By Conor Risch

“I do this as a regular pastime,” says Susana Raab of her practice of seeking funding for her personal projects. Her “Consumed” series, which documents America’s fast food culture and was featured in “Exposures” in March, has been supported by grants from The Puffin Foundation and the White House News Photographers’ Association. Raab was also recently an artist fellow at the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. And she even coaxed free film out of a Fuji rep.
   
Raab applies for funding often, and even though it’s time consuming, she sees it as a way of legitimizing her work and defraying costs. Raab says she often thinks to herself, “ ‘I just wrote 30 pages for $2,000,’ but, you know, that money goes against your expenses and it's just so much more fun to pursue that work [when its supported].”
   
Although she’s not exactly sure why her “Consumed” project gained traction when it did, she attributes its momentum to the series maturing, and thinks perhaps the timeliness of the subject matter and her treatment of it were also factors. “I think the desirable component of the work is it illuminates this important part of our society that hasn’t been so highly explored,” she says. “And it’s not done in that—what did we used to call it in Grad School?—that ‘point picture’ way, where the message is that obvious, written in every photo.”
   
Constantly scouring the internet and noting opportunities, and involving herself in local arts organizations are a couple of Raab’s strategies for researching funding opportunities. She also goes to seminars offered by grant-making organizations for grant seekers who want to familiarize themselves with a particular application process.
   
Raab advises photographers to seek out smaller-named institutions. “Obviously the W. Eugene Smith Grant will have a lot of competition, but you can research other arts funding opportunities, and even a bit of seed money is enough to take your project from an idea to reality, give it credibility, and get you out there making something.”
   
“I just try and improve each time around,” says Raab of her application writing, which she says she keeps short and simple. “I think you come to realize there are certain ways you can express things you want to accomplish for different organizations,” she adds, “and maybe downplay aspects of your project if [an organization] won’t be so simpatico with them. Different organizations have different cultural modalities.”
   
Raab also thinks that photographers should keep grants and awards in perspective. “If you have something you really want to do, by all means go seek funding for it, but don’t seek funding as a way to live a fantastic life,” she advises. “Use grants to earn yourself a sabbatical, but do not think of it as your primary mode of income generation.”