--- description: Getty Images is offering three $10,000 grants for Instagram users title: New Competition Promises $30,000 to Instagram Users image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc3c045c060b092a/69876f03428a9e3a3ecc614c/malinfezehai.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # New Competition Promises $30,000 to Instagram Users by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 11:00 AM CUT  Eritrean wedding in Haifa today. #israel #wedding #lovemypeople #haifa #bahaigarden #view #eritrea #stairs Eritrean wedding in Haifa today. #israel #wedding #lovemypeople #haifa #bahaigarden #view #eritrea #stairsMalin Fezehai (@malinfezehai) via Instagram by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 7, 2015 11:00 AM CUT Instagram has become a publishing platform in its own right, with photographers—amateurs and professionals alike—using the app to share their stories, bypassing traditional media sources. Now, Getty Images is bankrolling a new photography grant program that will support the work of photographers who use Instagram to document stories “from underrepresented communities around the world.” Three Instagram users will received $10,000 each, as well as professional mentorship from Getty Images’ photographers and an exhibition at the Photoville photography festival in New York City this coming September. “We’ve been thinking very much about our grant programs, and what kind of support we should give to photographers,” Getty Images’ senior director of content partnerships Elodie Mailliet Storm tells TIME. “We wanted to make sure that we reached communities that that are not necessarily being featured in mainstream media, not because their stories are not important but because they don’t have access to mainstream media.” The winners will be selected by “focusing on the quality of their imagery, their photographic skills and on the projects and stories told through their photos \[on Instagram\],” says Mailliet Storm. For Instagram, the partnership is a continuation of the firm’s commitment to putting the spotlight on “people who are doing amazing things,” says Amanda Kelso, director of community at Instagram. “It’s very similar to the things that we do on the main Instagram account. Every day we try to tell these stories and the Getty Images grant is another opportunity to do that.” The contest will be judged by a panel composed of photographers Maggie Steber, David Guttenfelder, Ramin Talaie and Malin Fezehai, as well as TIME’s director of photography Kira Pollack. Fezehai, an Eritrean and Swedish photographer, won a World Press Photo photojournalism award this year for a photo she shot on Instagram. “I know how hard it is to find support for work that might not be in the news,” she tells TIME. “So I think this new award is a wonderful thing, especially for underrepresented communities.” Applications will be [accepted](http://www.gettyimages.com/grants "undefined") until June 4. **_Olivier Laurent_** _is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on_ [_Twitter_](http://twitter.com/olivierclaurent "undefined") _and_ [_Instagram_](http://instagram.com/olivierclaurent "undefined") _@olivierclaurent_ ### Matt Black Is TIME’s Pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year 2014  Fence post. Allensworth, CA. Allensworth is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 471 and 54% live below the poverty level. 35°51'53"N 119°23'21"W Matt Black  Trees. Alpaugh, CA. Alpaugh is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,026 and 55.4% live below the poverty level. 35°53'15"N 119°29'12"W Matt Black  Mailbox. Teviston, CA. Teviston is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,214 and 65.6% live below the poverty level. 35°55'13"N 119°16'51"W Matt Black  Apartment. Pixley, CA. Pixley is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 3,310 and 39.3% live below the poverty level. 35°58'7"N 119°17'30"W Matt Black  Farmworker camp. Alpaugh, CA. Alpaugh is an town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,026 and 55.4% live below the poverty level. 35°53'16"N 119°29'14"W Matt Black  Fresno is California's sixth largest city and is the southern Central Valley's dominant metropolitan area. Backed up trains line the tracks in the city's warehouse district. Matt Black  Store window. Riverdale, CA. Riverdale is a town in Fresno County, California. The population is 3,153 and 30.5% live below the poverty level. 