ELIGIBILITY:
1. The Aftermath Project is open to working photographers world-wide who are interested in creating work that helps illumine aftermath issues, and encourages greater public understanding and discussion of these issues.
2. Employees and directors of The Aftermath Project, and their immediate families are NOT eligible to apply for funding. Advisory board members and their immediate families are NOT eligible to apply for funding. Grant application judges, and their immediate families, are NOT eligible to apply for funding in the year that judges help choose grantees.
3. Only those submissions including all required materials will be considered for entry.
4. Full-time students are not eligible.

REQUIREMENTS OF GRANT WINNER AND FINALISTS:

Grant winner(s) and finalists retain all copyrights to their work. Obligations to The Aftermath Project are as follows:
1. Grant winner agrees to give The Aftermath Project 12 prints, chosen by will be chosen by The Aftermath Project in collaboration with the photographer, for its archives at project completion. Prints must be 16x20 inches or larger. Finalists agree to give The Aftermath Project 3 prints, under the same conditions.
2. Grant winner agrees to make at least 30 images from his/her 2022 grant work available to The Aftermath Project for possible exhibition and/or publication (No guarantees are made for publication or exhibition). In addition, grant winner agrees that work created with The Aftermath Project grant may be used for educational and/or community outreach purposes, including lesson plans. Images for such purposes will be chosen will be chosen by The Aftermath Project in collaboration with the photographer. The winner also agrees that images from his/her grant work may be used for publicity and press purposes by The Aftermath Project. Any photograph so used by The Aftermath Project will carry the photographer’s credit/copyright line. No compensation is guaranteed in any of these cases.
3. Finalists agree to make 10-15 images from their work submitted for the 2022 grant available to The Aftermath Project for possible exhibition and/or publication (No guarantees are made for publication or exhibition). In addition, finalists agree that work submitted for the 2022 Aftermath Project grant may be used for educational and/or community outreach purposes, including lesson plans. Images for such purposes will be chosen by The Aftermath Project in collaboration with the photographer. Finalists also agree that images from his/her grant work may be used for publicity and press purposes by The Aftermath Project. Any photograph so used by The Aftermath Project will carry the photographer’s credit/copyright line. No compensation is guaranteed in any of these cases.

NOTE: If any compensation is available for photographs by winners or finalists for use of their images in press or publicity, The Aftermath Project will split those funds, 50-50, with the photographer.

REPORTING AND DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS, AND PROJECT DEADLINES:
Grant winner will receive one half of grant funds at project onset. Winner will be required to submit interim reports by dates designated in award letter and packet, and will receive 40% of their award mid-way through, and the remaining 10% upon delivery of 12 prints at project completion. All grant work MUST be completed by December 31, 2024; photographs must be delivered by January 31, 2025.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS:
December 01, 2023 (midnight PST)

Grant winner and finalists are responsible for reporting grant income for tax purposes as required by law

1492/1619 AMERICAN AFTERMATHS GRANT

FAQ PAGE

What is an eligible topic for this grant?

The 1492/1619 grant is open to wide interpretation of America’s original sins – the 1492 “discovery” of this land by Christopher Columbus and the assault on indigenous peoples and their cultures which followed; and the 1619 arrival of the first enslaved Africans and the legacy of more than two centuries of a system of slavery based on white supremacy and the treatment of Blacks as chattel.

The Aftermath Project is grounded in the understanding that unresolved conflicts – including those where actual conflict itself has stopped (ie, the Civil War) -- continue to have an impact across generations. We welcome proposals that explore the contemporary aftermaths of these historical events, which continue to shape our society today. Proposals may include historical or archival elements; they may be portrait projects; they may be landscapes; they may be surveys or family histories; they may be fine art, conceptual, or documentary projects. Most proposals will focus on 1492 or 1619, but the judges will consider proposals that combine them as well. If you have questions, please send them to: aftermathprojectinfo@gmail.com and we’ll answer as best we can. We’re excited to see how photographers are thinking about this work and remain open to all ideas.

UPDATE on eligible topics: We apologize for some of the confusion caused by the title “American Aftermaths.” Many photographers have proposed projects about colonialism in Latin America, and we apologize for the U.S.-centric thinking that hasn’t made this clear! The grant is specifically for projects that relate to aftermath of colonialism and enslavement in the United States. We welcome proposals from other countries in the Americas that make a clear connetion to these U.S. aftermaths. Feel free to ask if your proposal is a fit

Who is eligible to apply for this grant?

