Territory: Worldwide
Theme: Visual storytelling
Eligibility: California residents
Entry Fees: Free
Prize: Cash Prize
The visual media organization CatchLight will be opening submissions for the 2026 CatchLight Global Fellowship, beginning November 15 through December 15, 2025. Each year, the Fellowship awards $30,000 grants to three innovative visual storytellers whose work is a tool for information, connection and transformation in their communities.
The Fellowship supports innovative visual storytellers who seek to cultivate meaningful audience engagement and amplify the impact of their work through inventive distribution strategies. Acting as an incubator, the program awards $30,000 grants, fosters professional development, and builds networks that empower creative leaders to infl uence the future of visual storytelling.
The 2026 Fellows will be selected by an international jury and announced at the CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit in May 2026.
“In a moment when division so often dominates the headlines, CatchLight stands fi rm in our belief in the unifying power of images. Through the CatchLight Global Fellowship, we are supporting visual storytellers around the world who are deeply connected to their communities. Photographers who are building bridges across lines of experience, geography, and perspective. Their work fosters dialogue, empathy, and a renewed sense of shared humanity.” Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO, CatchLight
The 2025 CatchLight Global Fellows continue to redefi ne documentary storytelling by centering community voices. Cairo-based Rehab Eldalil has been engaging SWANA war survivors through photography and mixed media to highlight resilience and global solidarity; Uruguayan Federico Estol collaborates with La Paz shoeshiner communities, now training participants as storytellers to amplify visibility and break stigmas; and central California-based Adam Perez partners with farmworker communities to document labor, land, and climate challenges, sharing their stories through photography, video, and public installations. Since May 2025, each has expanded their work, gaining new platforms and community-driven initiatives that extend the impact of their original projects.
“As an independent photographer and fi lmmaker working alongside migrant farmworkers during a time of mass deportation, the CatchLight community has been an anchor in the chaos” said Adam/n Perez (CatchLight 2025 Global Fellow). “Their support has gone far beyond professional guidance — it has been a source of care, understanding, and solidarity. Through their mentorship, I’ve discovered new ways to gather stories with greater tenderness and thoughtfulness. CatchLight has given me the space to sit with the grief and trauma that surround this work, and to transform that pain into stories that honor the resilience of my community.”
For Federico Estol (CatchLight 2025 Global Fellow), “CatchLight is the only platform in photography that lets me expand my practice through long-term community projects with freedom, guidance, and new ways of connecting with people as visual storytellers, always in a non-extractive way. Their support has been precious, because so few platforms allow for sustained projects that combine education with street-level action to address social challenges like marginalization, discrimination, and polarization. CatchLight prioritizes people and civic engagement over marketing or commercial success.”
