Alexia Foundation Grants

Alexia Foundation Grants is sponsored by Alexia Foundation. The Alexia Foundation provides grants and scholarships to photojournalists whose mission focuses on fostering cultural understanding and exposing social injustice. They support projects that promote world peace and cultural understanding.

For over 30 years, The Alexia grants have supported student and professional visual communicators who produce projects that inspire change by addressing socially significant topics. Ukraine has faced immense challenges since Russia’s invasion in 2014. Families, especially in eastern Ukraine, live with constant uncertainty, fear and disruption.

Seeing the Unseen shows the Russo-Ukrainian war through the eyes of civilians, offering a perspective often overlooked — not about battles or military strategies, but about the everyday lives of those caught in the middle. Here, Uliana is with her mother Aliona in Slatyne, Kharkiv region, in August 2024.

(By Iva Sidash, The Alexia Vision Grant 2025 student runner-up) ## The Alexia Grants 2026 Grants are awarded to help produce significant projects that share in The Alexia’s mission and whose creators demonstrate the ability to accomplish them. Submissions must include a synopsis of your project, a proposal, your bio, a résumé/CV and a body of work. Stories may be in progress or planned.

Entries are judged as much on the strength of the proposal as on the applicant’s visual skills. What storytellers address and what their images say about life on the planet is more important than the approach chosen to address that topic. All applicants will be considered for The Alexia Vision grants automatically.

In addition, during the submission process, applicants will have the opportunity to indicate whether their application should also be considered for any of this year’s pop-up grants. All submitted images will be considered for inclusion in Alexia exhibitions and publications curated throughout the year. Photographers with selected images would be contacted for approval.

****The 2026 submission cycle has ended. **** Professional grants enable established photographers and filmmakers to produce substantial bodies of work that align with The Alexia’s mission. The Alexia also encourages a diversity of creators, issues and approaches, and values work that elevates understanding and inspires meaningful change.

This year, The Alexia is offering several pop-up grants as well as its traditional Vision grants. **The Alexia Vision Grant (professional):** $20,000 and a Sony camera/lens. The runner-up will receive $750, and award of excellence recipients will receive $250.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide insight into issues around the world, foster cultural understanding and inspire meaningful change by addressing socially significant topics. **POP-UP: The Alexia Conservation Grant sponsored by The fStop Foundation:**$5,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that focus on positive aspects of conservation work in relation to human-wildlife conflict — how we can thrive living alongside wildlife that share our landscape. **POP-UP: The Alexia Environmental Change Grant sponsored by James Balog / Earth Vision Institute: $5,000.

**For this grant, we will be looking for a still photographer whose innovative image-making and ideas deepen human understanding of environmental change in the Anthropocene. Special consideration will be given to work with strong potential for public outreach. **POP-UP: The Alexia Health Grant sponsored by David Sutherland in memory of his wife, Pei Lin Huang:**$5,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that explore issues related to health, presenting them with depth, clarity and compassion. (David Sutherland was Alexia Tsairis’ professor and the inaugural director of the grants, beginning in 1991.) The submission fee for professionals is $50.

These grants enable current college student photographers and filmmakers to produce bodies of work that align with The Alexia’s mission. We encourage a diversity of creators, issues and approaches, and value work that elevates understanding and inspires meaningful change.

Student applicants are encouraged to consider proposing projects located close to where they live because a successful body of work is more likely with easy and repeated access. Most student grant recipients are already working on their projects when they apply.

**The Alexia Vision Grant (student):** $2,000, a Sony camera/lens, acceptance to the Eddie Adams Workshop (unless previously attended), the tuition and fees to audit three courses during a semester at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in New York, and they will be considered for a paid position as research assistant to The Alexia chair.

The runner-up for this grant will receive $500, and award of excellence recipients will receive $250. For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide insight into issues around the world, foster cultural understanding and inspire meaningful change by addressing socially significant topics. **POP-UP:****The Alexia Conservation Grant sponsored by The fStop Foundation:** $1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that focus on positive aspects of conservation work in relation to human-wildlife conflict — how we can thrive living alongside wildlife that share our landscape. The fStop Foundation also is willing to provide guidance during production and publication. **POP-UP: The Alexia Faith Grant sponsored by Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse University:** $1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to faith. **POP-UP: The Green Space Grant sponsored by Phil Ashwood:**$1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that emphasize landscape and explore how people interact with the green spaces in their everyday lives (parks, gardens, forests, farms, etc.), revealing them as places of connection, rest, work, play and reflection. **POP-UP: The Alexia Health Grant sponsored by David Sutherland in memory of his wife, Pei Lin Huang:**$1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that explore issues related to health, presenting them with depth, clarity and compassion. (David Sutherland was Alexia Tsairis’ professor and the inaugural director of the grants, beginning in 1991.) **POP-UP:****The Alexia Sports Grant sponsored by the Sports Media Center at Newhouse, Syracuse University:** $1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to sports. ### NEW MENTOR GRANTS FOR STUDENTS This year we are introducing a new initiative to pair student photographers with an accomplished mentor to guide them over the course of the following year as they develop their project.

