Territory: Worldwide
Theme: documentary photo essay
Eligibility: This Award is for documentary photographers identifying as female.
Entry Fees: Free
Prize: Cash Prize
A £4000 prize to showcase positive solutions to global issues through documentary photography is to be awarded to a woman photographer in memory of one of the 20th century’s seminal women photographers. The international prize will be granted through an award founded in honour of renowned photographer Marilyn Stafford. The award is free to enter, and applicants can be working anywhere across the globe.
The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award, which this year celebrates its 10th edition, is facilitated by arts organisation FotoDocument and supported by Nikon. Marilyn Stafford (b.1925, d.2023) honed her own craft under the tutelage of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.
The prize goes towards the completion of a compelling and cohesive documentary photo essay which addresses an important social, environmental, economic, or cultural issue, whether local or global.
As well as the prize winner announced in June, there will be a special celebration of 10 years of the prize from 17–20 September at POST, Brighton & Hove’s new centre for photography. This will include a special 2026 Winner exhibition and Artist Talk, exhibited highlights from the last ten years of winners including a talk from Natalya Saprunova, the 2022 winner. There will also be an inaugural screening of the trailer of the Marilyn Stafford film currently being made by Ellie Emptage from Tara Films, plus workshops and a panel discussion about women in documentary photography facilitated by the international jurors of the award. Tickets and more information will be available soon at POST. To also mark this special year, Albumen Gallery will be exhibiting a display of works by Marilyn Stafford at Art Rotterdam from 27–29 March.
Stafford was the photographer who shot the now infamous photograph of Albert Einstein at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, in the late 1940s. Her career spanned the 1950s and 60s fashion scenes of London and Paris; portraits of significant historical figures such as Sir Richard Attenborough, Edith Piaf, Carlo Levi, and Le Corbusier; high-profile documentary projects including a reportage on Indira Gandhi following the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as extended photo essays on pre-civil war Lebanon and mid-20th-century Parisian slums.
Women from any stage of their careers can apply for the award, whether emerging, mid-career, or established, but must have completed at least one documentary photo essay to demonstrate a track record. Entrants must be over 18 and may be of any nationality and based anywhere in the world. It is free to submit an application for the award.
The successful work should, in part, showcase positive solutions to any issues it raises in order to contribute to constructive photojournalism, in line with the wishes of Marilyn Stafford and the aims of FotoDocument. The Award is reserved solely for documentary photographers working on projects intended to make the world a better place and which may be unreported or under-reported.
Submissions will be reviewed by an international panel including:
Andrea Bruce: Photojournalist, Co-owner NOOR Photo Agency, Nikon Ambassador.
Donna De Cesare: Photojournalist, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin.
Nina Emett: Director of FotoDocument/POST, Documentary Photographer, Curator.
Neo Ntsoma: Photojournalist, Founder of Neo Ntsoma Productions.
Isabella Franceschini: Winner of the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2024, Photographer.
