Due: March 30, 2015
Water | A Smith Gallery
Juror: Gayle Stevens

wa – ter : rain, tears, agua, springs, drink, rivers, wet, steam, flood, moisture, lakes, humidity, damp, soak, ocean, wash, aquatic, splash…

“The waterskiing bobble heads floated just on the surface.  Belle sat on the gravelly shore, her young son sat in the lap of her new boyfriend, Chance, repeatedly asking why his Mommy’s car was in the lake.

Belle was a water baby.  Her mother and her part-time astrologist sister set her on her watery path early, constantly reminding her of her Aquarian destiny: living in, around and with water.  Being born on February fourteenth gave her her name.  Her Grandmother, Belle Tran Ashcroft, a Vietnamese/French war bride was also born on Valentine’s Day in an art deco teak and brick house on a coffee, rubber and cashew plantation northwest of what was then Saigon.

She was a South Vietnamese water skiing champion.  She met her future husband when he and his soldier buddies were skiing on “her” lake during a weekend of R and R in 1967.  He was also raised on a plantation, in Mississippi.

Grandmother Belle spoke French fluently along with her native Vietnamese.  She struggled always with English, easily moving herself to tears of frustration or amusement when trying to create english vowel sounds or recount a story of her youth.  Sitting there by the lake, with her reasonably new automobile mostly submerged in the clear blue water, Belle looked down at the tears beading up on her tanned mid section, remembering Grandmother Belle trying to say the word fry…”   from the story “Tow Rope” by Franklin Cincinnatus

Juror:
Gayle Stevens will be the juror for “water”. Ms. Stevens has worked in antiquarian photographic processes for over twenty years. Her chosen medium is wet plate collodion for its fluidity and individuality. She exhibits extensively across the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China. Ms. Stevens received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. She is an educator, speaker, juror, curator and an active member of the photographic community. Named one of the Critical Mass Top Fifty Photographers for 2010 and 2014, she received second place in the Lens Culture International Exposure Awards in 2011 and was named a finalist for the Clarence John Laughlin Award in 2012 and 2014. Her work has been featured in Fraction, Square, Shots, Diffusion, B + W Photography, South by Southeast and Fuzion magazines and in Inventing Reality, New Orleans Visionary Photography. North Light Press published a book of Stevens’ work, Calligraphy, in their 11 + 1 Signature series. Christopher James will feature her work in the third edition of The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. Stevens’ work is widely collected and is part of the permanent collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Rockford Museum of Art and the Center for Fine Art Photography and recently the University of New Mexico Art Museum, among others. A member of the Posse photo collective, she divides her time shooting in Pass Christian, Mississippi and Downers Grove, Illinois, where she resides. Stevens is represented by Tilt Gallery, Catherine Couturier Gallery, and Gallery Kayafas and Paul Cava.

SUBMISSION | Guidelines:
Digital images should 1000 pixels on the longest side saved in JPEG format at 72 ppi. Each image should be labeled with consecutive numbers followed by your name, i.e. 1FirstName_LastName.jpg. The number should correspond with the number on the application form.

SUBMISSION | Online:
Fill out our online application to apply, send images, and make payment with Paypal. You will receive an email confirmation upon receiving the entry and payment. You can also fill and submit the online application, print out your confirmation email, and mail it with a check for your fees to the address below. 

SUBMISSION | Mail:
Please prepare a submission form with your name, address, email address and phone number along with a list of the titles and printing process of each entry.  The number of each title should correspond to the image number on the cd.  CD’s and submission form should be mailed to:

A Smith Gallery
P O Box 175
Johnson City, TX 78636

The gallery will send an email confirmation upon receiving the entry and payment.

SUBMISSION | Entry Fee:
$30 for the first 5 images, $6 per each additional image.

ELIGIBILITY:
The competition is open to all photographers both professional and amateur working in all photographic mediums and styles. International entries are welcomed. Work that has been previously exhibited in an A Smith Gallery competition is not eligible.

PRINTING/MATTING/FRAMING | information:
The gallery offers printing, matting and framing services for images that are selected. If sending framed work, please use mats and frames that compliment your work and are appropriate in a gallery setting. Colored mats and prints on foam core are discouraged. All images should be ready to hang with wires. Gallery wraps are acceptable. If you have any questions regarding appropriate presentation please contact amanda@asmithgallery.com.

AWARDS | The awards are as follows:

• Jurors Award – $325.00
• Directors Award – $250.00 and an exhibition catalogue
• Five Honorable Mentions – an exhibition catalogue
• Visitors Award – $100.00

SALES | The gallery will retain 40% of the sales price.  

USE RIGHTS | Photographers retain full rights to their own images. The gallery will use the photographer’s images for publicity purposes as well as in the Blurb exhibition catalogue. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION | amanda@asmithgallery.com