The Alexia Foundation provides educational opportunities and cash grants to help students produce bodies of work that share the Foundation’s goals of promoting world peace and cultural understanding. 

Student applicants are encouraged to consider projects that explore cultural understanding in or near their local community. While the Foundation does not discourage proposals on topics outside the students’ region, no extra weight is given to these topics when determining winning Grant recipients. Rather, the Foundation believes applicants are more likely to complete a story closer to their school or home than one that requires travel.
 
The Foundation welcomes proposals for still photography or multimedia projects. Students are encouraged to submit multimedia pieces with their grant applications.

Deadline for submission is February 2, 2015 at 2 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

Winners will be announced on or about March 1, 2015.

 

Applicants must be duly enrolled full-time students in an accredited college or university in the U.S. or abroad in a degree program in the spring of 2015 as either graduate or undergraduate students. No student who has completed more than three (3) internships or one (1) year of full-time professional experience is eligible. (“Full-time professional experience” shall be defined as earning more than one-half (1/2) of your gross annual income from photography (sales, assignments, etc.)

 

Grants are given for First Place, Second Place and, at judges’ discretion, Award(s) of Excellence. Grants do vary between undergraduate and graduate students.
 
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS

First Place Award if Recipient is an Undergraduate Student:
• Full tuition for study at the Syracuse University (SU) London Program for the Fall semester. http://sulondon.syr.edu. Tuition is approximately $21,000.  
• $1,000 cash grant to help produce the proposed body of work.  
• $500 will be awarded to the student’s academic department.
 
Second Place Award if Recipient is an Undergraduate Student:
• Half tuition for study at the SU London Program, also for the fall semester.
• $500 cash grant to help produce the proposed picture story or multimedia project. 
 
Award(s) of Excellence if Recipient is an Undergraduate Student: Each recipient to receive:
• $1,500 to be used for tuition at the SU London Program, or for any Momenta Photo Workshop, or The Gilka Grant, which is tuition to attend the Kalish Workshop.
• $500 cash grant to help produce the proposed picture story or multimedia project.
 
 GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS

First Place if Recipient is a graduate student:
• This award pays tuition for two (2) classes during Fall semester and program fees, up to a  maximum of $15,000 (because graduate students take only two (2) courses in London). 
• $1,000 cash grant to help produce the proposed picture story.  
• $500 will be awarded to the student’s academic department.
 
Second Place if Recipient is a graduate student:
• Full tuition for two (2) classes at the SU London Program in Fall, 2014.
• $500 cash grant to help produce the proposed picture story or multimedia project. 
 
Award(s) of Excellence if the Recipient is a Graduate Student: Each recipient to receive:
• $1,500 to be used for tuition at the SU London Program, or for any Momenta Photo Workshop, or The Gilka Grant, which is tuition to attend the Kalish Workshop
.
• $500 cash grant to help produce the proposed picture story or multimedia project.
 
If recipients cannot accept any portion of their awards, these awards may be offered to other applicants at the discretion of the Foundation.
 
For more information about cost of study at SU in London see: http://suabroad.syr.edu/destinations/london/cost-and-aid/

 

The Grant was established to help promote world peace and cultural understanding. The strength of your proposal will be judged equally to your photographic skills. The Grant goes to those who clearly and concisely propose significant projects that share in the Foundation’s mission and who demonstrate the ability to accomplish their proposals by showing photographs that reflect the ability to execute the proposed project. Photographs you submit with your proposal may be about your proposal’s subject or of your past work that is of a similar type. 

You are encouraged to have your application reviewed and proofread for accuracy, clarity and conciseness. You may confer with your professors on topic selection and proposal writing. 

When evaluating your portfolio, the judges consider your technical ability, your ability to work with your subjects and your style. Winning recipients will be those who provide strong story proposals with portfolios that exhibit the photographic ability to execute a story at the highest level.

 

Grant recipients are obligated to provide to the Foundation their completed project in the form of two (2) CDs (or DVDs) of high-resolution digital files (min. 300 dpi) of no fewer than sixty (60) images, along with their personal selection of no more than twenty (20) clearly marked and captioned images. 

This must be completed and sent by traceable form (such as registered mail, FedEx, DHL) to the Foundation by December 31st of the year in which the Grant is made. One disk should be sent to the Foundation at Syracuse  (Alexia Foundation, Syracuse University Newhouse School, 215 University Place, Syracuse, NY 13244-2100). The second disk should be sent to The Alexia Foundation Headquarters (The Alexia Foundation P.O. Box  87 Bloomingdale, NJ 07403). Finally, the project should also be submitted digitally to [email protected].

Upon mutual agreement between the Foundation and the applicant, more time may be arranged to finish the project if that is necessary to enable successful completion. Please contact Mike Davis at 315-443-7388 or by e-mail at [email protected] for an extension. 

