If you are a skilled photographer, consider applying for a photography scholarship. You will want to make sure you have a portfolio ready with high quality prints of your work. Dependent upon where you apply for a scholarship, you will want to make sure your portfolio is diverse enough to hit all areas of photography. If a scholarship committee requires the submission of a certain type of photography, only send a sample of those types of photos. Remember that a photography scholarship is not for the novice, it is for the student ready to study photography and on the path to becoming a professional photographer. These scholarships are specific to people who are talented with the goal of a career path in photojournalists, freelance photographers, wedding and family photographers and photographers who work in the advertising and magazine business. You must put your best foot forward with displaying your work and remember it will be judged. Don’t cut corners on costs. Several places offer photography scholarships.
- One place to start is The World Studio foundation. They provide scholarships for many different arts and photography is among the disciplines to which they give scholarships. You must have a minimum GPA of 2.0 and you will be required to submit a sample of your work.
- The Millotte scholarship fun gives $4,000 scholarship to photography students who have orientations to natural subjects. The minimum GPA for applying to this scholarship is 3.0. The Association of Women Journalists have scholarships for photojournalism.
- The Bob Baxter Scholarship also provides a $1,000 photography scholarship for students studying photojournalism. If a student of photojournalism is planning on attending graduate school, there is a Bob East scholarship, providing $2,000.
- There is also the Larry Holland/AGI Commercial Scholarship, the PPO/OPI&T Scholarship, and the Reid Blackburn scholarship. Specific schools also offer scholarships to that school. Look around at what the specific school has to offer and go from there.
- There are many that may be general scholarships that you can apply to your photography degree. You must contact the school directly and be accepted to that school to qualify for their scholarships.
- National Geographic offers a National Geographic Channel & WorldNomads.com Travel Photography Scholarship.
- There is a Sigma Scholarship Contest that offers cash prizes and gift certificates towards Sigma products.
- There is a European Master of Fine Arts Photography (EMFAP) that is based on three premises: international nature, with a special focus on the European environment, excellence, orientation toward artistic projects.
- Stateside, the James Alan Cox Scholarships offer scholarships for students of photography. The offer comprises of digital cameras to high school students and a total of five scholarships, one of them for photography. All entries should be working with photojournalism.
Some high schools offer photography scholarships to students who have served on the yearbook staff. These scholarships will be high school specific. You must gather details from your school to see if they offer any such scholarships. One example of this is the Marian McQuiddy Photography Scholarship that is awarded to one student at Socorro High School. Aside from academic photography scholarships, many workshops offer scholarships that are awarded to various students. During these workshops, you can gain a lot of knowledge about the art of photography and add the workshop onto your resume. These workshops are highly attended and desirable, and you are encouraged to apply for these types of scholarships as well.
The world of scholarships for photography is easily navigated, once you know where to look. Don’t be afraid to ask around, start developing your portfolio early on, focus your photography on where you want to go. Don’t do photojournalism if you are all about becoming a wedding photographer. You can also offer your services for a free or reduced rate at parties and other events so you have more material to work with when you apply for, and hopefully gain, a photography scholarship.
