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Each fellow receives $3,000 to produce an original photo essay for publication on The Narwhal by the end of January 2026. The recipient’s mentor through Room Up Front also receives a stipend of $1,000.
The goal of Room Up Front is to offer mentorship opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of colour who are passionate about photojournalism and visual storytelling. BIPOC industry professionals along with allies will help guide those interested in pursuing their own goals and becoming established visual storytellers for their community and the Canadian media industry. People with diverse experiences and ways of seeing can only help strengthen our newsrooms and ensure the stories Canadians see are as diverse as the lives they lead.
Past fellows
In the first year of this fellowship, The Narwhal worked with three talented BIPOC photographers to produce three stunning works of photojournalism: Ramona Leitao documented the unique experiences and creativity of Black urban farmers in Toronto; Alia Youssef photographed 10 BIPOC individuals who are shaking up what it means to be an outdoor adventurer; and Robby Dick documented a Kaska Dena caribou camp that took place under the threat of a new Yukon mine that could further threaten the disappearing Finlayson caribou herd.
In our second year, The Narwhal worked with photojournalist Ryan Wilkes to produce a beautiful visual feature on sound and the loss of the world’s last quiet spaces. Our team also worked with Katherine Cheng to bring her incredible multimedia feature on Ontario’s proposed Highway 413 to life.
In our third year Ebunoluwa Akinbo teamed up with The Narwhal’s Manitoba reporter Julia-Simone Rutgers for a story about thrifting in Winnipeg that combines documentary photography and artistic self-portraits. The story was also published in the Winnipeg Free Press.
The 2025 fellowship offers an up-and-coming photographer anywhere in Canada the opportunity to work with mentors at Room Up Front to produce a photo essay or visual feature for The Narwhal. Applicants may apply to produce a photo essay or feature on their own, or may pitch a project in partnership with a Narwhal reporter. Fellows receive hands-on training from editors at The Narwhal in photojournalism production, editorial planning, feature layout and design as well as hands-on experience throughout the assigning, writing, editing and fact-checking process.
The fellowship also provides recipients the opportunity to dive deep into a unique photojournalism project that does what The Narwhal does best: expresses our complex relationships with the natural world in Canada.
