Morris Lum, Chinatowns: Tong Yan Gaai, coming fall 2025 from DelMonico Books and Work Book Editions. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The 2025 Burtynsky Grant

Deadline: Monday, September 22, 2025 by 11:59 EDT

CONTACT invites grant applications from Canadian or Canada-based photographic artists who are at the advanced stages of developing a cohesive, rigorous body of work presented in book form.

Established by photographer Edward Burtynsky and CONTACT, the Burtynsky Grant is a $5,000 annual grant to support a lens-based artist in the creation of a photobook.

The 2025 jury – Cristian Ordóñez, Kate Schneider, and Brian Sholis – is looking forward to reviewing your applications.

Please provide the following in one (1) PDF via file-sharing service such as Dropbox, Smash, or Google Drive to photobook@contactphoto.com:

• Minimum 10 spreads (two pages side-by-side, like an open book) of your book dummy that best communicate your project and vision for publication. Full book submissions are also welcome, either digitally or as a hardcopy.
• Project statement about your photobook
• Rough outline of how you would use the grant funding (ie. budget details regarding printing, distribution, design, etc)
• CV and/or artist statement
• Expressions of interest from publishers, if available (this is not mandatory, as you may be self-publishing)

Since its inception in 2016, The Burtynsky Grant has supported a range of exceptional photobooks, including Morris Lum’s Chinatowns: Tong Yan Gaai (pictured above), coming this fall from DelMonico Books and Work Book Editions.

Ben Dickey, Inheritance, self-published 2025.

Ben Dickey, Inheritance

Friday, August 8, 2025 | 6 – 8pm
CONTACT Photobook Lab, 80 Spadina Ave, Suite 205, Toronto

In Inheritance, Ben Dickey explores the process of watching his parents age as spiritual analog for the preemptive bereavement of climate grief and social precarity. Images of environmental volatility, ambient degradation, and abandonment combine to form a lyrical narrative of care, loss, and struggle in a world faced with conflict and instability. Together, they paint an emotional journey of fragility and heartbreak, while giving testament to love’s enduring capacity to bond us through suffering, in the formulation of beauty and meaning.

The artist will be in attendance, with selected framed works from this series also on display.

Dickey is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer living in Toronto, Canada. Through his work, he seeks to understand the relationship between place and identity through compassionate explorations of grief, alienation, and neurodivergence. His art employs multiple approaches, while thematically exploring the role of narrative in the construction of the physical and emotional spaces of our lives.

Photobook Lab summer pop-up graphic courtesy of Burdock Brewery.

Summer Pop-up at Burdock

Saturday, August 9 + Sunday, August 10, 2025 | 12 – 6pm
Garage space outside of Burdock Brewery, 6 Denison Square, Toronto
Rain or shine – the garage is covered

CONTACT Photobook Lab is excited to once again take over the Burdock Kensington garage for a pop-up weekend this August! Visit 6 Denison Square in Kensington Market for a huge clearance sale on dozens of great photobook titles—up to 50% off!—with different stock each day of the pop-up.

Special guests Omíkhlē Bookshop will be joining on Saturday and Lyricalmyrical Books on Sunday for even more incredible titles.

CONTACT Photography Festival
80 Spadina Ave, Suite 205
Toronto, Ontario M5V 2J4
416 539 9595
info@contactphoto.com
contactphoto.com | @contactphoto