Call for Entires: Upside down

Call for Entries newsletter

Upside down

A curated international photography exhibition

March 9 – April 1, 2023

While photographs are valued for their depictive potential and representative content, the non-depictive, non-representational aspects of photographic works are also strongly related to their aesthetic significance. In this spirit, art photography has always aimed for the unity of form and content. Abstract photography has gone even further, celebrating abstract compositions for their own sake, without the need for appreciating or even recognising depictive content in the images. Turning a photograph upside down tends to strip it from its representative function, because the depicted scene and objects are difficult if not impossible to recognise when the image is turned to its side or upside down. However, the formal, compositional aspects of photographs become more pronounced that way, as our attention is steered away from scene and object recognition. In our Upside down exhibition, we would like to show photographs that are indeed turned upside down. Any photograph is eligible if the artist is willing to show it in this unusual way. Abstract photographs might be considered to be the most suitable candidates for this experimental exhibiting method, but there are many depictive works as well whose compositional qualities might also be appreciated in novel ways when turning them upside down, thus liberating us from studying and concentrating on their representational content. Landscapes, bodyscapes, symmetrical compositions, or even architectural and street photography may be good candidates for turning images upside down, but images in other photographic genres may also be considered for this exhibition.

PH21 Gallery invites photographers to submit their work for a group exhibition themed Upside down. We are looking for submissions from all photographers who are interested in this subject and would like to share their work with a wider international audience through the exposure of PH21 Gallery. The theme is broadly construed, as this topic is independent of generic or stylistic constraints. Indeed, we are interested in all possible creative photographic interpretations of the theme.

One curator’s choice and up to three honourable mentions will be announced. The juror’s choice receives three free entries for any upcoming themed group exhibition calls at PH21 Gallery. (Each free entry includes up to 15 images.)

Curators: Zsolt Bátori and Borbála Jász

Zsolt is a philosopher of art and photographer. He currently serves as the Head of the Research Centre for Art and Creative Industries at Kodolányi János University, and he is also an associate professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He visits the University of Murcia in Spain for regular research collaborations as a member of the research group Phrónesis. He has conducted research and taught philosophy of art and photography courses at various universities in Hungary, the United States, Spain and Argentina, and has exhibited his photographic work internationally. Zsolt is also the founder and director of PH21 Gallery.

Visit Zsolt's website.

Borbála is an art historian and a philosopher of art. She works as a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and as an assistant professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. She is responsible for the operations of our new Project Room at Ráday 52, and she also works with our social media accounts and website.

Submission deadlines:

Early bird deadline: January 2, 2023
Final deadline: January 9, 2023

Notification: All entrants will be notified 10-15 days after the final deadline.

Exhibition dates: March 9 – April 1, 2023

There are two submission options:

A) Standard submission:

Until the early bird deadline:

You may submit 3, 5, 7, 10, or 15 images; these may be all individual works, or they may also include a series of maximum 5 photographs. The entry fee is €20.00 for the first 3 images, €25.00 for 5 images, €30.00 for 7 images, €35.00 for 10 images, and €40.00 for 15 images.

After the early bird deadline:

The entry fee after the early bird deadline is €25.00 for the first 3 images, €30.00 for 5 images, €35.00 for 7 images, €40.00 for 10 images, and €45.00 for 15 images.

B) Special fee:

Until the early bird deadline:

There is a special rate for maximum 5 images for students and unwaged persons as well as for applicants from low-income economies.

The special fee is €13.00.

Please do not ask us about your eligibility or send us any proof because we trust your judgement. The special rate is simply for people who – for the reasons indicated above – would not be able to afford the standard fee. This also includes photographers whose financial situation has significantly worsened due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

After the early bird deadline:

The special fee after the early bird deadline is €18.00.

