2026 CATCHLIGHT GLOBAL FELLOWS. San Francisco – United States of America

CatchLight, a San Francisco–based nonprofit harnessing the power of visual storytelling to change the world, will announce the 2026 CatchLight Global Fellows at the CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit on May 2, 2026, each receiving a $30,000 grant. The CatchLight Global Fellowship supports creative leaders who want to cultivate significant audience engagement through inventive distribution methods that will increase the impact of their work.

The 2026 CatchLight Global Fellows expand documentary visual storytelling through long-term collaboration, deep attention to place, and practices that foreground lived experience and community voice. Katie Baldwin Basile, an Alaska-based photojournalist and filmmaker, works closely with rural Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities and youth to co-create multimedia stories rooted in Indigenous knowledge, daily life, and contemporary change; South African photographer Gulshan Khan’s work spans memory, belonging, justice, and spirituality, engaging Muslim communities across Southern Africa through ethically grounded, mentorship-driven storytelling and archival practices; and Dominican filmmaker and photographer Michael Lees explores climate, land, and identity in the Caribbean, his collaborative practice centers resilience and the enduring relationship between people and the environments they inhabit.

In addition to the grants, CatchLight connects the fellows with a network of partners, mentors and collaborators for customized support to help them achieve their goals during and beyond their fellowship year.

This year’s Global Fellowship recipients are visual leaders and storytellers responding to the weight of the present moment. Their work intertwines themes of migration, climate change, and authorship, reflecting the complexities of our time. They are deeply engaged in what lies beneath the images they make, and ways visual storytelling can become a more communal process.

CatchLight is excited to support what they do next by lifting up their work and exploring meaningful ways to engage different audiences.