The UAPP Microgrant Program is an annual initiative created to support Ukrainian photographers who continue to document the experience of a country resisting aggression and to shape visual testimonies of events that define the history of contemporary Ukraine. At a time when authors risk their lives, lose the ability to work, or face financial constraints, the program provides them with resources to keep going — while also helping to preserve the visual memory of the war, support new voices, and create a space in which those voices can be heard.
What this support is really about
This program is not only about money. It is about sustaining the profession during wartime and ensuring that important stories do not disappear halfway through. UAPP supports authors working with the themes of war, human rights violations, and international crimes, and helps transform fragmented experience into completed photographic series capable of functioning in an international context.
How the program works
Selection takes place on a competitive basis — UAPP announces an open call, and applications are evaluated according to their subject matter, relevance, innovation, and potential for international impact.
A core principle of the program is respect for authorship: photographers retain the copyright to their images, while UAPP receives the right to share the results on its own platforms and to present them in exhibition formats and publishing projects — in order to promote both the authors and the stories they document.
As part of UAPP’s third microgrant program, nine participants were selected. Each received €1,000 to realize their own documentary project — a series of no fewer than ten photographs. The selection combined two tracks: some microgrants were awarded through an open competition, while others were granted to participants of the UAPP mentoring program.
The microgrant program is part of a broader ecosystem of support for independent Ukrainian photography that UAPP develops alongside mentoring formats, publishing projects, and international exhibitions. It is a way to ensure not only the visibility of Ukrainian stories worldwide, but also sustainable conditions for those who create them.
The third UAPP microgrant program was implemented with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine.
