Kaunas Photo Open Call & Kaunas Photo STAR Award

The deadline to submit your works is fast approaching!

Just one week left to enter KAUNAS PHOTO 2020 and KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award: the deadline is on Thursday, July 30th (23:59 your local time). No extensions scheduled!

For its 17th edition, KAUNAS PHOTO festival invites photographers to propose their works and offers exhibiting opportunities as well as participation at New KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award, consisting of a solo exhibition at the largest photography gallery in the Baltic States, Kaunas Photography Gallery and a 2500 EUR monetary prize. Open Call provides opportunities to be selected to the festival exhibition and projection program. All exhibiting artists, selected via KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Open Call will be offered artist fees.

KAUNAS PHOTO festival opening events will start on September 3, 2020 with KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Exhibition. Festival’s events and outdoor exhibitions will run until the end of October. Go to the official KAUNAS PHOTO website to find out more and join those who are already submitting photos electronically via LensCulture. You are also welcome to consult the Facebook event dedicated to the call.

‍Topic of the year: Peripheral Visions

KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s topic aims to look at what is on the margin, just across the window or the border that we can or cannot cross, to discover the spaces, places, lands, areas that usually were in the periphery of the vision. The thematic scope includes self-isolation and things it changed in our habits, attitudes, undermined topics around obvious things, trends beyond mainstream. The festival invites to rethink what in 2020 became important, what was less so, what was taken for granted or simply undermined until now. Both documentary and constructed, geography – based and idea-driven works, works produced during pandemic and in the recent years are welcome.

‍

Who can submit?

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. Both completed works and those in progress can are welcomed. Photographers/Artists with KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award in focus, should ask themselves – “is my work ready for a space of 200 square metres?”.

‍

Open Call Opportunities

Photographers/Artists submitting works to Open Call can be enrolled in Kaunas Photo 2020 in the following ways:

• works can be included into KAUNAS PHOTO festival program, its indoor and outdoor exhibitions, presented in squares in Kaunas;
• Projection events;
• KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Award – Finalist’s and Winner’s exhibitions.

The July panel of decision-making curators on the Jury panel, who will review all entries and eventually are potential providers of opportunities through their platforms, institutions and networks.

KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Jury Members:

Fred Boucher – Photaumnales festival and Usimage Biennale director (Clermont/Beauvais, France)

Enrico Stefanelli – PhotoLux festival director (Lucca, Italy)

Gintaras Česonis – Kaunas Photography Gallery leader (Lithuania)

Kristine Kern – Fotografisk Center leader (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Vilija Ulinskytė-Balzienė – Photography Museum director (Šiauliai, Lithuania)

Julia Durkin – Auckland Festival of Photography director (New Zealand)

Kristina Juraitė – KAUNAS PHOTO co-founder, professor at Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Donatas Stankevičius – KAUNAS PHOTO and Kaunas Photography Gallery curator (Lithuania)

Adrian Wykrota – Pix.House gallery curator (Poznan, Poland)

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas – KAUNAS PHOTO founder, curator (Lithuania)