Third Annual Juried Student Documentary Photography Contest

All undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the Moody College of Communication are permitted to submit entries, including all graduating seniors, part-time undergraduate students, and any students who have taken Moody courses in the last year. 

Requirements for submission:

• ​All photographs must be original and must have been captured using a digital DSLR or mirrorless camera between January 1, 2025, and the contest deadline, February 10, 2026. Photographs made prior to January 1, 2025, OR submitted to last year’s contest are ineligible. Photographs made using cell phone cameras are ineligible.
• Only 5 photographs may be submitted per student. Each photograph MUST have an AP style photo caption embedded in the photo file information.
• Any category of journalism and documentary photography (non-fiction real life) will be accepted (spot news, portraiture, sports, feature photography, slice of life, pictorial and social issue documentary, etc.) No AI-generated, computationally composited or altered images are accepted. You may remove dust spots, alter contrast and do minimal color correction / toning using Lightroom. However, no image generation, compositing or removing elements of the original photograph is permitted. No AI or other synthetically generated images are acceptable. We may ask to see the raw original file if we have questions about your image.         
• Total folder size for each contestant should not exceed 25 MB uncompressed.

Step 1. Make sure you have read and understand our section on “Who can apply first.” Your first step in the application is to fill in this form before you begin submitting your images. Fill in the form and answer the questionnaire. You must provide your full name, UT EID and email address, as well as answer the other items on the form, or your images will not be viewed by our juror. Use this link, then come back to this page and continue: Fourth Annual Juried Student Documentary Photography Exhibition Application form

Step 2. Select and organize, choosing single stand-alone images with diverse subject matter and aesthetic approach.  

Step 3. Open your images using Adobe Bridge (free software), Lightroom, Photoshop, Photomechanic, or other software that allows you to write AP style caption information so that it is embedded in the IPTC metadata. Add your captions and make sure that you convert raw files or TIFF files to .JPEG files, following the specs below:

• File type: .JPEG only
• Image size: 3000 pixels minimum on the longer side.
• Image aspect ratio should be 3:2, the default for a DSLR or a full-frame mirrorless camera. If you crop an image, you must crop it to set this same aspect ratio. Our photo matts cannot accommodate custom crops.

We recommend a JPEG compression setting between 10-11 and not less than 9 (for Adobe Lightroom users, 100 on the compression slider is preferred, minimum is 90) 

• Resolutions 300 dpi minimum

 Do not upsize or interpolate your submissions. They will be unprintable.

Step 4. Name your still image files as follows

• 1st entry: Lastname_1.jpeg
• 2nd entry: Lastname_2.jpeg
• 3rd entry: Lastname_3.jpeg
• 4th entry: Lastname_4.jpeg
• 5th entry: Lastname_5.jpeg

Step 5. Once you have no more than 5 photographs captioned and named, place them in a folder with your full name. Then compress the folder into a zip file, and you are ready to upload using the Box upload button.

Box upload button coming soon.

REMINDER: Box will not accept your folder unless it is compressed into a zip file. Remember that the total size of your folder before you compress it should not exceed 100MB

All images must comply with NPPA ethics standards.

The Annual Student Documentary Photography exhibition is a journalistic competition. Digital alteration, use of AI or deceptive modification of entry materials is strictly prohibited. 

Except for portraiture, which can involve photographer direction and set up, staging and re-creation are also prohibited. 

AP style captions MUST be included with the images or the submission will be disqualified. Please do not include your name in the photo caption field. 

If you do not understand what is meant by any of these requirements, reach out to Professor De Cesare. 

Single images will be selected for the exhibition based upon qualities that contribute to technical excellence, including: effective use of light, use of depth of field, use of arrested or blurred motion, intentional focus, composition and vantage point.  

In addition, images should strive to convey humanistic visual evidence and storytelling through capture of human emotion, effective expression of place, authentic human interaction or environmental portraiture, disruption of conventional tropes or stereotypes and effective use of AP style captions to provide context.

After selecting 20 outstanding images for the show, the juror will also select

• A Best in Show scholarship winner: $500.00
• Two Honorable Mention scholarships: $250.00

Christine Robinson is the new Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography at UT’s Harry Ransom Center (Fall 2025). Robinson previously taught in the Photography and History of Art and Visual Culture programs at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and has extensive museum experience. She served as both a curatorial assistant and graduate fellow at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and as a curatorial assistant and educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). She curated the exhibition Sarah Charlesworth: Image Language at Printed Matter in New York, based on her research with the artist’s archive.

Deadline for Submissions: February 13, 2026

Accepted Exhibition Notification: March 6, 2026

Deadline for Accepted Exhibition Files: March 10, 2026