KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 Seaside Portfolio Reviews
KAUNAS PHOTO festival invites photographers and artists from around the world to take part in Portfolio Reviews on the 4th and 5th of September 2017 as part of this year’s festival. The reviews will take place in Nida, a Unesco heritage site on the Curonian Spit, surrounded by the Baltic Sea on one side and the Curonian Lagoon on the other.
The event will happen in collaboration with the annual Nida International Photography Symposium, one of the world’s oldest photography meeting, celebrating the 40th edition this year. Therefore this will be an opportunity to meet photographers, artists, curators and publishers who are taking part in the Symposium this year.
Our aim is to provide quality meetings for photographers, artists, curators and picture editors. We strive for a small selection of active reviewers that have plans to show and support new photographers they meet during the reviews. This will be a small, yet productive event, allowing plenty of time to network, attend other talks and lectures, and take in the beauty of Nida.
Portfolio Reviews at KAUNAS PHOTO festival
Meetings of emerging and mid-career artists with photography experts, such as directors of festivals, collectors, agents are organized in KAUNAS PHOTO annually, since 2010. Beyond providing valuable insights into artists’ work, the portfolio reviews hold the potential of showcasing works in exhibitions, publications, auctions, acquiring them into collections. At KAUNAS PHOTO experts are invited based on their present quality of activity, possibilities to create valyue to phographers.
The timings are as follows:
4th of September, Monday: 10AM- 12AM and 2PM- 5PM
5th of September, Tuesday: 10AM- 1PM and 2PM- 4PM
Each review will take 20min.
Reviews of the past few years brought immediate tangible outcome for a number of photographers, including works being shown in Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany and selling prints in an online art auction.
You can read last year’s success stories here >>
Who can register and what kind of works are expected?
Registration to KAUNAS PHOTO Portfolio Reviews is open to all photographers regardless of their age, nationality, country of residence, styles & genres of photography. All themes, styles, approaches are welcome, yet for online registration please send series and picture stories edited to 12 images. Previously not shown and unpublished work is a preference (not compulsory). Even though during the face-to-face portfolio reviews photographers can show multiple bodies of work, the online application must contain images from one selected body of work.
Given the respectability of the experts’ panel, KAUNAS PHOTO Portfolio Reviews are tailored for photographers and artists using photography regardless of their nationality, age, sex, country of origin or residence. Nonetheless, prior to registering to KAUNAS PHOTO Portfolio Reviews, photographers must have a record of their work having been exhibited (solo or collective exhibitions) or published in a respected art and photography magazine (printed or online).
How it works
Photographers are offered a minimum of 8 private sessions with experts. The first ones to register will get the most meetings, while the afternoon’s portfolio walk will enable all photographers to show their work to all the experts. KAUNAS PHOTO team will match the photographers with the reviewers based on type of work they are interested in. The portfolio walk, organized after the private sessions will allow the experts to meet all participant photographers and discover their works and exchange ideas with them and attribute votes for all the photographers’ works presented.
During these meetings photographers are allowed to show to experts multiple bodies of work, but only one portfolio must be presented in the process of registration.
Participants are responsible for arranging their trips and accommodation in Nida on their own cost. We will share travel and accommodation suggestions, to make the arrangements easier. Nida International Photography Symposium will last during the week, so staying in Nida after KAUNAS PHOTO 2017 Seaside Portfolio Reviews can be both interesting and useful experience.
We can only take a limited number of participants, so please register ASAP, and no later than the 25th of August.
KAUNAS PHOTO Seaside Portfolio Reviews Experts
 |
Marcus Hartmann(Stuttgart, Germany) – Hartmann Projects – Consultant, Curator, Publisher (b. 1962) in Berlin; lives and works in Stuttgart. He comes from a family of publishers and printers in Berlin. After training in publishing sales, studying at the Stuttgart Media University, and working in various positions in international publishing, he was in charge of the photography and contemporary art program at Hatje Cantz Publishers in Ostfildern from 1990 to 2013. He has been a freelance curator and author since 2014, and co-founded Hartmann Projects in 2015.
