Due: March 21, 2016
TPS 25: The International Competition | Texas Photographic Society
Juror: Rixon Reed

Texas Photographic Society is delighted to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of this annual call for entry. To commemorate the long-standing history of the international competition, this year’s juror, Rixon Reed, will select the work of 25 photographers for the exhibition. This call is open-themed, and submissions from artists of all levels are encouraged.

Calendar of Events
02-02-16  Call for entry announced
03-21-16  Entries due
04-15-16  Emails sent to entrants
05-23-16  Matted and framed prints due in Alpine, Texas
06-03-16  Show opens at Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas
08-31-16  Show closes; travels to Martin Museum of Art in Waco, Texas, among other venues

Awards
First Place = $500
Second Place = $300
Third Place = $200
Director’s Award = $200
Up to 5 Honorable Mentions may be awarded

Entry Fees
Entry fee is $30 for 5 images, plus $6 for each additional image. Photographers may enter up to 10 images. Please don’t forget to include your membership fee, if also joining TPS at the time of entry.

Eligibility
TPS 25: The International Competition is open to artists of all levels internationally. You do not need to be a member of the Texas Photographic Society to enter this competition. However, you may join TPS and enter this show at the same time (read more about TPS member benefits). Works exhibited previously in a TPS show are not eligible, and all entries must be submitted digitally. Current members of the TPS Board are permitted to enter but are not eligible for awards.

Instructions for entry are outlined below, following the juror’s bio and statement.

About the Juror
Rixon Reed, Founder and Director of photo-eye and Art Photo Index in Santa Fe, New Mexico

After graduating from the University of Arkansas, Rixon Reed attended NYU film school and later worked for Lee Witkin managing the Witkin Gallery photobook department in New York in the mid-1970s.

Reed started photo-eye in Austin, Texas, in 1979 as a mailorder book business and issued the first photo-eye Booklist—at the time, one of the very few ways you could buy a curated selection of photobooks via mail. The photo-eye Booklist became a widely read catalogue of the best photobooks published. In 1991, Reed moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and opened photo-eye as a combined gallery and retail bookstore space. In 1996, photo-eye opened on the web as one of the first online galleries and specialty bookstores.

Today, photo-eye Gallery is located in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District showing acclaimed contemporary photographers along with emerging artists. In a separate location, photo-eye Bookstore + Project Space showcases the best in photobooks while exhibiting book-related projects.

In 2013, Reed created Art Photo Index to help curators, gallerists, publishers and other photo professionals discover new work by emerging talent. Art Photo Index is a resource and search engine of nearly 37,000 works by over 3,700 photographers from 90 countries.

Juror’s Statement
In today’s image-laden world, it’s not hard to find interesting photographs to view. There are an incredible number of websites with constant streams of images, but usually with very little context. Scroll through them long enough and you’ll almost always find something to linger on. But for me, it’s rare that these images give me the desire to delve deeper and learn more about the work scrolling past me.

So, what do I respond to?

As a bookseller who sees hundreds of new titles each year, I get most excited about work that uses the medium in aesthetically interesting ways. I’m drawn to all kinds of imagery from documentary, street photography, portraiture, nudes, to constructed photographs and studio work. In judging whether or not a book is successful, I ask myself, does this present an unusual viewpoint? How creative is the design? Does the form it takes make sense aesthetically with the work it contains?

As a gallerist, I’m drawn to artists who are exploring their world in exciting new ways and producing images with fresh ideas and/or aesthetic beauty. I’m particularly interested in the use of alternative processes in the age of the digital image or unusual uses of digital photography.

But ultimately, when looking at individual images, I want to be struck by their originality. I want to feel the image emotionally and I want it to be smartly done.  I want to find images that make me think, “Here is a creative mind working on something different.”

WE HAVE A NEW ONLINE ENTRY FORM FOR SUBMITTING WORK TO COMPETITIONS

Prepare Your Files
1. Files should be 1200 pixels in the longest dimension and saved in JPEG format on the highest quality setting. Images should also be saved in Adobe RGB color space.

2. Label each file as FirstName_Lastname_ followed by consecutive numbers. For example: Sam_Jones_1.jpg, Sam_Jones_2.jpg, etc. Please don’t forget to include the “jpg” extension.

3. Do NOT use spaces in the file name, and do NOT use special characters such as :;’”/?}{()[ ]+=*&^%$#@! (use only alpha-numeric characters).

4. Please prepare the following information for each image: (1) print title; (2) print process/medium; and (3) price or NFS.

Submit Your Entries and Make Payment via Online Entry Form
Please select the “Enter Now” button above and follow the prompts to make your payment online (or by check) and then upload your files. If you experience difficulties with this online entry form, please notify TPS Executive Director Amy Holmes George atamy@texasphoto.org.

Sales
TPS encourages the sales of exhibited work and will not seek commission from print sales. The opening venue for this exhibition, Museum of the Big Bend, will collect a 30% commission on all works sold in their space. Print your name, address, telephone number(s), and price on the back of each accepted print. If your print is Not-For-Sale, simply note NFS but provide a dollar amount for record-keeping purposes. If you do not indicate a dollar value, the artwork will be listed as NFS.

Liability
TPS will exercise all due care when handling your work, but will not be held responsible for loss, damage, or replacement.

Reproduction
TPS retains the right to display, project, and reproduce work accepted for this exhibition for publicity and promotional purposes only. Individual photographers still retain copyright to his/her own individual images. Also, an exhibition catalog will be created to showcase the selected works.

If Your Work is Accepted
* Prints must be matted AND framed for submission.

1. Send one exhibition print for each photograph that is accepted.

2. Prints must be mounted and overmatted using 16″ x 20″ white mat board with at least 2″ of matte visible on all sides of the print. Maximum print size is 12″ x 16″.  Smaller prints, 3″ x 5″ for example, are acceptable if they are mounted and overmatted to the 16″ x 20″ size. To ensure consistency in presentation, please frame your work using simple black metal frames with plexiglass ONLY. Also, please use hanging wire on the backside of your print. TPS reserves the right to exclude works from the exhibition that are not matted and framed according to specifications.

3. Include return postage for prints to be shipped back to you when the exhibition concludes. Prints WITHOUT postage will NOT be returned. Prints will be returned in the container in which they were received.

4. No packing “peanuts,” and please be considerate of our limited storage space when choosing your packaging.

5. Prints must arrive at Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, TX, no later than May 23, 2016.

If you have questions after reading all the guidelines, please contact us atshows@texasphoto.org.