We've been partnering with Black Women Photographers since 2022 and every year the partnership grows. Bigger grants, more features, more photographers getting seen by new audiences. Here's a look at what we've built together and what's coming next.
Photography has always been more than images. It’s memory, documentation, storytelling, resistance, joy – humanity. For years, Black women photographers have shaped visual culture while remaining underrepresented in many of the spaces where creative careers are built. In 2020, Black Women Photographers (BWP), founded by Polly Irungu, launched with a mission to create visibility, opportunity, and community for Black women and non-binary photographers around the world.
What began as a directory quickly grew into something larger: a global network offering grants, mentorship, education, and pathways toward sustainable creative careers. Since partnering with Black Women Photographers, Flickr has been proud to support that work through funding opportunities, visibility initiatives, community spaces, and artist spotlights.
Supporting Photographers through Grants
One of the most meaningful parts of the Flickr and Black Women Photographers partnership has been the continued expansion of grant opportunities designed to support photographers in advancing their work.
Over the years, these grants have increased in size and reach:
- 2022 Grant:$1,200
- 2023 Grant: $2,500
- 2025 Grant: $5,000
- 2026 Grant: Announcing soon!
The numbers going up year over year is intentional. This is a long-term commitment, not a one-time initiative.
Each cycle has included more than funding. Recipients also receive Flickr Pro and SmugMug memberships, giving photographers the tools to keep building their portfolios and growing their practice long after the grant period ends. Black Women Photographers members have also joined as guest judges, including Flickr member since 2004, Edwina Hay, bringing their perspective to the next cycle of photographers.
Celebrating the photographers behind the work
Every grant cycle has highlighted photographers exploring deeply personal and universal themes through their images. Themes have centered around identity, change, belonging, memory, environment, and the spaces we occupy physically and emotionally.
Recipient of the 2022 Inaugural Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant –
Naomi St Juste with Two Become One
Grant support: $1,200 grant fund, Flickr Pro and SmugMug membership, plus memberships for ten additional recipients.
Naomi St Juste, a self-taught photographer based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, became the first recipient of the Flickr, SmugMug, and Black Women Photographers grant for her image Two Become One. Created around the theme “The Intimacy of: Change,” her work explored transformation through the lens of marriage, family, and new beginnings. Her first camera was a Sony A5000 but her earliest memories of photography are of taking disposable cameras on school trips and to other special events.
Her work set the tone for future grant cycles by demonstrating how deeply personal stories can resonate across communities.
Recipient of the 2023 Flickr x Black Women Photographers Grant –
Genesis Falls with Children at Play
Grant support: $2,500 fund, two-year Flickr Pro membership, one-year SmugMug Pro membership, plus memberships for ten additional recipients.
Chicago-based photographer Genesis Falls received the 2023 grant, which expanded support to $2,500, marking continued growth in Flickr and BWP’s investment in Black women photographers. Genesis is a contemporary portrait photographer whose work often uses black-and-white film to capture emotion, intimacy, and fleeting moments of connection.
Her winning image was recognized for the way light moved through water and the emotional atmosphere created within the frame perfectly capturing the theme, “Light in Motion”. Beyond becoming a grant recipient, Genesis later returned as a grant judge and collaborator, helping shape future Flickr x BWP initiatives.
Recipient of the 2025 Flickr x Black Women Photographers Grant –
Eleonore Menga with Living Our Space
Grant support: $5,000 grant, two-year Flickr Pro membership, one-year SmugMug Pro membership, plus memberships for ten additional recipients.
Eleonore Menga received the partnership’s largest grant to date: $5,000, awarded through the theme “The Spaces We Occupy.” Her winning image, Living Our Space, used double exposure techniques inspired by photographer Carrie Mae Weems to explore family, joy, identity, and the environments that shape us.
Originally from Switzerland and now based in Montreal, Eleonore is a portrait and documentary photographer whose work is deeply rooted in identity, emotion, and connection. Drawing from her Congolese and Haitian heritage, she captures the beauty and resilience of Afrodescendant and diasporic stories, often through these intimate moments at home with family.
Beyond funding: creating spaces for visibility
The best partnerships don’t stop at the announcement. Over the years, Flickr and Black Women Photographers have collaborated through artist features, curated galleries, community discussions, and opportunities that put Black women photographers in front of new audiences. BWP is doing incredible work and we’re proud to be part of it.
Get Involved
The Black Women Photographers Flickr group continues to serve as a space for members to share work, discover new artists, and connect with a broader creative community.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration, conversation, or photographers to follow, the group showcases an incredible range of perspectives and visual storytelling.
Explore the Black Women Photographers group on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/blackwomenphotographers/
Learn more about Black Women Photographers
Black Women Photographers is a global community supporting thousands of photographers through programming, grants, education, and networking opportunities.
To learn more about membership, opportunities, and upcoming initiatives, visit blackwomenphotographers.com.
Looking ahead
The future of photography is shaped by who has access to resources, community, and visibility.
We’re grateful to continue supporting Black Women Photographers and the artists shaping visual culture through their work. We look forward to celebrating more photographers, creating more opportunities, and sharing more of what’s to come. Keep an eye out for our Flickr x Black Women Photographers 2026 grant announcement coming this summer!