|
 |
Maira Dudareva(Riga, Latvia) – Director – Latvian Museum of Photography The head of the Latvian Museum of Photography has a long running experience in photography. She worked as the manager of photo archive of the daily newspaper “Diena” (1999. – 2008.), the manager of photo department of the daily newspaper “Diena” (1998. – 1999.), the photo reporter of the newspapers “Zemgales zinas” and “Zemgales avize” (1992. – 1998.). She did her MA – research “Digital photography indexation” at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia, where she is still enroled in doctoral program (from 2006). The Latvian Museum of Photography has a permanent exhibition, depicting the history of photography in Latvia from 1839 to 1940, simultaneously allows to apprehend the materiality of the photographic medium, which in the present age of the digital is often forgotten. The first types of the photographic image – daguerreotypes and ambrotypes in the museum’s collection clearly exhibit the specific nature of the photographic art – that of the imprint of light. Among the historical cameras on display the most unique is the world-renowned Minox. The 7cm miniature camera was originally manufactured in Latvia in the 1930s, and rumour has it that it was particularly popular among spies. The museum also shows exhibitions of notable Latvian and international photographers and strongly develops focus on exhibiting and educating audience focusing on contemporary photography.
|
 |
Arnis Balcus(Riga, Latvia) – photographer, editor, curator, programme director of The Riga Photomonth festival A practicing photographer. Since 2011 – editor in chief of FK Magazine. Co-founder, curator and programme director of the Riga Photomonth festival. From 2004 – 2009 was living and working in London, received a master’s degree in photography at the University of Westminster in 2005. Has exhibited in Riga, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, etc., as well as being published in magazines such as Achtung Mode (DE), Dazed & Confused (UK), Photo & Video (RU), Foto Kvartāls (LV), Black and White Magazine (USA), etc. Also working as a journalist since 1997, writing about photography and culture for Latvian publications. Has participated as an expert at portfolio reviews in Kaunas, Derby, Madrid and Landskrona photo festivals, as well as nominating and evaluating entries for photo contests such as Prix Pictet, First Photobook Prize and Google Photography Prize. Also teaches documentary photography at ISSP School and Riga Stradins University.
|
Ieva Meilutė-Svinkūnienė(Vilnius, Lithuania) – Vitas Luckus Centre of Photography – Director and Curator
|
|
 |
Grzegorz Jarmocewicz(Bialystok, Poland) – Bialystok INTERPHOTO Art Director Grzegorz Jarmocewicz – art director of the International Photography Festival Bialystok INTERPHOTO, Art.D., lecturer, curator, juror of photography competitions. President of the Photography and Multimedia Forum Association – main organizer of INTERPHOTO. Author of many exhibitions in Poland and abroad, as well as publications about photography. His works can be found in private collections, at the Center for Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw, Museo Ken Damy in Brescia in Italy, in the Regional Museum in Suwalki and Ludwik Zamenhof Centre in Bialystok. His main interest is creative photography and media merging all around photography as memory.
|
 |
Enrico Stefanelli(Lucca, Italy) – PhotoLux festival – Director A photographer and journalist who also teaches photography workshops. He founded and was, for 7 years, the artistic director of the international festival of photography and video art ‘Lucca Photo Fest’, established in 2005. Moreover, he is the founder and artistic director of the Photolux Festival, the new biennial of photography in Lucca. He is also the mastermind behind the ‘Faces – Portraits in the 20th Century’ exhibition, and he has curated several exhibitions at the Lucca Photo Fest, e.g. 2008. In 2010, he curated Tim Hetherington, ‘Battle Company’, Gianni Berengo Gardin, ‘L’Aquila’, Nany Fina, ‘Glamour and Fashion’, Fabio Zonta, ‘Trasfigurazini’, Rino Barillari, ‘Divas’, Jan Saudek, ‘Il Teatro Della Vita’, Michel Comte, ‘Not only Women’, Horst P. Horst, and, in 2011, Kenro Izu ‘Passage through Asia’, VII Agency ‘VII looks East’, Li Wei ‘Li Wei: Photography’, Wang Qinsong ‘The glorious life. Wang Quinsong’s photography 1999-2010’, Jing Queck ‘Singapore Idols’, Samuel Bourne, Francis Frith’s & Co., Photo Service Delhi ‘India: gentry and ancient mansions’, Nobuyoshy Araki ‘Polaroid’. Since 2010, Stefanelli has been the Italian curator of epea, the European Photo Exhibition Award.
