KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 Open Call !

KAUNAS PHOTO is the largest annual photographic festival in the Baltic States, based in Kaunas, Lithuania, since 2004. Maintaining its strong international character, KAUNAS PHOTO is a platform of priemieres of emerging talents. “Photo World” magazine (China) described KAUNAS PHOTO festival as a spot of the Europe’s Crossroads of photography. Being the prime event of art photography in Lithuania, KAUNAS PHOTO pursues an objective to be both audience and photographer -friendly festival.

In 2017, partnering with LensCulture, KAUNAS PHOTO festival announces an open call for its 14th edition, offering an array of opportunities for photographers from inclusion to festival program, KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 Award (solo exhibition at the largest photography gallery in the Baltic States) to paid residencies.

Theme “WATER”
In 2017, photographers are invited by KAUNAS PHOTO festival to submit a series of 12-15 works on the themes related to water. What should the works speak about?
Anything imaginable: lack & excess, drought & flood, rain & snow, chemistry and biology, life & death, surface & depth, economy & ecology, adventure & accident, seas & oceans, coastlines & islands, rivers & lakes, fear & relaxation, work & holidays, resorts & harbors, glaciers & icebergs, pollution & treatment, extinction & conservation, connection & separation, bridges & ferries, energy & aesthetics, health and harm.
You name it in your works!

Who can submit? What works?
All photographers, artists, regardless of their age, nationality and place of residence are invited to submit work. KAUNAS PHOTO festival is known for its focus on documentary, but all styles, genres and approaches to photography are accepted and exhibited.

Deadline: April 1, 2017, entrant’s local time.

Entry consists of:

title of the work;
12-15 images (2000 px on the longer side, JPG);
short description of the work (up to 250 words);
short written biography (up to 250 words), follwed by photographer’s contacts: email, phone number/s, mailing address.

Submission fee: entry 29 EUR, payable at the time of submission. Entries of multiple series allowed.
First 50 applicants will receive a free catalog of KAUNAS PHOTO 2016 by post.

Jury Members (the list is growing):

Hannah Frieser – Center for Photography at Woodstock (Woodstock, NY, USA), Executive Director
Andrius Pukis – POST Gallery (Kaunas, Lithuania), Founder and Director
David Bram – Fraction Magazine (Albuquerque, NM, USA), Publisher
Jean-Marc Lacabe – Le Château d’Eau gallery, (Toulouse, France), Director
Kristina Juraitė – Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania), Head of Mass Communications Department
Julia Durkin – Auckland Festival of Photography (New Zealand), Founder & Public Participation Director
Maira Dudareva – Latvian Museum of Photography (Riga, Latvia), Director
Enrico Stefanelli – PhotoLux Festival (Lucca, Italy), Founder and Director
Laura Toots – Tallinn Photomonth contemporary art biennial (Estonia), Artistic Director
Nestan Nijaradze – Tbilisi Photo Festival (Georgia), Artistic Director
Maciej Jaźwiecki – Gazeta Wyborcza and Duży Format Magazine (Warsaw, Poland), Photo Editor
Donatas Stankevičius – Kaunas Photography Gallery and KAUNAS PHOTO (Lithuania), Curator & Exhibition Architect
Mindaugas Kavaliauskas – KAUNAS PHOTO festival (Lithuania), Founder & Director

3 Types of Opportunities in One Call
There are multiple ways in which artists submitting works to Kaunas Photo Open call can be enrolled in Kaunas Photo festival 2017:

KAUNAS PHOTO festival program, including Outdoor exhibitions presented in squares in Kaunas, Exhibitions in galleries, Intro Exhibition at M.Žilinskas Art Gallery of the National M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum and Projection events, among them one open-air night with screens in the center and old town of Kaunas, inspired by the Nuit de l’Annee in Arles. Dates to be precised;
KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 – solo exhibition at the Kaunas Photography Gallery;
Artist Residencies in Kaunas of 7-14 days aiming to create water-related works in Kaunas.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 Award
The winner of the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 title will be one of the TOP-4 photographers / artists. The TOP-4 positions will be determined by the mathematical calculation of the online votes of Jury Members. The choice of the Winner, since 2014 is done by a board of curators of KAUNAS PHOTO festival and Kaunas Photography Gallery , the host of the exhibition.
The winner receives:

a solo exhibition at Kaunas Photography Gallery (200 sq. metres);
accommodation in Kaunas for up to 4 days at festival’s designated hotel in Kaunas;
international return trip allowance of up to 250 EUR, based on real travel tickets, invoices;
coverage of transportation or production costs of the exhibition based on mutual agreement.

