puts relatively unknown photographers on the stage with widely recognized presenters. Past lectures have paired Adam Fuss with Binh Dahn, a Vietnamese-American photographer who invented a technique for printing images onto the surface of leaves; or Sylvia Plachy with Jessamyn Lovell, who showed images of her family and rural America.
The Santa Fe Center for Photography offers presentations that educate photographers in the areas of marketing and promotion, book publication, and the possibilities for accessing collectors and curators — the tools photographers need to take their careers to the next level. An ASMP Foundation grant of $1,500 will help fund three projects: a workshop by Darius Himes and Joanna Hurley called “Publishing the Photographic Book: A Primer”; a workshop by Mary Virginia Swanson titled “Presenting Your Work to the Fine Art Market”; and a seminar called “Who’s Collecting Whom?” featuring 15 investors, curators, art directors and gallery owners, and moderated by Alison Devine Nordström, the Curator of Photographs at George Eastman House.
ASMP’s Chicago/Midwest Chapter has received $1,250 to support “Achieving Balance Between Passion and Profession,” a two-day retreat for professional photographers, assistants and advanced students. Entering its ninth year, the retreat features discussions, shooting assignments, workshops and critiques with some of Chicago’s most accomplished photographers, designers, agents and editors. The agenda is designed to address how one may strike a balance between the commercial demands of the business and the inspiration needed to satisfy one’s passion for the craft.
Spring ‘05 Grant Recipients
ASMP It’s Your Business education programs for Thinking Stock: A $1,375 grant to ASMP in conjunction with SAA to help produce and promote a series of educational seminars providing a candid look at the realities of the stock industry with regard to licensing and distribution and also to help photographers create their own stock road map. For more information go to ASMP.org/register.
University City Arts & Letters Commission for Returning Artists Series: A $1,500 grant to help enable graduates of the local high school, who have achieved successful careers in the arts to return to work with and inspire today’s students. Specifically, this year’s program is to expose students to the wide possibilities of photography, to encourage photography as a career and to provide information as to the education needed to succeed.
Society for Photographic Education for National Conference Portfolio Reviews: A $1,500 grant in support of the portfolio review component at the 2005 SPE national conference. SPE portfolio reviews make it possible for photographers, educators, gallery directors, curators, historians and critics, with varying levels of experience and realms of expertise to make valuable connections and impact on the history and future of the medium.
Ira Gostin & University of Nevada Reno for Visual Journalism in the Sierra 2005: A $1,500 grant to help develop and present this spring the first of an annual event of photojournalism topics at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada. This program is intended for college visual journalism majors, recent graduates, and young professionals designed to present new information in the field as well as to inspire and motivate.
University of Washington Master of Communication in Digital Media Program for Digital Futures speakers events: A $1,500 grant to help produce a speaker series, created and managed by the innovative Master of Communications in Digital Media program at the University of Washington, that will feature lectures by top working media pros and communication scholars. The series will provide a nexus for discussion of cutting edge professional practice and academic research.
Detroit Focus web site: A $1,000 grant for content development for the recently launched regionally based Detroit Focus web site to assist in the development of feature stories and help with the ongoing expense of site operation and maintenance. For more information go to www.detroitfocus.org.
Brendon Brannon and The Most Important Picture project: A $1,000 grant to help fund a documentary photography/youth education project that will create a global portrait of HIV/AIDS through the eyes of children. The project began in Romania and will be replicated in ten countries worldwide. Specifically, this funding will provide HIV positive children in Kenya with the tools to document their lives, hopes and dreams and to communicate with a global audience.
2004 Grant Recipients
The Photographic Center NW for a lecture series on marketing and book publishing.
Fotovision weekend workshops. Fotovision, a Bay Area nonprofit, offers workshops ranging from a single day to five weeks. Some of them address technical aspects and ethical issues; others help photographers learn to finance and distribute a body of work. The ASMP Foundation is funding one of the two-day classes, Mid-Career Transition to Digital Imaging.
The World Through My Eyes for a program to awaken the artistic vision of disadvantaged Mozambican teens, by teaching them basic photographic skills that introduce becoming a professional photographer as a potential career choice.