As always, the grant is open to working photographers worldwide. Although there are no restrictions on who tells what story, with this grant we are seeking to create a broader playing field, one that makes room for photographers from under-represented communities to tell their own stories. There are so many ways to examine these American aftermaths; to name just a few: exploring the impact of these post-conflict legacies from the point of view of communities most impacted by them; interrogating the role of white privilege in creating and sustaining these injustices; an examination of the roots of the slave trade in Africa and its continuing impact there.

Full-time students are NOT eligible to apply.

UPDATE on eligible applicants: If your work has been supported by, or published in, any outlet that spreads disinformation, lies or hate, your proposal will be immediately disqualified.

What should my proposal include?

Your proposal should include a project statement of not more than two pages, which clearly outlines the work you want to do. Your statement will be as important as your photos in the judging process; you need to make a clear connection between the work you are proposing and the aftermaths of 1492 and/or 1619. Your proposal MUST also indicate whether you have any publishing or exhibition commitments for your proposed grant work. THESE MUST BE DELIVERED AS WORD .DOCX FILES NOT PDFs

Your proposal should include a portfolio of up to 30 images which shows your skills as a visual storyteller.

You do not need to include a budget, but your proposal should indicate the scope of the work you plan to do during your grant year (travels, research, etc).

Please include a short bio, not longer than two paragraphs.

IMPORTANT NOTE – PAY ATTENTION: At the top of your proposal, please include a summary statement which explains your project in two or three lines.

See the technical guidelines page for further information.

Can this grant be used for video and audio projects?

No. This is a grant to support the production of a still photography project. Your project may include those elements, but grant money may not be used to create them (or to hire someone to create them). We believe in the power of still imagery and the need for photographers to have the free mental space to concentrate on image-making and nothing else. These images, however, may include accompanying text of some kind, ie, interviews of portrait subjects; text written on photos, etc.

Can this grant be used for exhibitions or book publication?

No. This is a production grant, to support the creation of a body of work. It is NOT a distribution grant, which supports exhibitions and publications.

What if I haven’t started my project yet?

It’s okay if you don’t have any images from your project to submit – although it’s hard to “sell” judges on a project that they can’t visualize. Please submit other images that show your photographic and storytelling skills. If you have begun the project you are proposing, please include a selection of those images in your portfolio.

What are my obligations to the Aftermath Project if I win the grant or am named a finalist?

Please see the “requirements of grant winners and finalists” section on the Terms and Conditions page.

When will the grant winner and finalists be announced?

We hope to announce the grant winner and finalists in mid-December 2023, but as our traditional (and much loved) process of gathering the judges in person will be disrupted by the pandemic, it may take us a while longer. As always, a group email will be sent out to all applicants before the public announcement of the results.

What is the deadline? Can I ask for an extension?

The deadline is midnight (PST), December 01, 2023. Extensions of a few days will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances (think natural disasters, not busy schedules).

PREVIOUS GRANT WINNERS AND FINALISTS

2021 GRANT WINNER:

Kris Graves – “Dystopia a.k.a. Privileged Mediocrity,” a new series examining systemic unfairness in the United States. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary practices, Kris will photograph the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment of America and the construction of public and private space. He will explore how racism, capitalism, and power have shaped our country -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life.

2021 FINALISTS (in alphabetical order):

Philip Cheung – “The Central Pacific,” an ongoing project that tracks the stories of migrant Chinese workers who came to the U.S. to work on the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s. Cheung places the importation of cheap Chinese labor in the context of America’s earliest exploitative economic practices, including the enslavement of Blacks.

Phyllis B. Dooney – “The Vertigo Of Time,” an ongoing project which presents a mosaic of the homes and histories of American families – descendants of the enslaved population of Stagville Plantation in Durham, NC. Through the lives of several Black families who can trace their heritage back to enslaved ancestors at Stagville, the project addresses frequent institutional gaps in Black geneology and achievement, which mirror the omission of African Africans within U.S. history writ large, revealing a systematic depersonalization of Black Americans.

Alexis Hunley  -- “The Club Nobody Wants to Join,” an ongoing project about the experiences and struggles of families navigating life after a loved one is killed by the police in Los Angeles. Hunley’s project considers the ongoing, generational trauma experienced by Black families from slave patrols to the KKK to hypermilitarized law enforcement agencies.