The other portfolios of TOP-4 will be exhibited in the festival, in general order applied to other participants: exhibition or transportation of works at festival expense, up to 2 days coverage of festival-designated hotel, partial travel allowance of 100 EUR, based on real travel expenses, paid upon arrival in Kaunas and presentation of travel tickets, invoices.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR exhibitions at Kaunas Photography Gallery, same as other festival exhibitions tend to have a site specific character, therefore, every exhibition is regarded as individual. Its implementation requires a common work between the photographer / artist and the exhibition curator and architect.
Winners of previous KAUNAS PHOTO STAR award, who have held their exhibitions at KAUNAS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY (exhibition year follows the year of the title):

Julien Lombardi (France, 2016)
Jeniffer Thoreson (USA, 2014)
Andrejs Strokins (Latvia, 2013)
Andrei Liankevich (Belarus, 2012)
Luca Zanier (Switzerland, 2011)
Eric Lusito (France, 2010)

Artist Residencies @ KAUNAS PHOTO
In the recent years the festival started inviting artists to create works in Kaunas using their developed style. In 2017, several artists will be invited to realize a work about water-based subjects.
Duration of the residency 7-14 days. The festival engages in paying the international return trip, accommodation in Kaunas, an artist fee of 500 EUR, payable against an invoice. Additional costs of creation might be covered by KAUNAS PHOTO. The works created during the residency are to be exhibited and published by the festival. The artists selected are expected to deliver one public artist talk. The selection will be based on the existing work the style, topic of which could be adapted to Kaunas. Candidates will be contacted for availability and interest to undertake the project proposal.

Selection process: Jury Members, Curators and their votes
A panel of invited Jury members will be reviewing the portfolios as soon as they are submitted for review. After the end of the submission period, a list of rated portfolios will be generated. Based on this list, TOP – 4 will be designated. In case of equal ratings of the neighboring standings, the top circle may be enlarged.
– Exhibitions, Projection events, Residencies – picks by the festival curators, considering the portfolios’ messages, suitability to specific urban spaces, artistic and thematic uniqueness of water narratives.
– KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 – solo exhibition at the Kaunas Photography Gallery, experts votes to generate TOP-4, winner’s choice by festival and gallery curators.
All the photographers from the TOP-4 positions will be invited to exhibit in either outdoor, public space or the central exhibition. One will be selected for KAUNAS PHOTO STAR award.

KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 Timetable
March 2– April 1, 23:59 – Entrant’s local time – Call for entries;
March 20 – April 7 – experts and festival curators Reviewing portfolios;
June 1 – Intro exhibition at M.Žilinskas Art Gallery of the National M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum & outdoor exhibitions across Kaunas;
June 1 – announcement of KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2017 TOP 4 artists and participants of KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 exhibitions, residencies;
June 1–End of October – outdoor exhibitions in squares of Kaunas;
September 1 – Openings of exhibitions of TOP 4 and KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Winner’s exhibition;
September 1– 14 – Openings of exhibitions, artist talks, portfolio reviews.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival
(Lithuania, since 2004) has been a festival of premieres for future stars of contemporary photography. Being a part of Photo Festival Union and Festivals Of Light Organization, KAUNAS PHOTO festival is the longest-running photographic festival in the Baltic states is a platform for dialogue around contemporary photographic creation between North and South, East and West.
Today, more and more competitions (even highly ranked ones), galleries and festivals practice requesting artists to pay for almost every aspect of participation and exhibiting their works – from high entry fees to production of works, travel, accommodation.
If selected to exhibit at KAUNAS PHOTO festival, photographers do not need to make investments. In most cases, the works are produced to match site-specific settings at the expense of the festival. If the artists’ works are available to be transported, are in reasonable distance within the EU and match the general idea of exhibition and space in Kaunas, the festival covers transportation and insurance of works. Hotel accommodation for at least 2 days in Kaunas (at festival’s chosen hotel) is paid, if invited artists are available to be present at exhibition openings or purposely arranged guided tours. The only promise the festival is unable to make, is taking the full travel bill. Therefore, a modest contribution to travel costs is offered to participants of exhibitions. Adapted in 2010, this formula has enabled most artists to be present at KAUNAS PHOTO festival exhibition openings or guided tours, artist talks.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival is in pursuit of perfection in building exhibitions, respect to artists and by welcoming artists, curators and audience, making world-wide photo exchange happen.
For references, please consult a friend who has exhibited in Kaunas and visited his/her exhibition, especially after 2010.

Author’s rights and other legal aspects
While submitting works to the KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 open call, photographers declare that they are the only owners of the economic author’s rights to the pictures submitted. They agree that the pictures submitted can be reproduced in materials and forms of artistic or media presentation of KAUNAS PHOTO festival outcomes, such as flyers, invitation cards, post cards, posters, catalogs, projections, slideshows, web sites, including but not limited to that of KAUNAS PHOTO festival for unlimited time in unlimited territory without any royalty payments. Entrants accept their responsibility for the right to the image of persons, models, places, objects or trade marks appearing in the pictures submitted to KAUNAS PHOTO festival on-line portfolio reviews.
KAUNAS PHOTO festival does not limit the photographers’ /artists’ economic rights to promote, broadcast, exhibit, publish and sell their images submitted to KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s open call for works.

Enter until April 1, 2017 (your local time) via LensCulture

Link address:
https://www.lensculture.com/competitions/kaunas-2017/events

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