Indica Culture Photography Grant

Information Packet & Grant Application

Indica Pictures nurtures filmmakers, photographers and visual media professionals by providing research grants, hosting talks, workshops, courses, masterclasses and conducting festivals. Indica Culture Photography Grant (ICPG) is focused on the emerging Indian culture genre. ICPG welcomes visual styles in the Documentary/Photojournalism, Surrealism and Abstract schools.

Objective

  • Spread awareness about India, its aesthetics, culture, and heritage through photography, contribute to growth of visual literacy and create nurturing cross domain knowledge platforms and communities.
  • Genres accepted are Pilgrimages, Handloom Fashion, Festivals, Living traditions/Rituals, Indigenous Food/Cuisine, Indigenous People and Living Art Forms.

Categories

Grants totaling a INR 5,00,000 are available in the following categories:

  • Category #1 - Emerging Photographers of age 18-35 years for new projects - 6 grants of INR 50,000 each
  • Category #2 - Established Photographers of age 36+ for new projects - 2 grants of INR 1,00,000 each

Terms

  • Grantees will be selected by a Jury Board of both eminent visual professionals including photographers, visual artists as well as advertising and media/entertainment/advertising professionals.
  • Grantees will submit the online grant application and provide an online folder/website with past portfolios in sizes 1200 pixels on longer side at 72dpi. No watermarking or identification marks in the photographs.
  • Selection process will include review of previous work and personal interviews. Uniqueness in content – visual style, story, idea, treatment – as well as demonstration of passion is very important to the selection process. The onus of proving suitability for the grant will be driven by the applicant.
  • Only one Project proposal will be accepted per grantee. Portfolios submitted in previous years to ICPG will not be eligible in upcoming years.
  • Grantees shall be informed of their selection via email and subsequently receive publicity via ICPG website and social media, besides press releases in general media.
  • Project Timeline is as follows and subject to changes driven by exigencies:
    1. Deadline to receive Proposals from interested photographers – Aug, 6th 2021
    2. Deadline for Jury to announce selected Grantees – Sept, 7th 2021
    3. Submission of completed Project/Portfolio by Grantees – February 11th 2022
    4. Publish Portfolios and Portfolio Reviews on various media – April 15th 2022
  • Funds shall be disbursed against approved expenses as a bank cheque/wire transfer as per the following schedule. Any fees incurred for foreign currency transfers shall be deducted from the amount.
    1. 50% advance on announcement of the grantee selection soon after signing of agreement
    2. 30% on submission of final submission of the photograph portfolio along with proofed text
    3. 20% on submission of any other agreed deliverables, and expense submission with bills

Files

  • ICPG shall accept a minimum of 25 images and maximum of 50 images per portfolio.
  • Portfolios must share a common theme and built as a one consistent project under the overall genre of Cultural Photography as described above.
  • Description of the portfolio in English of least 250-500 words and project title is a must. Text must contain location of the photographs and names of persons (if any) appearing in the photograph. Portfolio title and description text must be written in English, so that it reaches the widest audience possible. Text in additional languages is welcome, but English description is mandatory.
  • Image files must be uploaded to the site as JPG with 1200 pixels along the longest length. Files with watermarks, borders or signatures on the images will be summarily disqualified. Montages, Collages and Self-performative Photography, Multimedia works are not eligible for submission for this grant.
  • Grantees shall be asked to provide high-resolution jpeg or TIFF format images of at least 3000px wide@300dpi to prove the ownership of the images. Original, RAW files or negative scans can be requested to authenticate post-processing techniques used.

Copyright

  • Grantees will own the rights to his/her photographs and copyright of each image will remain at all times with the grantee as per Indian Copyright Act 1957 and its various amendments.
  • For photographs selected in the final portfolios, grantees will provide ICPG unlimited non-exclusive use of high-resolution images for activities in all media, including social media, online and print, commercial or free-permission purpose in relation to the grant and subsequent activities and all promotional activities without any remuneration being due.
  • Grantees of all awarded images will provide ICPG non-exclusive use of low-resolution pictures on our website, without any remuneration being due.

Usage

  • IPPG may publish any material you submit at its sole discretion and it shall be entitled to make additions or deletions to any such material without changing the content of the photograph.
  • Grantee’s portfolio shall be used strictly in connection to the grant and will not be used for any other marketing purposes other than to promote grantee’s work. The grantee’s name will be included on each image in such a fashion that it does not disturb the creative balance of the photograph.
  • Grantee will provide ICPG a non-exclusive, non-commercial, irrevocable global rights for any use in connection with the grant program.
  • Grantee will provide ICPG the right to display images on social network websites on our own official pages as well as external 3rd party pages.
  • Grantees are welcome to join or participate in any promotional events organized by ICPG.
  • All portfolios submitted under the Grant Program may be used by ICPG for promotional and non-profit purposes only such as calendar/zine/coffee table/photo book publication and online and offline exhibitions.
  • IPPG and its media partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse by external 3rd parties.
  • Portfolios will be reviewed by international panel of photography and visual art professionals. Such reviews will be independent.

Ethics

  • The grantee will adhere to the strictest code of ethical practices as he will be representing ICPG. The study of code of Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ.org) is recommended.
  • No harm or hurt will be carried out by the grantee either to the environment, people, infrastructure in any way during the making of the project. Violations and complaints will be dealt with strictly and lead to cancellation of the grant.
  • No Laws of the country will be violated in any manner by the grantee in pursuit of the grant project.
  • Any Fiction/Staged work will need to be disclosed

Please email icpg@indicapictures.com in case you need additional details.