Photography Fellowship Pays $30,000 for 3 Months of Documentary Work

PowerLines, a nationwide nonprofit group devoted to modernizing public utilities, is in search of a documentary photographer for a three-month assignment devoted to “humanizing the impact of rising utility bills on everyday consumers and communities across the United States.”

Founded by power analyst and former Department of Energy coverage advisor Charles Hua in 2024, PowerLines is a comparatively new group that wishes to reform the way in which gasoline and electrical utility corporations function and are funded.

“Electricity rates are skyrocketing; they’ve grown 20% since the start of 2022. The grid is becoming increasingly fragile. There’s a preponderance of extreme weather events like wildfires, hurricanes, winter storms, Uri, Eliot; they all point to that. And then there’s this new trend, this growing electricity demand driven by AI and manufacturing, that’s creating even more strains on an already challenged grid. So all these different stakeholders, they’re not getting what they want, including the utilities who feel that consumer trust is at an all-time low,” Hua mentioned in an interview on the Volts podcast in 2024.

“Including the commercial and industrial customers with clean energy targets that aren’t getting clean electricity fast enough, and certainly low-income communities that have always had to pay a disproportionate share of their income and their wealth on energy and continue to face shutoffs. So, we’ve been living under this illusion of stability, but in reality, we’re coming close to reaching a breaking point if we don’t pay attention and we don’t act now.”

As a part of its mission, PowerLines is in search of an skilled documentary photographer for what it’s calling a three-month fellowship, with the duty of creating and executing an authentic images product that paperwork the human expertise of rising utility prices in a “a creative, humanizing, compelling, and accessible way.”

The undertaking will final from May 15 to August 15, 2026 and can pay $30,000 cut up over that interval. PowerLines says that the chosen fellow will retain joint possession of all pictures produced and are permitted to simply accept exterior, non-conflicting assignments through the fellowship interval.

“The ideal candidate brings at least three years of professional photography experience and a strong documentary or photojournalism background. You have a proven track record of working on economic and human issues with sensitivity and depth, and you approach storytelling with both rigor and creativity,” PowerLines says in its job posting. “You are comfortable working independently in the field, managing your own timeline and travel, and collaborating with a mission-driven organization.”

Those within the position might want to submit a portfolio of 20 pictures, knowledgeable bio, a written undertaking proposal for the documentary collection, and a improvement timeline together with a funds and journey schedule.

Applications for the position shut on April 15 and people can apply through the organization’s website.

Image credit: Background of header picture licensed by way of Depositphotos.com.