|
 |
Alexa Becker(Heidelberg, Germany) – Kehrer Verlag – Acquisitions Editor Alexa Becker is the Acquisitions Editor for photography and art books for Kehrer Verlag, founded in 1995. Having obtained her Master’s in Art History from the University of Heidelberg, she started her career at Kehrer in 2003, where she is responsible for selecting and acquiring new photography-related projects. Mrs. Becker offers the point of view of a European art book publisher and is familiar with the overall art and photography market. As an acquiring editor for Kehrer, she is interested in projects that are based on a personal approach by the photographer towards the subject matter without it being evidently biographical. She is interested in seeing any of the above-mentioned types of projects. She is not open to seeing commercial portfolios.
|
 |
Adrian Wykrota(Poznan, Poland) – Pix.House Gallery -Curator Photographer, founder of PIX.HOUSE gallery. Born (1988) in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, based in Poznan (Poland), photojournalist at Polska Press (Glos Wielkopolski). Member of ZPAF (The Association of Polish Art Photographers). Graduated cultural studies -media specialization and English Philology. Member of UNPOSED collective. Scholarship holder of Marshal of the Wielkopolska region and city of Poznan. Has participated in Magnum Photos workshops in Belfast and Birmingham. In 2014 selected one of the 30 best photographers of the young generation by Magnum Photos. Winner of many important contests: Top 30 Under 30 Magnum Photos, IPA, Grand Press Photo, BzWBK Press Photo, Lumix Festival, Leica Street Photo. His photographs were exhibited in many countries. Blogger: “Co z tą fotografią?”/”What about photography?”.
|
 |
Michał Sita(Poznan, Poland) – Pix.House Gallery – Curator Michał Sita, born in 1985, freelance documentary photographer based in Poznań, Poland. Graduate of cultural anthropology at Adam Mickiewicz University (2011) and photography at Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (2008). Works on long-term photographic projects, such as on tribalism in Iraqi Kurdistan, small Finnish museums, daily life in Sudan, Nagorno Karabakh and Wielkopolska region. Curator of exhibitions and a book in an interdisciplinary project analysing photographic zoological archives, curator of XPRINT photobook festival in Poznań. One of co-founders of PIX.HOUSE Foundation, which is running a documentary photography gallery and a publishing house in Poznań .
|
 |
Lucy Johnston(London, UK) – Guardian News & Media – Deputy Photo Editor Lucy Johnston is a Photo Editor at the Guardian, working on the commercial features desk. She previously worked as a picture editor for leading fashion magazine, ELLE UK. Having started out as a editorial photographer, Lucy soon found her passion for photography and visual culture lead her to art buying and producing. Based in London (her hometown), she loves to find new emerging talent for the Guardian and whilst not busy at work, she continues to shoot her own personal work.
|
 |
Mindaugas Kavaliauskas(Kaunas, Lithuania) – KAUNAS PHOTO festival – Director Mindaugas Kavaliauskas is a curator, consultant, and publisher of photography. In 2004, he founded the KAUNAS PHOTO festival, which he has been directing ever since. KAUNAS PHOTO, the longest-running art photography festival in the Baltic states, focuses on works by emerging photographers and great, underexposed photography from all over the world. Mindaugas Kavaliauskas studied photography in Kaunas, Lithuania; Arles, France; Paris, France; and Lausanne, Switzerland, and he interned at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles from 1998-2002, and at Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne in Switzerland from 2000-2001. He has taught photography in many universities and schools, and has curated a number of exhibitions in photographic festivals, galleries, and museums in both Europe and Asia, among them FotoGrafia, Rome, Italy; Fotohonap, Budapest, Hungary; Photaumnales, Beauvais, France; Photodemer, Vannes, France; Backlight, Tampere, Finland; Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China; China-Lishui International Photo Festival, Lishui, China; Auckland Festival of Photography, Auckland, New Zealand. Reviewing portfolios at festivals such as Recontres d’Arles, PHotoESPAÑA, Eyes On (Vienna), and KAUNAS PHOTO STAR has been the most important channel for sourcing photographic works for his curatorial projects. Mindaugas Kavaliauskas is interested in and open to all styles and themes of photography, though his specific focus is documentary and conceptual long-term projects. Kavaliauskas speaks English, French, German, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian.
