Standard £190

Freelance/Student £165

Members £140

*Tickets include lunch

From Weber’s recently published book, “War Sand” © Donald Weber

Visual projects require money. Many photographers and filmmakers produce work at their own financial cost. There are, however, plenty of funding sources available from different organisations. These organisations are ready to support image makers providing funding for research, creation, production, travel and living expenses. There is a definitive technique to grant writing, learn this and strengthen your chances of reaching the top of the pile.   Donald Weber is a successful recipient of many grants including a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Lange-Taylor Prize, The Duke & Duchess of York Prize, the Magnum Foundation’s Emergency Fund and multiple Canada Council for the Arts grants in the last few years. He’s used the funding to create multiple award-winning projects, on his own terms and own time. Synopsis The Grant Writing Workshop covers a comprehensive overview of the entire grant writing process. Donald Weber breaks it down into four simple parts: 1) The Proposal. Don will examine some award winning proposals, including his Guggenheim Fellowship, Lange-Taylor and two Canada Council grants. We will also look at other award-winning proposals, including Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and other contemporary artists. We will look at why he wrote what he did and why it was successful. We will talk about the overall structure of writing a proposal, breaking it down into simple steps. 2) The Portfolio. After the proposal, an integral part of a successful grant is the portfolio and the editing of the photographs you choose. We examine what to look for and how to make the portfolio support your proposal. 3) The CV. Many people underestimate the power of a strong CV and its impact on a successful grant. We will discuss what makes a strong CV and how to turn your ordinary CV into extraordinary. 4) The Budget. A realistic and sensible budget is always necessary. Don will break down the differences between expenses, expected revenues, in-kind contributions, and other aspects of creating a practical, realistic budget enabling you to execute the proposal.   What attendees have said about the workshop   “This workshop is a good investment, it paid for itself when I received my first grant a couple months later.” Brett Gundlock, photographer and member of Boreal Collective   “Don really does a good job of getting the main points across in the time allotted. The grant writing course is an obvious choice for anyone who is interested in doing independent work. Its not easy to get one of these things, but Don clearly knows how to do it and keeps no secrets.” Aaron Vincent Elkaim, a recent recipient of a Canada Council grant   “Thanks for the very inspiring workshop! I can really see now what went wrong so far, and what to do differently from now on. I’m pretty sure there will be a grant soon!” David de Jong, Photographer, Amsterdam   “If you ever take a workshop in how to get more and better grants, Donald’s is the one. He is that rare photographer who has managed to live and pursue projects for many years primarily on grants.” Bill Crandall, Photographer, Washington, DC   Former student Uwe Martin has won three separate grants totaling 16,000 Euro ($22,000) since taking the Grant Writing Workshop in Berlin.   Jared Soares received a Puffin Foundation Grant after completing the workshop in Washington, DC.   Aaron Vincent Elkaim won a $20,000 grant after taking the workshop in Toronto.   Brent Gundlock won $5,000 from the Ontario Arts Council. Peter Di Campo has won many awards and received two Pultizer Center grants totaling over $25,000 after completing the workshop.   Several other students have also received awards, prizes, been shortlisted and furthered their careers after taking the workshop, helping them preparing their proposals, edit their proposals and craft a better CV.   There is a definitive technique to grant writing, learn this and strengthen your chances of reaching the top of the pile!

Wednesday 21st November saw the World Photography Organisation hold the first PhotoTALK event at the Frontline Club; a new series of talks which will take place around the world.

Chaired by Stuart Smith of SMITH design, the panel for PhotoTALK with WPO: The Funding Game consisted of Canadian photographer Donald Weber who recently won first prize in Current Affairs for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards; World Photography Organisation Academy member photojournalist Carol Allen Storey and World Press Photo winning photojournalist Laura Pannack.

Weber started things off by talking about how applying for grants has changed the way he works:

“It’s turned me into a writer, I certainly wouldn’t call myself a writer but writing about my work has forced me to articulate my ideas in a stronger way… If I’m able to say exactly what I’m doing not only does it allow me to get a grant or apply for a fund but it also allows me to contact a magazine, or a gallery and say this is what I’m doing, this is why I’m doing it and this is why frankly you should be giving me money to go and do it.”

Pannack who has worked with charities such as Save the Children then spoke about making the most of the time that she was given access to people on a trip to South Sudan with Oxfam International

“I knew they were funding my trip so I really wanted to take advantage of it and I really wanted to work with them and just go out there and find more stories. When you’re given that access and given that funding you just have to run with it and be like ‘wow, I’m out here I just have to find everything.’”

