| Your Wish Is Granted For the emerging photographer, just being named a scholarship or grant finalist is a huge career-booster. By Jane Gottlieb Successful applicants for a FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography grant can sum up their ideas in half a page. "When I read a proposal, the best ones make me see pictures in my mind," says Andy Patrick, founder and executive director of the San Francisco-based program.
For the emerging photographers, scholarships and grants like FiftyCrows' offer more than just the financial backing to launch or complete a coveted project. Given their prestige, simply being named a finalist is a rÈsumÈ enhancer. But this opportunity is often squandered when photographers don't appreciate the importance of the written proposal. "We look for a good idea first and the portfolio second," says David Sutherland, a professor of photography at Syracuse University and administrator of the Alexia Foundation for World Peace student photography contest. Named for Alexia Tsairis, a photography student killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, the contest awards five $1,000 first prizes to projects that promote cultural understanding. Top winners also receive a $9,000 scholarship to spend a semester studying in London. The criteria are flexible, Sutherland says, but judges expect photographers to present a clear mission. "The problem is," he says, "that very often the judges will read and read and read and not know what the proposal is about." As a result, Alexia has added to the requirements a 25- to 50-word summary of the proposal. Grammatical errors, typos and poor punctuation are also sore points—hardly surprising given that judges are photo editors from such organizations as National Geographic, Reuters, Newsweek and the Associated Press. The application for the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, among the oldest prizes of documentary photography, calls for a proposal that is "cogent, concise, journalistically realizable... and humanistically driven." Still, photographers sometimes submit a quick-hit story idea. "These are looked at once and discarded," says Helen Marcus, president of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. Wyatt Gallery, who won a $14,000 United States Department of State Fulbright Grant in 1999, says writing was the hardest part of the application process.
Fulbright maintains no quota on artists or photographers who compete alongside academicians and scientists, says Walter Jackson, manager of the Division of the Institute of International Education, which administers the United States student Fulbright program. Separate panels review proposals in each discipline, but each expects clear writing and a neat presentation. Though unfamiliar with Gallery's project, Jackson says the input from college professors certainly helped. The designated Fulbright adviser on a college campus is trained in program requirements and wants to see the student succeed. Jackson urged applicants who are not students to work with a friend or professional mentor. "They cannot write or produce the application for you," he says, "but they can assist you as you go through the process." Another tip: Respect the spirit of the award. Fulbrights, for instance, are designed to "foster mutual understanding among nations." Host nations participate in the decision. This would suggest that proposals reflect compassion toward the nation where one expects to study, even if the project deals with a problem. "I knew the country and I respected the culture," Gallery said, fulfilling a Fulbright credo by discussing Trinidad after completing travel. "So I wrote the proposal in a way that would be respectful and complimentary. You're not trying to say this is such a glorious place with no problems, but that you have a love for the culture." The FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography, formerly a project of Mother Jones magazine, fortifies the art of visual storytelling. Strong stories that deal with social justice, not dazzling photographs, are the mission. Nonetheless, Andy Patrick said, candidates continue to submit stand-alone shots more appropriate for a spot news competition. The Smith grant honors the legacy of, well, Eugene Smith. And yet a number of applicants, mostly younger ones, enter light feature story ideas and otherwise make it clear that they do not even know who he was. "You'd be surprised," says Anna Winand, executive assistant of the Smith Fund. Once applicants have a strong idea that is well written and adheres to the philosophy of the granting organization, they should stick closely to submission details. For instance, FiftyCrows wants to see 20 prints, no larger than 12 x 16, no smaller than 8 x 10. Sometimes they get 10, sometimes they get 40. Sometimes they get snapshots or photocopies. Patrick said the criteria are specific in order to give judges a common standard. "We get 500 portfolios from all over the world," he says. "We might get work that is fantastic and have to spend an hour trying to identify what's what because no one has marked the prints. We won't do it anymore." When the Smith grant was among the only ones open to photographers, Helen Marcus notes, candidates were apt to take their time and follow all the rules. Today, she says, with the proliferation of programs and instant information from the internet, she sees more hasty presentations. Sometimes, she senses a photographer has sent identical proposals to numerous programs, no matter how distinct the goals and stipulations. The technology should be a plus rather than a minus. Web sites for the leading scholarships list the founders, judges, and often display winning work that leaves little mystery on what is expected. The Fulbright site even clues in photographers on the odds of winning by listing the number of applicants and number of grants awarded in each country. Another piece of good news is that many organizations do not bar people from entering year after year. Ernesto Bazan, who first applied for a Smith grant in 1983, finally won in 1998, after numerous attempts, says Marcus. Likewise for Eli Reed, the 1992 winner. "We don't keep a list of who submitted the year before," she says. "We have different judges each year, and even though they are supposed to be looking at the same things, a photojournalism project can be done numerous ways. Everyone looks at things differently." |