Newburgh Community Photo Project – “Truth Be Told: Uncovering Newburgh’s Muted Legacy,” a collaborative project by NCPP, which engages its own community to address issues of systemic racism that are common to many American cities. Combining historical research about Newburgh’s (and New York’s) role in slavery and institutional racism, the photo collective plans to rewrite the city’s fraught legacy through a combination of portraits, landscapes, interiors, still lives, historical and vernacular photographs, and residents’ personal mementoes of family histories.

2022 GRANT WINNER:

Kali Spitzer – “An Exploration of Resilience and Resistance: Kin,” a tintype photography series of portraits made in collaboration with the sitters, which will document modern Indigenous identity, community and resiliency. “I am part of a generation that is hugely affected by settler colonialism, this land’s histories and residential schools (boarding schools),” says Kali. “Indigenous existence and resistance today, is the aftermath of 1492.”

2022 FINALISTS (in alphabetical order):

Sheila Pree Bright – “The Land of Blood and Dirt,” a new body of work addressing the systematic discrimination of the USDA that has destroyed the livelihood of Black farmers during the reconstruction era after the American Civil War to contemporary times.

Gary Burnley – “The American Landscape: Real Allegory,” is a series of collaged images that use contradiction and double meaning as a way to critique the imagery of American landscapes, idealized and created by white men and meant to be consumed by a white audience. By inserting multiple images of people of color into these landscapes, the collages challenge and re-shape those narratives and reveal the constantly layered way people of color learn to see the world; a reality of the double consciousness W.E.B. Dubois speaks of.

Russel Daniels – “Who is Genízaro?” the second chapter of an ongoing project that uses portraiture, landscape photography and documentation of cultural performance to illuminate centuries of Indigenous enslavement in the Southwest Borderlands – a 1492 aftermath legacy of Spanish hegemony and human trafficking deleted from the historical narrative. Who is Genízaro? will observe and share the undying success of the modern-day Genízaro, a unique Native American and Hispanic ethnicity born from the brutality of imperialism.

Jared Ragland  -- “What Has Been Will Be Again,” a new project that focuses on the complexities of American aftermaths as seen in the state of Alabama. From Indigenous genocide to slavery and secession, and from the fight for civil rights to the championing of Trumpist ideology, the state of Alabama has stood at the nexus of American identity. Now in a time of pandemic, protest, and political polarization, What Has Been Will Be Again seeks to illustrate how perpetuated violence and injustices masked by white supremacist myths have made their mark across the landscape. 

2023 GRANT WINNER:

Raymond Thompson – “The Rebels,” a photographic and archival documentation of maroons – enslaved people who escaped their captors, but did not flee to the North. Thompson’s narrative, which uses his photos, archival fragments, and historic ephemera, aims to locate and redefine the Black body in the American social, political and physical landscape. With “The Rebels” he is pushing beyond historic narratives that surround the Black experience of the American environment that focus solely on slavery.

2023 FINALISTS (in alphabetical order):

Doug Barrett – “Kansas Black Cowboys and Black Farmers,” a project about the long history of Blacks and their families who have worked in America’s soil to feed their families and the nation ever since gaining freedom – and who have fought to maintain a way of life in the face of discrimination that continues to the present day.

Trent Bozeman – “Out the E,” is a long-term project that profiles the town of Elaine, Arkansas and its Black community that continues to live on the killing fields of their ancestors. The Elaine Massacre of 1919 was the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history; several hundred Black citizens were killed by white mobs. As more and more Americans grapple with this country’s history of extracting wealth and resources from Black communities, this project focuses on a town and community that has long been forgotten.

Ne-Dah-Ness Greene – “Nitaminikaazo, an Anishinaabe word for she has a name,”  seeks to affect positive change for high risk populations of Indigenous women through visual images. Greene’s photographs of Indigenous women will show them as they are today: powerful, committed to their families and working for the betterment of their communities. The project will contradict negative imagery of Indigenous women, and the ways photography was used in the 19th century as political weaponry forcing assimilation of Indigenous people into white culture.

Joseph Rushmore --“Commentary on the Apocalypse,” is a project about American myths, societal collapse and the twisting of reality when apocalyptic fantasy hits against reality. Oklahoma and Tulsa are the center of this project due to their nature as a crossroads of broken treaties, Indigenous genocide, white supremacist violence against Black communities and the rise of the modern evangelical right. Rushmore uses his black-and-white photos and archival images to document the ills that were brought upon America hundreds of years ago and are still with us today.