RPS Postgraduate Bursary

As part of The RPS remit as an educational charity we offer an annual bursary of £3,500 in support of a postgraduate student. For this bursary, photography is interpreted in its widest sense to include digital and traditional photographic media, the art and science of photography and image based written work.

Applications are invited from postgraduate students on courses in photography or undertaking research in photography. Applications must be written in English if applying from abroad. Applicants can apply at any stage of their studies but must demonstrate a specific outcome for their proposed project.

For further info click here

NOW CLOSED TILL 2022

Meet the selectors for 2021

Dr Michael Pritchard is a former photography specialist at Christie’s auction house and a photographic historian. He has written and lectured extensively on many aspects of the history of photography in the UK and abroad.

Michael has been a selector for many other competitions include the HIPA Awards, Travel Photographer of the Year, Food PotY, the IPA, the Lucie Awards and others. He heads the RPS education and public programmes.

Anthony Luvera is an artist, writer and educator. His work has been exhibited widely including Tate Liverpool, The Gallery at Foyles, the British Museum, London Underground’s Art on the Underground, National Portrait Gallery London, Belfast Exposed Photography, PhotoIreland, Malmö Fotobiennal, Goa International Photography Festival, and Les Rencontres D’Arles Photographie. Anthony is also Chair of the RPS Education Committee.

Anthony is currently an Associate Professor of Photography in the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University, and editor of Photography For Whom?,
a periodical about socially engaged photography.

Tiah Jones is the Senior Marketing Manager at MPB's Brooklyn office. She has worked as a freelance photographer since beginning her academic studies at St. John's University's College of Liberal Arts in 2010.

She focuses on portraiture, lifestyle, commercial and social impact photography. Tiah has spent years working with various artists, business owners, galleries/museums and community organizers to help tell stories of human connection through photography and storytelling.

Recipient 2020/21

Brook Andrew is an artist of Wiradjrui (Australian First Nations) and Celtic ancestry, based in Melbourne Australia. His interdisciplinary practice spans photography, sculpture, installation, painting and printmaking. Since 1996 he has worked with ethnographic museum collections to reimagine the representation of Indigenous peoples and challenge dominant narratives relating to colonialism and inherited histories.

Recipient 2019/20

Inspired by the current political climate, Cocoa Laney returned to her home state of Alabama for a six-week road trip, meeting and staying with diverse young women along the way.

Her project documents the trip and her encounters. It is an exploration of womanhood, shame, and Southern identity in 2019.

Supported by one of the UK’s leading photographic traders, MPB

Read Cocoa's project creation tips

Ioanna Sakellaraki 1 — **CREDIT:** Ioanna Sakellaraki

Recipient 2018/19

Ioanna Sakellaraki received the 2018 Postgraduate Bursary. After her father passed away three years ago, Ioanna returned to her homeland Greece and followed her mother’s behaviour as a believer, seeking shelter in the wider system of religious traditions and cultural beliefs. As the project advanced and while inspired by the origins of ancient Greek laments, she dwelled within traditional communities of the last female professional mourners inhabiting the Mani peninsula of Greece looking for traces of bereavement and grief and documenting the rituals around death.

More about the project and images

Recipient 2017/18

Cebe Loomis's photographic project focused on the largest historical landmark site in the United States, Virginia City, Nevada. Dedicated to unpacking the identities of the residential population, as well as the town¹s built and natural environments, this project aimed to create an understanding of complex American traditions.

Drawing from theories of space and memory, her project incorporated ethnographic text, analogue photography as well as ambient and interview audioscapes, each working to relay the stories and voices that make up Virginia City.