Vital Impacts Fellowships and Mentorship 2026: Meet the Awarded Photographers

For the third 12 months in a row, Vital Impacts awarded seven environmental images fellowships totalling $50,000, together with eleven mentorships, to photographers narrating the complicated relationship between humanity and the planet, chosen amongst 526 submissions throughout 86 nations. Championing artists whose work conveys empathy and interconnection, and sheds mild on our shared accountability towards ecosystems, Vital Impacts goals to assist the following era of storytellers, as founder Ami Vitale underlined. “We aspire to create opportunities for these emerging voices to explore complex environmental issues with originality and nuance at this critical moment.”

Through one-on-one periods with established photographers, editors, and conservationists, the eleven photographers who obtained year-long mentorships could have the chance to inform tales that commemorate each individuals and the planet.

“Each of these artists moves between rigorous documentary photography and artistic exploration, always with a deep ethic of care,” stated Alessia Glaviano, Head of Global PhotoVogue and Director of the PhotoVogue Festival, and a member of the judging panel.

This 12 months, the jury additionally included Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director of the African Artists’ Foundation and Lagos Photo Festival; Evgenia Arbugaeva, National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and Academy Award nominee; Kathy Moran, Deputy Director of Photography at National Geographic; and Pat Kane, Vital Impacts Environmental Jane Goodall Fellowship winner.

$20,000 Environmental Photography Fellowship

‘Terra Vermelha’ – Tommaso Protti, Brazil

A decade-long investigation into deforestation and Indigenous resilience within the Brazilian Amazon.

ATALAIA DO NORTE, AUGUST, 2021: Kanamari youngsters, initially from numerous villages within the Vale do Javari indigenous territory, discover themselves stranded in a makeshift camp on the banks of the Javari River in Atalaia do Norte.Tommaso Protti

Dr. Sylvia Earle Environmental Photography Fellowship

“Te Urewera: The Living Ancestry of the Tūhoe People” – Tatsiana Chypsanava, Nelson, New Zealand

A venture celebrating the Tūhoe individuals’s revolutionary mannequin of stewardship which recognises the land as a residing ancestor.

Children from the Teepa household drive the youthful siblings dwelling, after a swim within the Ōhinemataroa (Whakatane) River, in Ruatoki, New Zealand. Tūhoe youngsters are taught independence and to take care of different members of the family.TATSIANA CHYPSANAVA

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim Environmental Photograph Fellowship

“Beyond the Steppe” – Cléa T. Rekhou, Algiers, Algeria

A venture displaying how the ancestral information and collective innovation of desert communities are revitalising the landscapes.