New Talents 2023

ORGANISER

The sixth edition of Belgrade Photo Month Photography Festival will be organized in April 2023, with photography exhibitions, lectures, workshops, portfolio reviews, etc., taking place in various venues around Belgrade, Serbia.

CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY

The open call is open to anyone of any nationality, professional or amateur, born after 1st January 1997. However, an entry may be rejected should the sponsoring organisation or its agent find that the entry does not conform to the exhibition rules and conditions. There are no restrictions as to the topic  except as outlined in the rules and definitions of specific sections, or otherwise stipulated by the laws of the Republic of Serbia.

Entries must be in the form of photographs (image-captures of objects via light sensitivity) made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or digitally. By virtue of submitting an entry, the entrant declares the work as their own (pseudonyms are not permitted). The entrant thus permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the submitted material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. This also may include low-resolution posting of the material on a website.

The organisers of the exhibition assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright. Images may be altered, either electronically or otherwise, by the author.

THEME

Colorama
We are tired of viruses, pandemics and lockdowns, we are sick of wars in the name of peace and national borders, we are sick of regimes dressed in garments of pseudo-democracies.

We are aware that any attempt at changing the world and the reality we inhabit, will not be a mean task; however, what we will endeavour to do along the way is to keep adding even if only little grains of sand that will eventually grow into something larger, purposeful and meaningful.

So, let’s wear Johnny Depp sunglasses, let’s ride Falkor and let’s fly Somewhere over the rainbow. Let’s imagine a Kodachrome planet. Let’s keep a dream alive for a while, at least from March 30th until April 29th 2023, because as Joan Miró famously said: “I try to apply colour like the words that shape poems, like notes that shape music”, let’s try to shape our reality with colours.

We are thus inviting all potential participants to submit their proposals, revolving around something as simple, yet as beautiful as colours in all of their splendour are.

ENTRY FEE

Free

THE EXHIBITION CALENDAR

Submission closing date 9/2/2023 23.30h Belgrade time

Successful authors notified 1/3/2023

The exhibition will be held during 30 March 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia.

The results will be published on the festival website

www.belgradephotomonth.org

SUBMISSION OF WORKS

The works have to be sent by email to

newtalents2023@belgradephotomonth.org

Authors can apply with colour photos for the Belgrade Photo Month – New Talents exhibition.

Entries are limited to one project per entrant comprised of 8 to 15 photographs. Maximum dimension for individual photos is 1920 pixels (longer side), 72 dpi, format jpg in best compression quality.

The proposal needs to be titled and each photo must have the project title and be numbered according to the order in which the photos will be viewed in the project.

Photographs should be accompanied by an artist’s statement and a short curriculum vitae/biography (including birth date), along with a text about the proposal, not exceeding 3,000 characters in English.

Proposals submitted in previous editions cannot be resubmitted.

Further information about the form or submitting entries may be obtained via info@belgradephotomonth.org or phone number +381638006371

SPECIAL INFORMATION FOR THE THREE FINALISTS AND THE BEST LOCAL PROPOSAL

Photographers nominated for the finalist exhibition will be requested to send selected photographs as high-resolution images no later than 3 days after the date of nomination. Otherwise, there is no obligation on the part of the organisers to print their work for the exhibition.

JURY

The jury will evaluate submitted work on the basis of creativity, originality, technical quality of submitted work and other criteria typically used at such assessments.

Members of the festival are not allowed to participate in the competition.

Jury members:

Sarah Girard is the director of the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, a festival of emerging photography that takes place every year in the city of Biel, Switzerland. Engaged as an expert in photography and in the field of culture in several institutions, she is regularly invited to participate in juries and portfolio reviews. In 2021, she joined the board of directors of the newspaper Le Temps. For more information, please check: www.bielerfototage.ch

Nadezhda Pavlova is a Bulgarian curator and educator. She teaches photography at the Bulgarian National Academy of Fine Arts, with particular focus on the history of photography and photo books. Nadezhda is the chief curator at Synthesis photography gallery in Sofia, as well as the member of the Association of Art Critics AICA, the member of the Advisory Board of FotoEvidence and of the Managing Board of Bulgarian Academy of Photography.

For more information, please check: www.nadezhdapavlova.com

Carmen Álvarez has been acareer diplomat since 2008, primarily working within the field of culture in several positions, i.e. as the Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2008-12), theCultural Counselor at the Embassy of Spain in Brussels (2012-14), and was also in charge of the Spain Arts and Culture programme in Belgium. She was the Director of the Instituto Cervantes in Tel Aviv (2014-18) and the Deputy Head of Mission at the Spanish Embassy in Belgrade (2018-2022). As the Head of the cultural department, she collaborated with the Belgrade Photo Month, as one of numerous projects bringing the Spanish and Serbian cultures closer together.

Dragan Pavlović was born in Niš in 1963. His interest in photography started during the secondary school. In 1986, however, he left for Czechoslovakia to study art photography, where he also completed his Master’s degree at FAMU (The Film and TV Faculty) of AMU (The Academy of Performing Arts) in 1991. After the graduation, he was professionally engaged in commercial photography and publishing in the Czech Republic and Serbia. A member of ULUPUDS (The Association of Applied Artists and Designers of Serbia) since 1991, he participated in several May Exhibitions and group exhibitions of the Photography Section. Currently teaches photography as an associate professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University in Belgrade.

Matej Sitar is an art photographer with a wide spectrum of interests, currently living and working in Maribor. He has worked as an architectural photographer, published limited edition photo-books under his own brand The Angry Bat; he also organizes the Maribor photobook award, presents photo-books by different authors on his blog and is exhibiting regularly in Slovenia and internationally. His publishing house has so far produced eleven photo books and he is a regular participant at photo book fairs and talks about photo books at festivals. He was awarded the EMZIN price for his series America, my way, several artistic grants and the prestigious Essl Award for young contemporary artists (2009).

For more information, please check: www.matejsitar.com www.thenagrybat.com

AWARDS

The organisers will choose three best proposals, including the best local proposal (Serbian) from all the work submitted.

From three selected proposals, the organisers will choose the best one, and will  also award the prizes for the 2nd and 3rd  places, as well as for the
best local proposal.

All four projects will be printed by Canon Serbia and will form part of the Belgrade Photo Month exhibition under the title: New Talents 2023.

COPYRIGHT AND THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Copyright and all other author’s rights belong to the photographer. In case of violation of these rights the organisers will take necessary legal measures.

Photographers will be credited on all official festival publications and during the exhibition of their work. All contestants accept that the organisers and general sponsors can use submitted photographs for marketing and promotional purposes, including announcements in the media (press, TV, digital) and exhibitions in connection with Belgrade Photo Month Festival.

All nominated and winning photographs will be part of the Belgrade Photo Month festival collection. The festival will be administering the collection according to the established professional rules and principles with the intention to promote the concept of the festival and individual photographers.