Recipients of any Alexia Grant award(s) agree that the Alexia Foundation be given credit when photographs from the Alexia project are published or displayed as follows: “[Grant recipient’s credit]/Alexia Foundation.”

 

All applicants understand, acknowledge and agree that should they be awarded a Grant, said Grant recipient retains the copyright to his/her photograph(s), and explicitly grants the Foundation, its licensees, affiliates and their designees an irrevocable, non-exclusive perpetual royalty-free license to use, copy, publish, distribute, screen and display such photographs, photo stories, picture essays, multimedia or photo-documentary projects, in any and all manner, form/medium/media now known or hereafter created, and in any publication, advertising, marketing, venue or program sponsored or authorized by the Foundation for the advancement of its mission and goals, including but not limited to educational, promotional and fundraising purposes at the Foundation’s sole discretion, without additional permission or consideration, or notification to the Grant recipient or any third party.

The Alexia Chair at Syracuse University may also use entry materials as part of his educational responsibilities.

Each applicant warrants and represents that every photograph submitted with such applicant’s Grant entry is his/her own original work and that he/she has the unrestricted right to grant to the Foundation the license described above.

Alexia Grants will be awarded subject to these additional terms:

The license granted herein by the applicant to the Foundation for use of photographs submitted with the applicant’s Alexia Grant application shall be extended in all its terms to all works created by the applicant in the course of any project funded in any part by the applicant’s Alexia Grant.

Each applicant shall be deemed to have consented to the use of his/her name, portrait, and/or picture by the Foundation in promotional and public relations materials or for any other purpose related to the Alexia Grant program or the Foundation.

Each applicant shall agree to reasonable requests by the Foundation to present such applicant’s work and/or represent the Foundation at photography workshops, seminars and/or conventions, provided that any necessary expense associated with such presentations is paid by the Foundation.

Each applicant shall be responsible for determining his or her own tax liability arising from acceptance of the Alexia Grant, and for satisfaction of any such liability.

Your application must include the items listed below – there is no form to fill out in advance. Once those are ready, click the submit button at right and follow instructions from there.

 

Submit as either Word or .PDF documents.

Synopsis: In not more than twenty-five (25) words, submit a synopsis of your project.

Proposal: Submit a written proposal of not more than 750 words to produce a body of work comprised of 
still or multimedia that will promote world peace and cultural understanding. You may propose projects that are already in progress. Any proposal over 750 words will be cut off at that word limit; judges will only see the first 750 words.

Do not put your name or other identifying information on your proposal. All applications will be judged anonymously. Only one application per person each year will be accepted.

Resume: A resume which shall include your phone numbers and address along with the names and phone numbers of three (3) references. Do not send any letters of recommendation.

 

Submit one of the following collections of photographs – either a portfolio or a body of work:

1. A portfolio of at least ten (10) and not more than twenty (20) photographs. Said Portfolio must include at least one (1) picture story. Applicants may submit up to three (3) picture stories, as long as the total number of photographs does not exceed twenty (20). Portfolios may include single images. Do not enter single images from your picture stories.

2. A cohesive body of work – not more than twenty (20) photographs – on a single subject. This can be a picture story, an essay or a project that reflects your ability to produce a body of work at the scope and quality that judges will expect of the grant recipient.

The photos do not have to, but may, pertain to your proposed story. All photographs not related to your story proposal must have been taken within the past two (2) years. There is no time limit on pictures that relate to your story proposal.

If you propose a multimedia project, please provide URLs for no more than two (2) multimedia presentations.

FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS

Applications must be submitted through the online Grant application process. (If you find it impossible to enter online, contact [email protected]  and we will attempt to help you to find an alternative way to get your entry into our system.)

Your application must contain no more than twenty (20) photographs. 

Image preparation: Digital photo files must be formatted as medium-quality JPEG images at 2000 pixels at the longest dimension at 72dpi, sRGB color profile.

Each image must have a caption. Captions will be read from each file’s metadata, or you may submit captions during the entry process. Do not include your name in the captions. All required image information, such as the creation date, place and country as well as the caption/description, must be included in the metadata of the image files, or typed in manually during the submission process.

The content of the image must not be altered. Only retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed. The jury is the ultimate arbiter of these standards and may at its discretion request the original, unretouched file as recorded by the camera or an untoned scan of the negative or slide.

 

Use the Submit Button at the upper right of this page to submit your application. 
 
Applications must be submitted through our online application process. (If you find it impossible to enter online, contact [email protected] and we will find a way to get your entry into our system.)

 

If you are uncertain about any of these requirements, please contact Mike Davis by e-mail at [email protected].