Allen Storey, who left her job as Creative Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing for Chanel six years ago to take up a career in photography and now works with NGOs, spoke about how access was the most important thing for her when she was starting out:

“I knew I was going to fund it myself and the most important thing was access so that’s how I got started… I would not have been able to get commissions [with Save the Children and UNICEF] which allows me further access to the kind of work which I want to make without having a portfolio of work showing and illustrating that I’m prepared to bust my ass to go out there and work hard.”

A discussion then stemmed from questions put forward to the panel from the room and on Facebook.

Allen Storey answered the question ‘How do you know who to approach for funding if you’re a fine art photographer?’

“You have to also ask yourself ‘Who else would be interested that I could share this with?’… And that’s really important because at the end of the day publishers will say to you…’Who is going to buy this book?’…How you approach that, how you put your body of work together, how you organise it and the story behind it is all part of how you’re going to position it and get it out there. The most important thing to have in your own mind when you’re talking to people… is that they’re going to ask you ‘Why should I support this project?’ And you should be able to respond to that in a very sincere and convincing way.”

But there are less structured routes to funding, as Weber found whilst on an expenses only trip to Kosovo in 2009 with the Organisation for Co-oporation and Security in Europe:

“It was a six week assignment to go and photograph the first independent elections of Kosovo…’We’ll pay for your flight, you’re food’ that’s essentially all it was. I still wanted to do it because I wanted to go to Kosovo…but I needed to find a way to make a little bit of money. I was driving by [the National Library of Pristina] and thought that’s an archive, this is a brand new country, what’s the point of an archive, it’s about history… So I went in there, I said this is who I am, this is what I’m doing, this is what the project’s about. I’d made some cheap prints at the local print shop and gave it to them and said you guys should really own this because this is a part of Kosovar history… I ended up selling 12 pictures.”

Pannack:

“I think that for me defines funding…I don’t think there’s an answer to funding. As photographers, if we want to shoot something we’re going to go and shoot it and we’ll find the money, we’ll work in a bar or do what ever we want to do. I think what Donald is saying is that he used his initiative. He looked at the main question: who does this interest? Who is this going to benefit? Is it going to benefit a museum, is it going to benefit a world organization, is it going to benefit a major brand and then approaching those people and saying ‘look, I have something that you might want and I need some dollar to pay my rent right now so lets do an exchange.”

This PhotoTALK will provide insights into obtaining funding for photographic projects. Experts and practitioners will hit the key points about grants, bursaries, crowdfunding and more – what they mean, how to find funds and what to think about.

The discussion will cover how to consider formulating your work and vision to help fund your project, adopting a slightly different, carefully researched, way of thinking at the pre-production stage. Although often perceived as an impossible task, there are actually many places that are great for sourcing funding for photography.

Come and join the conversation with:

Canadian photographer Donald Weber, who recently won first prize in Current Affairs for the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards, and runs regular work shops on funding photographic projects.

World Photography Organisation Academy member and award winning photojournalist Carol Allen Storey.

Laura Pannack, a World Press Photo winning photojournalist.

Moderated by Stuart Smith of SMITH design.

This event is organised by the World Photography Organisation.

Join more than 15 photojournalists from the prestigious agency VII Photo for a half-day seminar on photojournalism at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

The seminar will be split into three panel discussions with opportunities to ask questions and learn more about the work of VII and the state of modern photojournalism.

9:00 Keynote address 

Director and Founder of the Frontline Club Vaughan Smith 

9:30 The Creation of VII – The role of photojournalism in the 21st century

With Ron Haviv, Christopher Morris, Seamus Murphy and Franco Pagetti. Moderated by Max Houghton.

11:00 Photographic Education: Finding your way

With Ashley Gilbertson, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight and Anastasia Taylor-Lind. Moderated by Paul Lowe.

12:30 The New Economy: How to fund your projects

With Venetia Dearden, Ed Kashi, Tomas van Houtryve, Jon Jones (The Sunday Times),  Gary Knight and Donald Weber. Moderated by Stephen Mayes.

14:00 Book signing of Questions Without Answers – The World in Pictures by the Photographers of VII and more.

The seminar will be followed by portfolio reviews with eight VII Photo photographers. More details on how to book a portfolio review are available here.

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