A new initiative for 2026, the CCA’s Photography Research Fellowship Program supports advanced research to reexamine the spectrum of interactions between photography and architecture and our photographic holdings.

For the CCA Photography Research Fellowship’s inaugural year, we seek applications from researchers investigating any aspect of nineteenth-century photography—the most substantive part of the collection—as it intersects with the natural and built environment. We are particularly interested in the role of photography in visual and architectural culture, especially in relation to evolving technologies; the relationship between photography and the environment; and the functions of photographs in imperialist frameworks. Proposals may address materials held in our archives and library as well as our photography collection. Photographs in a variety of formats can be found across all three of these collection areas.

We welcome applications from photographers and artists with a research-driven practice, researchers from all disciplines whose current projects are oriented specifically toward photography, and historians of photography and image making. This program builds on The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project, which was the first of a projected trilogy of research and exhibition projects exploring the medium of photography as a means to investigate the built environment.