Flickr and the Black Women Photographers community are teaming up for round four of our grant partnership, and this year we’re going bigger than ever.

The grant recipient will receive $10,000 to invest in their practice, along with a two-year Flickr Pro membership and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership. Ten additional recipients will each receive a one-year Flickr Pro membership and one-year SmugMug Pro membership. The grant recipient will be announced live at MODE by Flickr!

“Traces of Connection” 

This year’s theme, “Traces of Connection,” was chosen by Éléonore Menga, recipient of the 2025 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant and this year’s guest judge.

Connection is often felt more than seen. It lives in gestures, in absence, in the quiet that people and places leave behind. It can be held in light, carried through landscapes, or embedded in the spaces between individuals.

There is no single definition of connection. It may be tender or tense, visible or implied, human or environmental. What matters is the trace it leaves behind. This is an invitation to notice what remains after a moment, a meeting, or a presence has passed.

Wanna join? Here’s how to apply!

• You must be a member of the Black Women Photographers community
• You must also join the Black Women Photographers group on Flickr
• Next, submit a photo aligned with the theme “Traces of Connection” to the BWP Flickr Group
• Here are some tips on how to add photos to the group
• Share a brief description of how your photo connects to this theme
• Be an active member on Flickr (completing the steps above fulfills this requirement!)

Applications will close on August 6, 2026. Please apply and spread the word before the deadline!

This grant is open to Black women and non-binary photographers who are new and longtime members of Black Women Photographers and Flickr. The grant recipient will be selected by Polly Irungu, the founder of BWP; Éléonore Menga, an esteemed member of both BWP and Flickr and winner of the 2025 grant; and MacKenzie Joslin along with the Flickr Community team.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Join the community

Over the last few years, we’ve had the privilege of working closely  with Polly Irungu and getting to know the BWP community firsthand. Founded by Polly Irungu and launched in July of 2020, Black Women Photographers (BWP) is a global community, directory, and hub of over 2,100 Black and African women creatives, spanning over 60 countries and 35+ U.S. states.

Black Women Photographers exists to ensure Black women receive proper recognition and, most importantly, get hired. It supports members by promoting their work through an active database distributed to photo editors, directors, curators, and art buyers, while also offering free educational resources including webinars, workshops, training, grants, and portfolio reviews. To date, BWP has awarded over $230,000 in financial grants and provided an additional $80,000 in cutting-edge camera equipment to help empower their members. 

If you’re a Black woman photographer looking to connect with a larger community, you can learn more and apply to be part of Black Women Photographers. New to Flickr? Check out Flickr 101 and say hello in the Black Women Photographers group.

Note: The photo included in this blog post and in communications about this grant was taken by Éléonore Menga. You can see her work on Flickr and Instagram.

Check out our newest installment of In Frame with Flickr, a street photography series where we celebrate the art of capturing life as it happens. This time around we’re slowing things down, exploring the quiet, transitional moments that so often go unnoticed.

From pivotal moments to quiet ones, Flickr photographers and historical archives come together to document 250 years of American life.