10×10 Photobooks is pleased to announce a new grant cycle and call for applications as part of its ongoing photobook research grants program to encourage and support scholarship on under-explored topics in photobook history.

For this cycle, we are looking for submissions related to 10×10’s recent Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print project. In particular, we invite proposals relating to photobook history from any geography that addresses topics of protest, resistance, or social and cultural conflict from 1950 to the present. The past seventy-five years have been a time of extreme social and cultural transformations including migration, territorial disputes, gender inequity, class divisions, racism, war, and violence, environmental concerns, and other ideological and tribal conflicts which photobooks have engaged with as a tool and/or document of protest.

The concept of the photobook is interpreted in the broadest sense possible: classic bound books, portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines, digital media, scrapbooks, posters, or other ephemera. The evaluation of proposals will consider the importance of the proposed topic (how significant and/or unknown is the subject) and the strength of the proposed approach.

The Grant

10×10 Photobooks will award three grants this cycle for 2025-2026 in the amount of $2,500 each, which will be paid in two increments during the course of the project.

With the generous support of Dayanita Singh, one of these awards is for researchers residing in India and addressing the history of the photobook in South Asian. Applicants qualifying for this specific grant should indicate their eligibility via the check-box on the submission form.  Applicants may submit multiple proposals and a single application may include multiple researchers (note that the grant amount is for the entire project, not per researcher).

Grantee Expectations

Grantees are expected to produce a presentation (and optionally a paper) within a year of the grant being awarded. Material needs to be in English.  The result of the research will be presented and discussed during an online zoom event organized by 10×10 Photobooks.

10×10 will also assist where able and desired with in-progress review, identifying information, making introductions, etc. 

Application process

• Applicants must complete the grant form in English.  The application includes a description of the project (less than 1000 words) and a brief bio and must be submitted by midnight (ET) on 10 March 2025.  If there are multiple applicants on the proposal, information on additional researchers may be included in the Notes field.
• There is no fee for applying.
• Grant awards will be announced in May 2025

Program Rules

Grantees retain all rights to their work and are free to submit or use the results of their research as they wish with other platforms and programs so long as they acknowledge that support for initial research was provided by 10×10.  10×10 has the right to share the results on their website and platforms.

Applicants may submit multiple proposals, and a single application may include multiple researchers (note that the grant amount is for the entire project, not per researcher).

The program is open to anyone (researchers, writers, editors, curators, etc.) regardless of organizational affiliation, academic status or discipline, or nationality.

Applicants should not have a pre-existing grant for the specific work being proposed.  Priority is given to new research (not currently funded). If there is existing support applicants should describe that support in the Notes field along with how the proposed research differs from that already funded.

>> Grant Application Form here

For questions contact David Solo at  grants@10x10photobooks.org

Information at https://10x10photobooks.org/research-grants-cycle4-call/