Submission rules and guidelines:

Please add ph21.gallery@ph21gallery.com and reg@ph21gallery.com to your whitelist, so that our letters are not treated as spam by your e-mail client.
The entry fee is not refundable.
This call for entries is competitive; entrants are not guaranteed inclusion in the exhibition by submitting an entry. Depending on the number and the quality of the entries received, the work of an entrant may or may not be curated into the show.
The selection of the juror is final.
Please send in the entry fee first (see the payment option at the bottom of the page), and then submit your images by e-mail to submission@ph21gallery.com, indicating the theme of the exhibition in the subject line.
Images must follow the following format: 8 bit JPEG; Adobe RGB or sRGB; longest dimension maximum 1280 pixels (preferred width for landscape orientation: 1000 pixels; preferred height for portrait orientation: 775 pixels); 72 dpi; maximum 1 MB.
File names: lastname_title or lastname_title_number. File names of maximum 40 characters should only contain letters of the English alphabet and underscores. Please do not use spaces and foreign characters in the file names. Titles may be shortened (please avoid very long file names), and they should be given without spaces in the file name. No spaces in the file names, please. (The image titled A Little Cottage in the Rain by Maria Martínez would have this file name: Martinez_LittleCottage.jpg; the third untitled image by Huan Lee: Lee_Untitled_3.jpg; the second photograph of the series "Surface" by Lena Petrovich: Petrovich_Surface_2.jpg)
In the body of your submission e-mail please include
- a) your name;
- b) your city and country (with state abbreviation if USA);
- c) your website address (if you have one);
- d) the exhibition theme;
- e) titles of all included photos with the corresponding file names (in case of a series, please number the photos of the series, and indicate the title of the series, if it has one);
- f) the actual or desired print size (in centimetres or inches) of each photograph.
All photographers 18 years or older worldwide may enter the competition by submitting their own, original work.
PH21 Gallery welcomes submissions from, and exhibits work of emerging and established photographers as well.
Photographs entered to this call do not have to be editioned. If accepted to the exhibition, it still remains the choice of the photographer to edition the work (e.g.: "ed. 10") or to leave the work uneditioned ("open ed.").
The exhibition copy (if having printed by PH21 Gallery) will be an archival pigment print. However, photographers may also choose to indicate different print types if they offer their accepted work for sale.
Photographs entered to the call do not have to be for sale.
By entering, entrants automatically accept the conditions of the competition; they grant PH21 Gallery nonexclusive right to use and reproduce submitted photographs (with the name of the photographer and the title of the work indicated) for promotional (e.g.: website and Facebook page of the Gallery, catalogue) and exhibition purposes. No royalties or compensation will be paid for these purposes. All copyrights and ownership of the works are retained by the photographer. Entrants assume and accept all legal and financial responsibility for any infringement on the privacy rights or copyright of others, caused by creating or presenting their work in public. PH21 Galley retains the right to exclude from the competition entries that violate the conditions of the competition and ones that violate any human or privacy rights.
Please add ph21.gallery@ph21gallery.com and reg@ph21gallery.com to your address book. Otherwise your mail client may treat our letters as spam.

When your work is selected for the exhibition:

Entrants selected for the exhibition will be asked to register for the exhibition and to provide a high-resolution TIFF (or JPEG) file for us to have their photograph printed for a standard exhibition printing and installation fee. Your exhibition registration payment includes the cost of the print and the cost of its installation. Exhibition prints are matted (without a frame) on a board for installation, and the fee depends on the size of the print. For instance, for up to 40 centimetres or 15.75 inches (longest dimension) the matted exhibition print fee is €35.00. (Exhibiting photographers may also opt for shipping their own exhibit-ready prints.)

Exhibition prints will be kept on file for 6 months for future promotion unless the photographer prefers some other arrangement. In case of a sale inquiry the photographer will be promptly contacted. PH21 Gallery commission is 25%. (Submitted photographs, however, do not have to be for sale, and exhibition prints will never be sold; they are for exhibition and promotion purposes only.)

PH21 Gallery archives all photography exhibitions electronically, allowing us to promote our exhibiting photographers to curators, collectors as well as the viewing public. Our website also functions as a virtual gallery site, and all photographs included in our exhibitions are published on the dedicated page of the exhibition.

Further information: ph21.gallery@ph21gallery.com

Please use PayPal for paying your entry fee. We can only accept payments via PayPal at the moment.