Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships and Mentorships 2027 for Photographers and Storytellers Worldwide (Up to $20,000 Funding)

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Applications are open for Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships and Mentorships 2027. The Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships and Mentorships support visual storytellers undertaking long-term documentary photography projects that explore environmental and conservation challenges and, importantly, the people and communities working toward solutions.

The program has a dual purpose: to provide financial support and mentorship to photographers developing significant bodies of work while fostering meaningful collaboration with communities and organizations engaged in environmental and wildlife conservation. We are particularly interested in stories that move beyond documenting environmental problems to illuminate the people, communities, and initiatives working toward meaningful solutions.

Vital Impacts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses journalism and visual storytelling to amplify and support the work of communities protecting people, wildlife, and habitats around the world.

Each fellowship supports one photographer and one documentary project over the fellowship and mentorship period, providing the time, financial support, mentorship, and creative independence needed to develop a compelling and deeply reported body of work. Fellows will receive ongoing guidance from the Vital Impacts mentorship community throughout the year.

At the conclusion of the fellowship or mentorship, recipients will be expected to have made meaningful progress on their proposed project and developed a substantial body of work suitable for publication, exhibition, and other forms of public engagement.

Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellowships Benefits

In 2027, Vital Impacts will award:

One $20,000 fellowship to an established environmental photographer;
Six $5,000 fellowships to emerging photographers from around the world; and
Ten mentorships to photographers whose work demonstrates strong potential and would benefit from additional guidance and professional support.

Eligibility Criteria

Vital Impacts is particularly interested in photographers who have a meaningful, established relationship with the people, places, and issues they are documenting. They believe the strongest environmental stories often emerge from photographers who have taken the time to listen, build trust, understand context, and return to a story over time.
They strongly encourage applications from photographers documenting environmental and conservation stories in their own communities. Local photographers bring perspectives, knowledge, access, and relationships that can offer a depth and authenticity that outsiders may not have.
At the same time, they recognize that meaningful relationships with a community or issue can take many forms. You do not have to live permanently in a place to have a genuine connection to it. They will also consider photographers who can demonstrate sustained knowledge and engagement through recurring travel, long-term collaboration, professional or academic experience, or other meaningful relationships with the community or issue they propose to document.
Applicants should clearly demonstrate why they are the right person to tell this story: what they know, whom they know, what relationships they have built, and what perspective they bring that will allow them to tell the story with depth, context, and care.
They are looking for photographers who are committed to long-term storytelling rather than short-term access—photographers willing to invest the time necessary for trust to develop, relationships to deepen, and more nuanced stories to emerge.

Evaluation Criteria

They are seeking photographers who can convey the complexity of environmental and conservation challenges while also documenting potential solutions.

Strong applications will demonstrate:

A meaningful and sustained relationship with the community, issue, or conservation initiative being documented;
A clear understanding of the environmental issue and its broader significance;
A thoughtful and realistic plan for developing the project over 12 months;
Existing access and trust, where appropriate;
A commitment to ethical and responsible storytelling;
A distinctive visual approach and strong photographic ability; and
The potential for the resulting work to contribute meaningfully to public understanding of environmental and conservation issues.

Prior publication experience is not a requirement.