Featured Image by Lana Collins
exposure 2025 EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE: SELECTED ARTISTS
The following artists have been selected by our juror, Naomi Potter, to exhibit work in the Emerging Photographers Showcase Exhibition, opening February 6th at Contemporary Calgary:
Saeed Abdollahi – Calgary AB
Masoud Alipourian – Calgary AB
Kathryn Audet – Calgary AB
Rosemary Burd – Vancouver BC
Lana Collins – Calgary AB
Brady Fullerton – Calgary AB
Cat Hart – Vancouver BC
Alexis McKeown – Canmore AB
Mitra Samavaki – Calgary AB
Morgan Sears-Williams – Vancouver BC
Tiffany Thomson – Calgary AB
Autumn Whiteway – Calgary AB
Nic Wilson – Regina SK
exposure 2025 Emerging photographers showcase
We’re expanding! This year’s Emerging Photographers Showcase is open to artists based in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.
Image by Stasia Schmidt | Exposure 2024 Emerging Photographer of the Year
Exposure welcomes diverse and innovative submissions from emerging photographers and visual artists who incorporate, celebrate or challenge the photographic medium within their practice. Submissions will be reviewed by our juror, award selection committees, and the Exposure team. Selected works will be shown at Contemporary Calgary as part of the 2025 Exposure Photography Festival.
JUROR – NAOMI POTTER
Since 2012, Naomi Potter has been the Director/Curator of Esker Foundation in Calgary. From 2009-2011, she was curator of Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre where she produced solo projects, exhibitions, and public art commissions. In 2003, Potter was awarded a yearlong Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) artist residency in Istanbul, and from 2003 to 2007 was co-director of the international artist residency program at CESTA in the Czech Republic. In 2015 was a guest of both the Australian Arts Council and British Council International Curatorial Visit programs, and has been a jury member for numerous Canadian art awards and jury’s including: The Hnatyshyn Foundation (2022); a member of the Curatorial Selection Committee for Venice 2019; Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2019); BMO 1st Art! Selection Committee (2017/18); SSNAP (2017); Sobey Art Award (2016); and the RBC Canadian Painting Competition (2014). She currently sits on the Board of the Calgary Institute of the Humanities, University of Calgary, the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program Committee for the Banff Centre, and Odem’s World Foundation. Potter holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and an MFA in sculpture from Concordia University, Montreal.
ELIGIBILITY
To qualify for the Emerging Photographers Showcase you must reside in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon, or the Northwest Territories. Emerging Artists are defined as those, of any age, who are in the early years of their professional career. You should not yet have gallery representation.
SUBMISSION FEE
The submission fee for ten images is $35 CAD - a minimum of 8 images is required and a portfolio of ten images is highly recommended. Additional images may be submitted for $5 each, and photographers/artists may submit up to fifteen images total.
How to submit you work
Please review ‘SUBMITTING YOUR WORK’ and ‘SUCCESSFUL SUBMISSIONS’ in the sections below. These sections offer information on the application process as well as details on the exhibition and timeline. After you have reviewed these sections, please submit your work to the Exposure 2025 Emerging Photographers Showcase HERE
deadline
The deadline for submissions is October 4, 2024 at 6pm MDT. This deadline will not be extended and applications that are submitted after the deadline will not be reviewed.
EXPOSURE OPPORTUNITIES
Exposure Billboard 2021 featuring the work of Mirja Thiel. Photo by Louie Villanueva.
those who submit work will:
Have the opportunity to be featured on the Exposure Photography Festival curated Instagram account, reaching audiences worldwide! Exposure will be sharing examples of strong submissions throughout the duration of the open call. To enhance your chance of being featured on our platform, please make sure you submit your work early.
Gain visibility with the juror and Exposure team.
Those selected by the Juror will:
Exhibit their work in the Exposure 2025 Emerging Photographers Showcase at Contemporary Calgary.
Be invited to become involved with the exhibition’s related programming.
Be invited to show selected work in a public exhibition presented on Pattison Outdoor digital billboards located in the City of Calgary.
Have their name and website link featured on the Exposure website as an artist profile, reaching audiences worldwide.
Have the opportunity to win one of the Exposure Awards, as listed below.
Receive $181 Artist Fee (in line with CARFAC recommended Fee Schedule)
Receive $150 Production Expense Allocation with Exposure 2025 Print Partner, ABL Imaging Group, to cover/support the cost of printing work for the exhibition. (For more details on the Production Expense Allocation see ‘Exhibition Details’ below.)
