Applications for Sony's Alpha Female Program Are Now Open (And They're Free)!

Applications for Sony's Alpha Female Program Are Now Open (And They're Free)!

Have you got the passion, the drive, and are you also a female photographer? If you tick these boxes, why not apply for Sony's Alpha Female program and potentially win an array of prizes and mentorship opportunities?

Whether you are a photographer or a filmmaker and whether you shoot commercial, weddings, fine art, or something completely different, you have the opportunity to apply for Sony's"Alpha Female program, and the best thing is the applications are free!

Aimed at increasing diversity in the industry, the program will see five female photographers and filmmakers join Sony's Creator-in-Residence program, where the winners will be awarded $25,000 in grants, including an additional $5,000 for product allowance and the same amount for product loans. Furthermore, each of the winners will be paired with one of Sony's selected artists from their Artisans of Imagery collective. 

If the large grant and mentorship isn't enough, Sony will also provide the winners with an exhibition of their work at the end of the program as well as plenty of further education and networking opportunities to truly help elevate the careers of the successful winners. 

While the applications are free of charge, each of the applicants have to submit a thorough evidence of who they are and what the intend to achieve. The list of requirements is:

  • Your current resume
  • Up to one-minute video introduction of yourself
  • Up to five photos and/or video examples of what "Be Alpha" means to you
  • A short written essay describing your biggest career challenge and how this program will help you overcome it
  • A written pitch of how you would leverage the program to achieve your career aspirations and what the outcome would be 
  • A high-level budget plan (what you'd be spending money on)

If you think you've got what it takes, have a look on Sony's website for all guidelines and requirements! But be quick; the contest ends on October 7!

Anete Lusina's picture

Anete Lusina is a photographer based in West Yorkshire, UK. You'll either find her shooting weddings, documentary, or street photography across the U.K. and Europe, or perhaps doing the occasional conceptual shoot.

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17 Comments

Nice to see a company doing the right thing. Hopefully nikon will continue to take pages from Sony's playbook.

NikonUSA has a very strong Nikon Ambassador program with some excellent female photographers. Sony program has not been as strong as Nikon's or Canon's program.

I was mostly referring to the fact that it is only female photographers. Haven't seen that from Nikon - it's important in a white male dominated field. Would love to see promotions for non white photogs as well.

Not sure what you mean.

Have you got the evidence and statistics that show photography is a white male dominated field, and also that these schemes are aimed solely towards them at the specific exclusion of all others? Evidence mind you, not anecdotes :)

Not going to do your research for you, mate. You wish to be educated you best check it out. I think it would be a wonderful thing for women and minorities to be given a leg up in the business - it's about equity, as opposed to equality.

As another poster said to me the other day - this isn't a dissertation.

:)

Well if you are going to talk about subjects that require facts you should at the very least be able to produce evidence of your facts otherwise your statements will be viewed as "because I read this at some point some where on the internet" type of stuff and no will give credence to your claim/s. If you want people to know the facts that you know educate them.Why make the world a worse place by not sharing knowledge. If it's true then you should have no problem sharing these facts. Truth is truth. If some one comes and says "hey that truth is not true" but you have evidence of said truth just whip out them facts and say sorry bud but you are wrong. If I know something some one else doesn't I'm going to teach them what I know. If I turn out to be wrong then oh well I'm wrong, I learned something, and I was corrected. At the end of the day I'm a better person for it.

Love Sony's marketing - brilliant.

I didn't realise the Sony Alpha Programme (Sony Alpha Collective?) was for men only? Is that stated somewhere?

Everything is men only unless specifically stated. This is common knowledge right?

I'm not familiar with these kinds of programs. Is it normal to offer mentorship as part of the package?

I was almost expecting to read "Have you got the passion, the drive, and a vagina?"
It's essentially the same sentence, but it sounds kinda dumber.

This seems incredibly infantilising to me.