The Griffin Museum is pleased to announce its inaugural scholarship for mid career artists, the Richards Family Prize. 

We are proud to support emerging, mid-career and professional talents in the field of photography.  We support visual artists with dynamic and creative ideas that challenge and progress the art form forward to new heights in vision and technology. Our support of photography is broad, from Fine Art to Documentary and Photojournalism, from digital to film-based works and cameraless images. The Richards Family Prize is a scholarship support mid-career photographers producing work that is creative and original.

This $4,000 scholarship is open to professional and mid-career photographers worldwide.  We define “professional” as any photographer who earns the majority of their income from photography. We define “mid-career” as any photographer with some visibility in exhibitions, gallery representation and scholarship and residency success in their photography career. 

In addition to the scholarship funds, the Richards Prize includes a published catalog by Griffin Museum Press and an exhibition in December 2025. 

Eligibility Criteria

The scholarship is open to creative artists and photographers who have produced individual works of photography, installation, moving images or sculpture works and/or are in the process of producing larger bodies of work.

We are looking for candidates who are serious about photography and whose creative practice will benefit from this scholarship. 

There is no age limit. There are no residency requirements. There is no application fee.

This scholarship is for professional and mid-career photographers and creative artists. Well-established photographers are individuals in mid-photography-careers and are seen by the public and peers as distinguished in the field of photography and have many accomplishments as a photographer.  

Employees of the Griffin Museum or their immediate families, Griffin Museum board members and jurors’ immediate families and those immediate families of Griffin board members or jurors’ paid employees are not eligible.

Submissions

Submissions will be made directly to Café. 

You are being asked to provide a brief biography and artistic cv; a statement of artistic purpose/intent; a statement on the work supplied and flattened rgb jpgs (1200 pixels on the longest side) of your photographs or/ and videos (10 photographs total). Please submit a link for a video.

Please submit your images in the order you wish them to appear. numbering from 01-10 will be helpful to the jurors so they can see your intention with the works. 

Cafe will be the primary portal for submissions. No other means of submission will be accepted. All missing criteria will disqualify the submission. Emails will not be accepted as a method of submissions. 

Biography, Artist Statement and CV - 

Please submit a text biography about your creative journey and a CV showing exhibition history, residencies, publications, etc. (a single PDF that includes both bio and cv. In the PDF title include Richards Family and last name and first name.)

Statement of Artistic Intent - 

Discuss the project as a whole and your anticipated outcomes with the scholarship in mind. How will this funding enhance your practice?

Image submission - 10 images Maximum

Submit flattened rgb jpgs (1200 pixels on the longest side) of your photographs or/ and videos (10 photographs total). Please submit a link for a video.

It is recommended that you prepare all the elements of the application in advance. Do not start the application if you do not have time to finish it. Wait until you have time to complete the application in one session.

Scholarship Dates and Deadlines:
Sunday September 15, 2024. Application Period begins.

Wednesday October 31, 2024: Application period closes at 11:59 PM Mountain Time. 

Introducing our Juror, Aline Smithson

Aline Smithson is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her practice examines the archetypal foundations of the creative impulse and she uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography.
Smithson has exhibited widely including over 50 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Jose Art Museum, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, and numerous others.
In 2007, Smithson founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day. She has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, a contributing writer for Diffusion, Don’t Take Pictures, Lucida, and F Stop Magazines, and has written numerous book reviews for photo-eye. Smithson has curated and juried exhibitions for a number of galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines, including Review Santa Fe, Critical Mass, Flash Forward, and the Griffin Museum. In addition, she is a reviewer and educator at many photo festivals across the United States. Smithson has been teaching at the Los Angeles Center of Photography since 2001 and also teaches at a variety of institutions such as the Griffin Museum, ICP, SFW, MMW, and others.

Questions? For more information about the scholarship, contact the museum by email. Please no phone calls. Email us at photos@griffinmuseum.org with Richards Prize in the subject line. 

Application Requirements

See Application Requirements above

Eligibility Criteria

See Eligibility Criteria above