36°25'51"N 119°51'33"W Matt Black  A dead palm tree. Shafter, CA. Extensive fracking is sparking conflict between agricultural and oil interests in the southern Central Valley's Kern County. Matt Black  Guard dog. Mendota, CA. Mendota is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 11,014 and 45.6% live below the poverty level. 36°45'13"N 120°22'53"W Matt Black  Vegetable picker. Firebaugh, CA. Firebaugh is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 7,549 and 34.9% live below the poverty level. 36°51'22"N 120°27'18"W Matt Black  Ditchbank. Fresno, CA. Sinamon and Aaron bathe at an irrigation canal near their homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno. Matt Black  A dove perches on a post in Sinamon and Aaron's homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno. Matt Black  Displaced when the city of Fresno forced the closure of several homeless encampments, Sinamon now lives in a makeshift home she built in a vacant lot just feet beyond city limits. Matt Black  Sinamon carries firewood to the makeshift home she built in an empty lot just outside of Fresno. Matt Black  Fear of eviction and a rash of thefts have increased Sinamon and Aaron's vigilance. They watch as an unidentified man approaches their homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno. Matt Black  Scratched window. Stratford, CA. Stratford is a town in Kings County, California. The population is 1,277 and 39.2% live below the poverty level. 36°11'21"N 119°49'24"W Matt Black  The deepest drought in California's recorded history is fallowing an estimated 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland this year. Matt Black  Shopping Cart. Bakersfield, CA. Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 347,483 and 19.3% live below the poverty level. 35°22'23"N 119°1'6"W Matt Black  Gang tag. Le Grand, CA. Le Grand is a town in Merced County, California. The population is 1,659 and 25% live below the poverty level. 37°13'43"N 120°14'53"W Matt Black  Fence. Weedpatch, CA. Weedpatch is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 2,658 and 41.8% live below the poverty level. 35°14'17"N 118°54'53"W Matt Black  Presidents' day decorations in downtown Firebaugh, CA. 80% of the town's population works in agriculture. A third of its downtown storefronts are shuttered. Matt Black  Wall. Kerman, CA. Kerman is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 13,544 and 24.5% live below the poverty level. 36°44'3"N 120°3'36"W Matt Black  A shuttered business in Huron, CA. For two seeks each winter and spring, nearly all lettuce grown in the US comes from Huron's fields. Over half the town’s population lives below the poverty line. Matt Black  Graffiti. Exeter, CA. Exeter is a city in Tulare County, California. The population is 10,334 and 26.8% live below the poverty level. 36°17'45"N 119°8'31"W Matt Black  Front door. Taft, CA. Taft is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 9,327 and 15.4% live below the poverty level. 35°8'33"N 119°27'23"W Matt Black  A flea market in Tulare, CA. The town draws its name from the reeds that once lined a nearby lake. Its water was diverted for agriculture and the lake has been dry for nearly fifty years. Matt Black  Fallowed fields. Huron, CA. Job losses from drought are pushing unemployment past 50% in some Central Valley towns. Matt Black  Burned field. Los Banos, CA. Los Banos is a city in Merced County, California. The population is 35,972 and 24.8% live below the poverty level. 37°3'31"N 120°50'58"W Matt Black  Sheep bones bake under a mid-summer sun near Alpaugh, CA. Dought related agricultural losses in the Central Valley are expected to top $1.5 billion this year. Matt Black  A shepherd's camp in a dry wheat field. Mendota, CA. His water for drinking, bathing and cooking comes from this 55-gallon drum. Matt Black  Sheep are herded across a dry wheat field near Mendota, CA. Most wheat fields failed to germinate this year due to lack of rain. Matt Black  Almond hulls are dried a stacked for cattle feed at a processing facility near Coalinga, CA. Matt Black  Crop duster markers. Corcoran, CA. Corcoran is a city in Kings County, California. The population is 24,813 and 28% live below the poverty level. 36°5'53"N 119°33'37"W Matt Black  Dust blows across a barren field at dusk near Avenal, CA. Nearly half a million acres of California farmland went unplanted this year due to drought, an area twice the size of Manhattan. Matt Black  The head of a dead bull hung to dry near Firebaugh, CA. "California's gonna die," a rancher describing the drought said. "This whole valley's going to blow away like dust." 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