As part of these grants, mentors will connect with the recipients via Zoom four times, though some mentors might have additional availability. In addition to mentorship, the recipient will receive $1,000 to help with expenses and production of the project. **MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Disabilities Mentor Grant with Lynn Johnson:**$1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to disabilities. Lynn Johnson, a National Geographic Explorer who has published 40 feature stories in National Geographic Magazine and worked for LIFE and Sports Illustrated, is known for photographing elusive topics. **MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Education Mentor Grant with Sandra M.

Stevenson:** $1,000. For this grant we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to education. Sandra M.

Stevenson is Education Week’s managing editor of visuals and immersive experiences and formerly worked at The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times. **MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Environmental Impact Mentor Grant with Whitney Johnson Latorre:** $1,000. For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to the environment.

Whitney Johnson Latorre is president and CEO of the Catalina Island Conservancy and previously served as vice president and executive director of visual content for National Geographic. **MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Human Rights Mentor Grant with Ed Kashi sponsored by CODE^SHIFT at Newhouse, Syracuse University:** $1,000.

For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that provide meaningful insight into issues related to human rights. Projects could explore themes such as social justice, equity and advocacy. Ed Kashi is an internationally recognized visual storyteller known for his long-term engagement with global social, humanitarian and geopolitical issues.

**MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Portrait Series Mentor Grant with Gregory Heisler:**$1,000. For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that use a portrait series to convey a meaningful concept or issue. Gregory Heisler has photographed more than 70 covers of Time Magazine, and his work is part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery.

**MENTOR GRANT: The Alexia Visual Innovation Mentor Grant with Stephen Wilkes:**$1,000. For this grant, we will be looking for strong projects that use visual innovation as a vehicle for deeper meaning, prioritizing conceptual intent over technical virtuosity alone. Stephen Wilkes is a photographer, filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer known for his groundbreaking fine art, editorial and commercial imagery.

## Emerging photographer grant **The Alexia Emerging Photographer Grant sponsored by the VII Foundation in memory of Paul Lowe:**Tuition to Level 3 of The Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography in Arles, France, plus accommodation and a per diem. The recipient of this grant will be selected from applicants to our student grants as well as professional applicants who have five years of experience or less.

The VII Foundation believes truthful visual journalism is an essential tool for citizens and decision-makers as they confront humanity’s challenges and seek sustainable solutions. In response, the foundation empowers new voices, fosters critical debates and creates stories that advocate change. Paul Lowe was an award-winning conflict photographer, author, academic and regular course leader for The VII Foundation’s educational programs.

**GRANT DETAILS**: Tuition to Level 3 of The Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography in Arles, France, plus accommodation and a per diem. **CURRICULUM**: Level 3 of the Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography offers an immersive, interdisciplinary experience at the Alexandra Boulat Campus in Arles, France.

This intensive month-long program includes training in observation, interview techniques, public speaking, writing, constructing complex narratives, editing, improving technical skills and engaging in discourse and debate.

Level 3 classes are conducted in English and focus on teaching through practice and mentoring; they also include more theoretical concepts, integrating multi-disciplinary academic reading and research, writing, journaling, art disciplines, and workshops. After completing the course, students are skilled professionals ready to report on vital issues in their communities and understand their role in the context of contemporary journalism.

Tutors for past editions of Level 3 include Monica Allende, Philip Blenkinsop, Dr. David Campbell, Jacqueline Farmer, Ziyah Gafic, Gary Knight, Ilvy Njiokiktjien, Fiona Turner and Yonola Viguerie. The VII Foundation’s educational programs are run by VII Academy, which provides tuition-free courses in visual journalism to practitioners in the Majority World and underrepresented communities in G20 countries.

**JURORS**: The VII Foundation The student grant application is free. The grant judging weekend, March 27–28 in Syracuse, New York, is sponsored by SONY and open to the public.