VID Grant - VID Foundation for Photography

Are you a photographer or artist working on a relevant social issue in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia), and do you have a great idea for a visual story/project that needs funding? Then you may be eligible for the VID Grant.

The VID Grant supports emerging photographers and artists from the Balkans to create or complete a compelling, non-stereotypical and unconventional visual story or project on social issues relevant to the Balkan region. The winners of the VID Grant are selected by an independent, international jury of professionals within the photography industry. Scroll below to see this year’s jury composition.

With the VID Grant we look to support work at the intersection of photography and social justice – related to issues such as: social taboos, human rights, the environment, the rise of extremism, ethnic minorities as well as other under-represented themes across the region.

The VID Grant includes:

Cash Prize of 1.000 Euro

A cash prize to boost support for the winner to further develop, produce and complete a visual project or body of work.

Mentorship Prizes

The VID Foundation for Photography selects world-renowned professionals from the industry to be the mentor over the course of 6 months, based on the profile of the winner(s) of the VID Grant. This 6-months bespoke mentorship takes place through multiple interactive online sessions and enables regular feedback and critique on your work. The mentors guide you in all aspects of the creative process: from concept development, practical advice on photographing, to editing and sequencing, to the process of discovering and making a long-term project that you’re passionate about.

This Prize is made to suit the needs of the VID Grant winner(s), whether that be publishing or editing a project with a view to making it into a book or developing your personal or editorial projects. This mentorship helps you to identify next steps in the production process of a long-term or personal project. The mentors are announced once the selection for the VID Grant has been made each year. The mentorship serves to help emerging artists to build a solid regional and international network.

Curated Online Presence

An online showcase of the finalists on the VID Foundation for Photography website and other social media platforms of partner organisations. The winning projects, is featured and promoted on the VID Foundation’s website in order to connect these stories form the Balkans to a regional and international network.

Exhibition (to be confirmed)

The VID Foundation supports you to set up and connect to the right people/insititutions in the Netherlands as well as in the Balkans with the purpose of setting up your own exhibition.

The VID Grant is open to all emerging artists and photographers from and/or based in the Balkans, regardless to age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic, religious, racial or any other affiliations. Please see below the Terms & Conditions for a full list of the VID Grant eligibility criteria.

Entries are welcome from anyone from the Balkans who works with an image based practice. The VID Grant is inclusive and selected work will be chosen based on the quality of the submission rather than the status of the photographer.

Downloads

Download Application Form

The deadline for the 2025 VID Grant Open Call for applications is Thursday, 4th September 2025 at 17:00h (CET). All applications should be sent to application@vidfoundation.com

The jury meeting will be held in October 2025 and the winner and mentorship prizes will be announced by November 2025.

APPLY NOW!

Terms & Conditions

Applicants must comply with the following criteria:

the work must be the applicant’s own intellectual property;
photographers working with cross-media and immersive practices are encouraged to apply as long as photography is at the basis of the work;
you can apply with work as a collective, as long as you make that clear in the Application Form;
the applicant is an emerging photographer or emerging artist based in one of these countries: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia;
citizens of these countries temporarily resident elsewhere in the world are eligible to apply, but their story should be related and relevant to the Balkan region;
applicants must be 18 years of age or older;
practitioners working in a range of photography fields such as portraiture, landscape, documentary, contemporary art and architecture are welcome to apply – provided the work is relevant and fits the mission of the VID Foundation for Photography;
the work proposed is created in the Balkans and is relevant for the context;
the work proposed is related to or pertaining to a relevant social issue in the context;
the work proposed must be new, or if already started, then not yet completed, and not older than two years;
only one project entry per applicant is allowed;
applications must be submitted within the given deadline. No exceptions will be made for late submissions;
due to the large number of applications, unfortunately it is not possible to provide personalised feedback or explanations for applicants related to decisions;
all submitted work should follow a code of ethics, as outlined by Photographers Without Borders;
all proposed work must be relevant to the mission of the VID Foundation for Photography;
all winners of the VID Grant and their winning work will be published on the VID Foundation for Photography website and social media;
by submitting your application you agree to these Terms & Conditions.

