The CENTER Awards

The CENTER Awards recognize outstanding images, singular or part of a series, in three categories: Personal, Social, and Environmental.

A broad and inclusive interpretation of the themes is encouraged:
• The PERSONAL AWARD recognizes work engaging in the exploration and expression of the power of self-representation and/or underrepresented experiences.
• The SOCIALLY ENGAGED AWARD recognizes work addressing social issues. All projects exploring social topics or themes are eligible.
• The ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD recognizes work focusing on the state of the ecological environment. Topics may include but are not limited to, conservation, biodiversity, ecology, climate change, or other issues concerning the natural world. All projects exploring ecological relationships, topics, or themes are eligible.

PROJECT ADVANCEMENT PACKAGES
• Winners Exhibition at CENTER
• Review Santa Fe participation
• Public Project Presentation
• Publication in LENSCRATCH
• Professional Development Seminars access
• Inclusion in CENTER’s annual printed Program Guide
• Inclusion in the CENTER Winners Gallery & Archive

We are adding to our database and archive of lens-based work from the last 30 years and invite you to contribute. All applicant’s work will remain in the CENTER archive, regardless of award status.

Apply now

2025 Jurors

Personal Award • Pauline Vermare

Brooklyn Museum
Socially Engaged Award • Andrea Wise

ProPublica
Environmental Award • Alice Gabriner

The Center for Contemporary Documentation

Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography at the Brooklyn Museum. She was formerly the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York and a curator at the International Center of Photography (ICP). She previously worked at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris. She has developed projects in the United States, Europe, and Japan, including All About Saul Leiter at the Bunkamura Museum, Tokyo (2017), Akihiko Okamura: The Memories of Others at Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin (2024), and I’m So Happy You Are Here, a collaborative publication and exhibition focusing on Japanese women photographers developed with Aperture and the Rencontres d’Arles (2024).

She sits on the boards of the Saul Leiter Foundation and the Catherine Leroy Fund.

Andrea Wise is an interdisciplinary photo editor, art director, and visual producer. She is the visual strategy editor at ProPublica, where she visually edits investigations into abuses of power with an emphasis on documentary photography and editorial illustration. She is also the co-founder of Diversify Photo, a nonprofit organization committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable visual media industry.

As a photo editor, she has also worked with National Geographic, Newsweek, BuzzFeed News, the Intercept, and more. She has juried competitions for the Overseas Press Club, Getty Images, American Photography, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She earned her M.S. in Photography from Syracuse University and her B.A. in Studio Arts from Trinity College, and she is an alum of the Eddie Adams Workshop, the Kalish Visual Editing Workshop, and the Mountain Workshops.

Alice Gabriner is the Consulting Director of The Center for Contemporary Documentation, a non-profit whose mission is to visually document environmental issues in the United States.

For over 30 years, Gabriner was a photo editor at publications including TIME and National Geographic. She freelanced at The New Yorker, The New York Times, Reuters, and Magnum. Her work has been recognized with an Emmy Award in the Outstanding New Approaches Documentary category, four National Magazine awards, World Press Photo awards, multiple editing awards from the University of Missouri, POYi competition, and she was nominated as a Lucie Award Photo Editor of the Year.

She served as Deputy Director of Photography in the Obama White House and is currently a faculty member at The International Center of Photography. Gabriner has curated exhibitions worldwide and has collaborated with photographers on editing for books.