HCP FELLOWSHIP AWARDS

HCP FELLOWSHIP AWARDS

© Terri Warpinski, (left) and © Mona Bozorgi (right), 2024 HCP Fellowship Award recipients

The HCP Annual Fellowship Awards

SUBMISSIONS OPEN JUNE 20th 2025

Each year, Houston Center for Photography selects an expert writer, critic, or curator to identify two artists from hundreds of submissions.

  • The Carol Crow Fellowship seeks to award photographers who are engaged in advocating for the environment and celebrating our natural landscapes. Selected artists exemplify excellence and innovation in their approach to image making. The Carol Crow Fellowship Award aims to highlight and offer artists the platform and support to continue developing their practice. This award is open to photographers from anywhere on the globe.

  • The HCP Fellowship is awarded to a photographer who highlights and provides insight into current themes, technologies, and practices in photography. There is no theme assigned to the HCP Fellowship.

The two selected artists will each be awarded $3,000 and a solo-exhibition at HCP in Winter of 2024/2025. The competition is open to all photographic, film, video, and lens-based installation work. Click here to submit your work!

2025 HCP Fellowship Juror: Gregory J. Harris

Gregory J. Harris is the High Museum of Art’s Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography. He is a specialist in contemporary photography with a particular interest in documentary practice. Since joining the Museum in 2016, Harris has curated over a dozen exhibitions that consider an array of topics including social justice, the intersections of photography and self-taught art, and distinct history of photography in the South. Most notably, he curated a major survey of Southern photography, A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845 (2023), which exhibition toured nationally and was accompanied by a book published by Aperture. Harris’s other exhibition projects include Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis (2024), Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City (2023), Picturing the South: 25 Years (2021), Way Out There: The Art of Southern Backroads (2019), Look Again: 45 Years of Collecting Photography (2018), Mark Steinmetz: Terminus (2018), and Amy Elkins: Black is the Day, Black is the Night (2017). 

Harris was previously the Assistant Curator at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, where he curated exhibitions including Sonja Thomsen: Glowing Wavelengths in Between (2015), The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus (2014), and Studio Malick: Portraits from Mali (2012). He also curated and authored catalogues for the exhibitions We Shall: Photographs by Paul D’Amato (2013), Matt Siber: Idol Structures (2015), and Liminal Infrastructure (2015).

Harris also held curatorial positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he organized the exhibitions In the Vernacular (2010) and Of National Interest (2008). His essay “Photographs Still and Unfolding” was published in Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography (McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, 2016). Harris has contributed essays to monographs by Amy Elkins, Matthew Brandt, Jill Frank, and Mark Steinmetz. He earned a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and an MA in art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

DEADLINES/CALENDAR

June 20th, 2025 call for entries begins.

July 20th, 2025  Annual Fellowship Awards Call for entries deadline.

Mid-August 2025 HCP notifies applicants.

November 20th, 2025 Opening reception; 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Exhibition On View – November 20th, 2025 - January 10th, 2026

You can purchase a specific membership for a single call for entry at a reduced price.

  • $35 – Membership fee for Center Annual OR HCP Fellowship Awards

  • $65 – Joined membership for Center Annual AND HCP Fellowship Awards

Your membership number and discount code may be acquired by emailing info@hcponline.org with the subject line “Membership ID request.”

Please note that memberships are non-refundable.

Past recipients, HCP staff, Board, Advisory Council, Committee members, and their significant others are not eligible.

All Entrants must be, or become, HCP members at the time of submission. To become an HCP member, click here.

 FAQs

  • Absolutely not! As long as you’re a member and want to show your photo-based work, you’re welcome to apply.

  • No, there is not an entry fee per se, but you do have to purchase an HCP Fellowship Membership if you are have not already done so, as only Fellowship level members can apply to this call. This membership fee is $35.00 USD. If you are a member but do not know your membership number, contact us at (713) 529-4755 or info@hcponline.org.

    Not a member? Click here to join and check our prices, which include discounts for students, senior citizens, families, and more!

  • Yes, for selected artists we wil supply you with our FedEx number. HCP pays for ground shipping. HCP does not supply packing material and does not pay to produce artist crates.

  • We’ll work with artists to best determine curatorial needs. HCP has a limited amount of white metal frames. HCP does not provide matting.

  • In addition to supporting HCP’s programs, individual members enjoy the benefits of enter our annual calls for entry, plus 10% off tuition for courses and workshops. We are hoping to roll our more member perks in the near future.

  • Carefully edit a group of no more than 10 jpg. images or videos that describe your current photographic work.

    Each of your images should be reformatted using the following specifications:

    • JPEG (.jpg) filetype

    • 72 DPI

    • 2000 pixels (px) on the LONGEST side

    • sRGB Color Profile

    • Rename your files using the following specifications; “First Name_Last Name_Title” (ex. Deana_Lawson_Trap Car)

    You will also need to have the following information available:

    • Artist Bio

    • Artist Statement

    • CV

    • Medium of finished work (archival inkjet print, Polaroid, chromogenic print, sumi ink on inkjet print, etc.)

    **Uploading a CV is optional.

  • We use the application platform Submittable for all of our calls for entry. Once the call opens, clicking the “APPLY NOW” button will take you directly to the online portal to submit your application.

    Once on Submittable, You will need to click “Submit” to begin the submission process. Then you can start to copy/paste your artist statement and resume or bio into the form and complete the questions. At the end, you will be able to upload your images to submit.

    Make sure you have your HCP membership number handy since you’ll have to enter it during the application process. If you have just purchased a membership or renewed your membership at the time of entry and have not yet received your membership ID, you may list the first 8 digits of the confirmation number from your membership payment email.

  • Applicants will be notified via e-mail about whether or not their work was accepted into the exhibition shortly after the Juror makes their decision. From there, the HCP will reach out to the Exhibitors to schedule shipping arrangements.

    HCP retains the right to reject any selected work that differs from the work submitted.

  • HCP shall provide insurance covering the Selected Work commencing from the time the work is picked up for shipment from the Exhibitor, continuing throughout the Exhibition, and terminating upon redelivery of the work to the Exhibitor or to such other address as specified by the Exhibitor. HCP retains the right to display and reproduce work accepted for this exhibition for publicity and promotional purposes—including but not limited to advertisements regarding the future of HCP’s Exhibitions department, Education department. A. C. E programs, and other areas in promotional of the HCP. The Exhibitor retains the original copyright to their artwork.

    • HCP is responsible for the payment of the costs of shipping to and from HCP via ground shipment only. HCP will not cover the cost to produce a crate or for any other packaging materials. Packaging peanuts are NOT permitted.

    • HCP is responsible for installing and lighting the Exhibition.

    • The Exhibitor’s entry constitutes understanding and agreement with the conditions outlined in this prospectus.

    HCP Memberships are nonrefundable.