Any questions regarding the Terms & Conditions or Selection Process which have not been answered here can be sent to info@vidfoundation.com

Copyright & Use of Images

the VID Foundation for Photography may use the images of the VID Grant winners only upon written permission by the photographers/artists listing the copyright and the appropriate credits for the work;
upon agreement, the visuals will be used to promote the VID Grant and the work of the VID Foundation for Photography internationally and for fundraising purposes;
the permission given to VID Foundation for Photography to use visuals will not be transferred to any third parties without the prior written approval by the artist/photographer.

Selection Process

The selection will be made by:

an international Jury composed of experts from the industry with understanding of the Balkans;
the founder of VID Foundation for Photography serves as Secretary to the VID Grant Jury – and therefore does not have voting rights in the Jury;
the Jury will select the VID Grant winners based on the quality of the work, artistic merit, motivation of the author, novelty of approach and relevance of the theme.

Jury Members 2025 VID Grant

Jelena Janković, Programme Director, Sarajevo Photography Festival

Jelena Janković is a photographer and visual artist from Belgrade, currently based in Zagreb and active across the wider Balkan region. She is focused on studying human nature and psychological aspects of relationships, nuances of movement, and emotions in time, which she records in different photographic genres. She has photographed over 300 theatre productions across Europe. She is one of the leading artists following and documenting theatre life in a distinctive style for 14 years.

In 2023, she became the Programme Director of Sarajevo Photography Festival, which brings together authors of contemporary photography from across the world. Thereby, she stimulates dialogue and the presentation of different perspectives in the world of photography, creating opportunities for artists, curators, and the audience. Her work has been published internationally and exhibited worldwide, earning numerous awards.

Sylvia Sachini, Curator, Athens Photo Festival

Sylvia Sachini (b. 1988, Albania) is a curator, publisher, and educator based in Athens. She is curator for the Athens Photo Festival, where she leads the Book Program and develops exhibitions and initiatives that showcase contemporary photography and book-based practices.

Since 2021, she has been the Founder and Director of MISC, a non-profit contemporary gallery in Athens dedicated to horizontal models of collaboration and interdisciplinary exchange through exhibitions, talks, and educational programs. From 2022, she serves as Artistic Director of the Makryammos Ephemeral Art Residency on the island of Thasos, supporting ephemeral and site-responsive practices. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Co-Founder and Publisher of Void, an independent publishing house focused on photography.

Her curatorial practice engages with the intersections of art history, printmaking, material studies, graphic arts, and typography, with a particular focus on the photobook as both medium and form. She has curated exhibitions internationally, and has published the work of numerous artists worldwide. She also teaches courses on developing photographic narratives in book form, with emphasis on materiality and conceptual structure.

Pierre Mohamed-Petit, Digital Production Manager, Magnum Photos

Pierre Mohamed-Petit is a visual artist, educator, and producer, currently working at Magnum Photos as Digital Production Manager since 2021. Based in Paris, he oversees the agency’s digital production and the integration of Magnum’s archive, managing historic collections and negatives. He led the digitization of Magnum’s color archive, released publicly as the World in Color project, with the support of Fujifilm Europe and the French State’s photographic department.

From 2015 to 2021, he served as Archive, Digital, and Education Director at NOOR, an Amsterdam-based international collective of documentary photographers, where he spearheaded digital initiatives and educational programs.

Alongside his personal practice, he is developing his first monograph, retracing ten years of personal archives, and leading workshops in the Balkan region to support local artists and photographers, with the Sarajevo Photo Festival.

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Header image: Bela pčela (ongoing project): “A letter and a family tree written by my distant relative. In the letter there is a mention of a foremother from whom our whole family originated”. Novi Sad, Serbia 2020 © Marija Mandić (2021 VID Grant Winner)

“This project depicts a story of the first female figure in my ancestry whose name was omitted from the kinship due to its patrilineal structure, and whose identity I aim to revive in the project”.