CDS Documentary Essay Prize in Photography 2016

The CDS Documentary Essay Prize honors the best in documentary photography and writing in alternating years: one year, photos; one year, writing. The focus is on current or recently completed work (within the last two years) from a long-term project—fifteen images; fifteen to twenty pages of writing.



The upcoming prize competition will be for photography. The winner of the competition will receive $3,000 and will have his or her work featured in Document, a periodical published by the Center for Documentary Studies, as well as on the Center’s website. The winner’s work will also be placed in the Archive of Documentary Arts at the Rubenstein Library, Duke University.

All entries must have one thing in common: evidence that they were created with reliance on documentary methods and immersive fieldwork. We are interested in work that directs its gaze outward, that curiously engages with the world, and that is, as former CDS director Tom Rankin describes, “derived from an in-depth understanding of place, history, and the current situation, in concert with a personal relationship to the proposed work. Ultimately, the commitment is to use documentary expression to motivate the thinking and reflection of others.” The judging will be based only on the work as presented, with focus on the strength and nuance of the essay submitted as a narrative; the subject matter can be weighty or light-hearted.

The competition’s review and selection process is geared toward fairness. An entry is reviewed again (and again) if even only one panelist would like to keep it under consideration.