|
 |
Fred Boucher(Beauvais, France) – Photaumnales festival – Director Fred Boucher lives and works in north of France. He studied photography in Arles and created in 1991 Diaphane, a photography center, and in 2004 the festival of Photaumnales which presents exhibitions every year in Beauvais and throughout the area. The photographic center DIAPHANE, develops a policy of disseminating photography in the Picardy region by organizing exhibitions, festival, and setting up residencies, publishing photography books and sensitization of young people with an education programm. Diaphane develop international partnership with Rencontres Internationales de Gaspesie, Hongkong international photo festival, Kaunas Photo. Fred Boucher is also the artistic director the Usimages Biennial which is dedicated to the industrial photography. He manage the publishing house Diaphane editions |
Registration until August 25. How to register?
No registration is complete without the following 3 steps:
1 – filling out and submitting the data form (scroll below);
2 – portfolio – one body of work presented in 12 – 15 jpgs, sent via email: festival@kaunasphoto.info (not needed, if you have submitted the same work to Kaunas Photo / LensCulture open call, conducted earlier this year). File size: 1920 px on the horizontal side, 1080 on vertical (optimized for full HD projection). RGB, JPG only, JPG quality – 90%.
File naming: Name_SURNAME_Title-of-the-series_Place_year_01.jpg
Attachments: loose files or ZIPs.
3 – fee transfer – 85 EUR (non-refundable). The fee is payable via bank transfer.
Recipient:Viesoji istaiga Sviesos rastas, Bank code: 73000, SWIFT: HABALT22, IBAN: LT397300010079629079;
Details accompanying payment: “K.P. Seaside Portfolio Reviews Name Surname”. A confirmation of registration completion is sent to the registrants.
Practical info: travel, accommodation
To reach Nida, you have to take a ferry from Klaipėda to Smiltynė (5 min) and take the main road (45 km) by public or private transport. There are regular buses in between Smiltynė and Nida, you can purchase a ticket directly from the driver.
If you’re coming by foot or on a bike, you get the ferry from the Old Town of Klaipeda. Ferry timetable and info here: https://www.keltas.lt/en/time-tables/the-old-ferry-terminalnorth-horn/
If you’re driving, ferry leaves from the New Terminal: https://www.keltas.lt/en/time-tables/the-new-ferry-terminal/
The closest airports are Palanga (86 km, 1,5 hours), Kaunas (270 km, 3 hours), Vilnius (357 km, 4,5 hours) and Riga (Latvia, 357 km, 5 hours). Low cost airlines Ryanair, Wizzair and Airbaltic serve all these airports.
Palanga airport has direct flights to/from Glasgow, London, Warsaw, Oslo, Copenhagen and Riga.
Airport website: http://www.palanga-airport.lt/en/
If coming from Vilnius, you have an option of taking a bus directly to Nida, the journey takes 6 hours. https://www.autobusubilietai.lt/en/popular-bus-routes/Vilnius-Nida/
The more interesting travel would be taking a train Vilnius- Klaipėda, then walking through the old town from Klaipėda train station to the Old Ferry terminal. Beautiful walk takes no more than 30 min. You can buy train tickets here: https://www.traukiniobilietas.lt/portal/
If coming from Kaunas, you can take a direct bus to Nida (leaves once a day) or to Klaipėda, and then continue by foot and ferry. Buy bus tickets here: https://www.autobusubilietai.lt/index.php?cl=start&lang=0
We will add accommodation suggestions a little later, meanwhile you can browse Nida apartments on Airbnb, and check Nida Art Colony (contact them in advance to make sure they have rooms available) for budget options here: http://nidacolony.lt/en/facilities/prices
There is a small supermarket in Nida, and a few cafes, bars and restaurants.
Useful links:
Moments from last year’s Nida International Photography Symposium >>
Program of Nida International Photography Symposium >>
Nida Unesco heritage site >>
Closest airport >>