open call 2019

Photographers are invited to submit work to an open theme exhibition hosted by the Exposure Photography Festival in Calgary, Alberta. Selected work will be exhibited during the month of February in 2019.

The Exposure Photography Festival 2019 is now accepting submissions for the annual Open Call exhibition, juried by Sarah Burtscher, Gallery Director, Stephen Bulger Gallery.  15 artists will be chosen to participate, and accepted work will be shown in a feature exhibition hosted by the Exposure Photography Festival during the month of February. 

Where?

The exhibition will take place in the galleries of the historic Pioneer Building on Stephen Avenue in Calgary (former home of Contemporary Calgary and the Art Gallery of Calgary).

Here’s what you need to do:

Submit individual images or a thematically linked series of photographs, along with a written statement about the images. You must submit a minimum of  3 images with a maximum of 10. 

Submission Deadline: October 17, 2018
Notification: November 1, 2018
Fee: $35 for 3 images; additional images may be submitted for $5 each, up to 10 total.

2019 Open Call Juror: Sarah Burtscher

Sarah Burtscher is the Gallery Director at Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto’s leading commercial photography gallery for historical and contemporary work from Canadian and international artists. Sarah has curated exhibitions including: MYTORONTO, an exhibition through which participants affected by homelessness connect with their community and, for four years, SNAP!,  an annual photographic fundraiser in support of programs and services provided by the Aids Committee of Toronto. She has also been on a number of exhibition juries including THE FENCE 2018 and RMG Exposed in 2017 and 2018. Sarah holds a BFA in Photography Studies from Ryerson University’s Image Arts program.

The images can be shot in any format, using any camera, on film or digital. There are no restrictions on when the submitted images were taken. Each image file can be a maximum of 5MB in size. All images must be submitted as JPEGs—files submitted in any other format (including TIFF, PDF, PSD, etc.) will not be reviewed. The file name of your image must be your first and last names followed by 01, 02, 03, etc. (e.g. RobertFrank01.jpg). Submit a statement accompanying your work. Your statement must be under 1500 characters in length (approximately 250 words).

All exhibiting artists will be paid $115 CAD in artist fees in accordance with CARFAC guidelines. 

Work chosen will be promoted online at Artsy.net, our official online partner, which receives 2.5 million monthly visitors. Any sales inquiries collected from Artsy will be sent to each artist in real time, and it will be the artist’s choice and sole responsibility to conduct any potential sale (Exposure and Artsy take 0% commission).

Selected exhibitors must deliver their photographs to Exposure framed and ready to hang. Notification will include specific instructions for delivery and return of work at the close of the festival. Exhibitors may choose to have their work printed and framed in Calgary. Our Exhibition Presenting Sponsor, Resolve Photo, are master printers who produce exquisite fine art prints on a wide range of papers. Contact Resolve directly for more information on local printing/framing options.

Digital files of the winning images will be used for press and publicity purposes. A selection of winning images will be displayed and promoted on the Exposure Photography Festival website and social media, reaching viewers worldwide.

Exposure reserves the right to decline work that, in the juror's judgement, does not match the online image submission.

Exposure reserves the right to display, reproduce and publish in any media, any entry, without payment, for the sole purpose of the Exposure Photography Festival–this year and in future–and its promotion and publicity. No copyright is transferred to the Festival in respect of any works entered or accepted. Each entrant will be deemed to warrant they own the entire copyright for the work or that they have permission from the licensee and/or copyright owner(s) for the uses. All relevant clearances and/or model releases must have been obtained for the use of the photographs for publication and exhibition.

For more information and questions please send us an email.