Have their work promoted in the Exposure 2025 official press release pack. Previous press has included British Journal of Photography, AnOther Magazine, Phmuseum, Avenue Magazine, NEXT Magazine, MUSÉE Vanguard of Photography Culture and more!
Exposure 2023 exhibitions at Contemporary Calgary. Photo by Louie Villanueva.
EXPOSURE AWARDS
EXPOSURE 2025 EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
The recipient of this prestigious award is given the opportunity to present a solo show at the following year’s Exposure Photography Festival. The award provides the emerging artist with a platform to show their work while furthering their professional practice and building their career within photography. Exposure mentors and supports the artist in developing their vision in the best possible way.
EXPOSURE 2024 HOMETOWN TALENT award
The Calgary-based recipient will be awarded a free portfolio review day and the opportunity to take over the Exposure Instagram as a week-long online residency.
…and more to be announced!
ABOUT EXPOSURE
The annual Exposure Photography Festival presents exhibitions that showcase photographic work by internationally renowned practitioners, alongside emerging and established talent from Alberta. The festival provides an exciting, innovative meeting place for photographers and art lovers to connect with one another, along with curators and photography professionals from around the world. Exposure is inclusive and participatory – a collaboration amongst members of the photographic community. Recent festivals have received over 900,000+ visits to its exhibitions from Exposure’s community of local and international, arts and non-arts engaged individuals and audience members. The festival brings people together to celebrate photography and Alberta’s thriving creative communities. Established in 2004, the Calgary/Banff Photography Society aka Exposure is a registered non-profit run by an enthusiastic Board of Directors who are devoted to photography.
BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR WORK
Please read ‘The Fine Print’ and review the sections titled ‘ELIGIBILITY’ and ‘SUCCESSFUL SUBMISSIONS’ to familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions of the call for submissions.
A minimum of eight images is required for submission.
Select a series of photographs that best represents your practice and prepare a written statement about your work. Your submitted pieces should show a thematically connected photographic series. We strongly recommend that you submit one project-based body of work per submission. You may enter more than one body of work, however, if you choose to do so, you must separately pay the submission fee for each series you submit.
Images can be shot in any format, using any camera, on film or digital. We welcome diverse submissions from photographers and visual artists who incorporate, celebrate or challenge the photographic medium within their practice, including photo collage and experimental photography. If you are unsure if your work is eligible for this open call please email Exposure’s Festival Manager, Emma Palm, at Emma@ExposurePhotoFestival.com.
ELIGIBILITY
To qualify for the Emerging Photographers Showcase you must reside in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon, or the Northwest Territories.
Emerging Artists are defined as those, of any age, who are in the early years of their professional career. They should not yet have gallery representation.
Exposure is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage submissions from members of underrepresented groups, and we welcome submissions from gender and sexually diverse individuals, racialized persons/persons of colour, women, Indigenous/Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities.
Exposure is committed to supporting individuals who face barriers in applying for this or other Exposure opportunities. If you require assistance, please email Exposure’s Festival Manager Emma Palm via emma@exposurephotofestival.com.
PREVIOUS EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS
To see previous selected submissions visit the Exposure 2024 Emerging Photographers Showcase.
Submissions are now closed.
successful submissions
Exhibition details
Prints can be displayed in a variety of ways including mounted, pinned, hung with magnets, or framed. Within your submission details please tell us how you prefer your work to be displayed and its preferred size.
Typically one work from an Artist’s submissions is selected for exhibition.
All work accepted for exhibition will be printed in Calgary by our print partner ABL Imaging. Selected Artists receive a $150 Production Expense Allocation to support the cost of exhibition printing. In addition, ABL offers our Emerging artists a 40% discount on production costs. With this discount, the Production Expense Allocation covers a range of options and almost all of our Artists are able to produce their prints as desired with the allocated funds. If artists wish to exceed the allocation amount, the additional cost will be assumed solely by the artist.
TIMELINE
Call for Submissions goes live: August, 2024
Open Call Deadline: October 4, 2024
Notification of Results: October 31, 2024
Print Deadline: December, 2024
Exhibition Installation: January, 2024
Exhibition Opens: February, 2024
EXPOSURE 2024 international open call PARTNERs
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that the Exposure Photography Festival takes place on the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. We would also like to acknowledge that Exposure Photography Festival is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and that the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary. Finally, we honour and acknowledge all Nations, indigenous and non, who live, work and play in Moh’kins’tsis and help steward this land and honour and celebrate this territory.