David Barreda, senior photo editor at National Geographic and first time faculty member at the Missouri Photo Workshop, encourages all photographers to apply for grants that align with goals for their projects.

Being awarded a National Geographic Society grant, for example, comes with an abundance of benefits.

“With that grant, not only do you get support for the project, you’re now within the National Geographic Society ecosystem,” Barreda said. “All of a sudden you’re part of a family.”

Even if a proposal is turned down, editors will note photographers who stand out and keep them in mind for future projects.

“The nice thing about grants is, if you can meet their expectation, their requirements and it does suit what they need, it allows you to continue a project that you’re already pursuing,” Barreda said.

Early in his career, Barreda looked to his peers to see if they’d received grants that were potentially the right fit.

“I was always looking at other people’s portfolios, photographers that I really thought were great and kind of doing something that I wanted to be doing,”

Barreda said. “There are lots of options out there. So do some research. That’s really time well spent.”

As someone who has reviewed many grants, Barreda recommends the following:

• Read all of the requirements of the grant before submitting your application. This includes being mindful that the proposal matches the topic of the grant, as well as submitting files in the proper format. “Any reason that your submission does not meet their deadlines means that you may not even have it reviewed,” Barreda said.

• Don’t forget to add metadata to your images, and title files with your name. “I could be licensing one of your photographs for $3,000, $5,000, and you’re just going to send me a jpeg? It has no information. I don’t know how to get back to you,” he said.

• Avoid including work that doesn’t realistically show that you can complete the project.

• Make sure to retain copyright and that the requirements of the grant are reasonable before applying.

• Look closely at grant providers to see what kinds of stories they’ve supported in the past to see how a grant may align with your goals.

• Try reaching out to a previous recipient and politely

Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes they’re technical and sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the right time. Here are a few “happy accidents” from former assignments.

While Jon Cherry was documenting an Afghan refugee camp at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in 2021, two children were playing soccer in the shadows and he was waiting for the perfect moment to press the shutter. That’s when another child walked up behind him and asked to take a photo. “I took his hand and put it on the right side grip,” Cherry said. “I took his finger and showed him where the shutter button was. He shot just in time to make a photo that is on the front page of my website.”

Sarah Leen was an intern at National Geographic in 1979 when they sent her to follow a couple back to Kampala, Uganda. The husband was a doctor and was performing arm surgery. Sarah was in the operating room photographing the surgery and saw the x-ray. She doesn’t remember which arm was being operated on but knew that the one from the x-ray was not the injured arm.

Concerned about the situation, she raised her voice and alerted the team. The proper arm was successfully operated on and Sarah took a photo of the incorrect X-ray. That photo has been lost to time, but Sarah’s observational skills have not.

Bailey Stover was working on a story for the Columbia Missourian and was asked to photograph a local dance team, the “Dancing Divas.” She was given an address to a studio, where she assumed they would practice their dance skills. When she arrived she was surprised to see a photo studio equipped with lights and backdrops.

Her editor said to move forward, despite not having as much experience with studio setups.

She used the space to make a few portraits and proceeded with her original mission to document their practice. Stover was struck by one of the images from her accidental studio shoot. “it was the moment before one of the girls started dancing. Her body is poised. She’s tense, she’s ready to start but her eyes are closed,” she said.

“The Symmetry really spoke to me.”

Rogue Artifical Intelligence (AI) photographer Boris Eldagsen submitted an AI-constructed image to the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards. When the image won first place, it gave Eldagsen a platform to address AI-generated imagery.

“AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award,” said Eldagsen.

As AI has progressed in recent years, questions like “is there such a thing as an ethical AI image” and “will my job be replaced” have circulated. Although many in the industry have avoided the tool, others have found ways for it to benefit their workflow.

Idris Solomon, MPW.75 faculty member, sees AI applications, both in text and image forms, as a creative tool to help him prepare for projects.

“A lot of times, people don’t understand your idea unless they are able to see it,” he says. “I use it to create mood boards for photo shoots that I have in mind.”

AI has touched others at MPW.75, including Lynden Steele, director of the Pictures of the Year International competition.

“We’ve always been on the lookout for images that are unethical,” Steele says. “AI is just the newest, most powerful mind-altering version of manipulation.”

POYi only allows journalistic images that show what the naked eye can see. Ultimately, Steele sees the core principles of journalism as an ultimate check.

“Include your sources. Include quotes. Include specific details of your reporting that supports what is in the image,” he said.

Despite his reservations with the technologies, Steele sees a way AI can be beneficial. In particular, for archiving.

“AI search-enabled archives are coming with us, and that’s going to be a huge tool,” he said. “That’s something I hope to incorporate with POYi in the future. I think it will help us reveal things lost in archives.”

New York University Dean Emeritus Fred Richtin has another perspective about AI. He has done extensive commentary on the ethics of the digital photography age. He began with famous notes on Photoshop and other computer editing programs and has now moved the conversation to AI. Back in July of this year, Richtin did a presentation with the VII Foundation about AI and journalism. Despite the heavy warnings, he sees ways where AI can be a benefit to storytelling. He sees it as an educational tool. It could be used to help warn about issues caused by climate change, as a therapeutic tool to help communicate mental health feelings, and more.

When it comes to our industry, he sees it as a reporting tool, suggesting words and testimony from citizens of a war zone be translated into an AI image to convey emotions and feelings.

Richtin’s final suggestion to the audience was if you are going to have strict ethics and transparency standards, including letting the viewers know what they are seeing so they can have the media literacy to differentiate photographs from synthetic images.

AI may be a divisive topic, but also is not going away. The story is still unwritten.