“town & country”

town & country: metropolis, farmland, village, city, hamlet, metropolitan, suburb, asphalt jungle, pastoral, rural, boondocks urban, boonies, downtown, backwoods ….

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“Ben was not much else but punctual. He came to the restaurant every day at 11:50. He ordered a burger and fries and a Dr. Pepper. He was well over six feet tall and weighed less than Kathleen, a waitress, at just about five feet and athletic. Ben worked at the last full-service filling station in town. He smelled of gas and oil. His hands were a topographical rendering of every tank he’d filled, every ounce of oil he’d changed, every window he’d wiped, every tire he’d rotated. Yet his face was always clean and clean shaven, his mustache perfectly trimmed.

Kathleen asked the rest of the staff if she could always wait on Ben. They agreed, then teased her about being in love with him. She laughed her little squeaky laugh, nodding her head no. She said that Ben reminded her of her father.

Kathleen would linger after she had served Ben his burger and fries and Dr. Pepper, making small talk, asking questions. His hands reminded her of her father’s hands. They too were a topographical rendering of all the many tasks required of a man that tended animals and the land. He had farmed one hundred and sixteen acres of rolling prairie all his life. He was tall and shaved with cup and brush every day. He ate the same lunch every day. He cooked himself a panfried beefsteak and canned corn. Kathleen’s mother prepared cornbread and some type of slaw or salad. He would drink the cold, left-over morning coffee with lots of cream and sugar. After a quarrel with her father, about her choice of friends, she left the farm for good. She most certainly missed him and the cyclical way of things on the farm….” From “Town and Country” By Franklin Cincinnatus

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JUROR | Michael Kirchoff will be the juror for “town & country”. Michael Kirchoff works in the worlds of both commercial and fine art photography. As a commercial photographer for over thirty years, it is his fine artwork that sets him apart from others, with instant film and toy camera images fueling several bodies of work. His consulting, training, and overall support of his fellow photographic artist continues with assistance in constructing ones vision, reviewing portfolios, and finding exhibition opportunities, which fill the gaps in time away from making photographs.

Michael is also an independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass and has reviewed portfolios for several fine art photographic organizations and non-profits in the U.S. and abroad. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community, and was nominated as Photo Editor of the Year for 2023 at The Lucie Foundation. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor for Catalyst: Interviews, Contributing Editor at One Twelve Publishing, and the Co-Host of The Diffusion Tapes podcast.

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SUBMISSION | Guidelines: Digital images should be up to 1800 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.  Please do not watermark your images.  If you need help sizing your images, please follow this link https://convert.town/image-dpi

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 submission 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.  Please note that gallery emails often end up in spam folders.  Please check your spam if you did not receive a confirmation email.

SUBMISSION | Entry Fee: $40 for the first 5 images, $5 per each additional image.  There is no limit to the number of images you may submit. Submission fees are not refundable.

SUBMISSION | Entry Reviews:  Photographers submitting 13 or more images are entitled to receive a complimentary review by the gallery directors. Photographers that enter less than 13 images, can receive a review for an additional $20. All reviews will be 30 minutes and typically scheduled a week after the exhibition results are announced.

 

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.  We prefer not to accept images created with Artificial Intelligence at the present time due to the lack of clarity concerning copyright issues and the ongoing litigation associated with them.

 

ONLINE EXHIBITION AND CATALOGUE | Jurors will be selecting 55 images in total. All artist included in the 55 images will receive the following:

1. Inclusion in the exhibition catalogue as well as the online exhibition gallery.  A complimentary copy of the exhibition catalogue will be mailed to each photographer included in the catalogue.  There is a postage fee of $15 for non US photographers eligible to receive the catalogue.

2. The gallery will be featuring each of the 55 images on both Facebook and Instagram over the span of the exhibition.

3. Gallery Directors will be hosting a GalleryTalk and will discuss all 55 images.  The GalleryTalk will be posted in the blog section of the website.

4. The online exhibition as well as the GalleryTalk will be permanently archived after the end of the exhibition period.

“THE 27” HARDBOUND EXHIBITION BOOK | 27 images from the total 55 images will be selected for “The 27”, a hardbound fine art book of the exhibition.  “The 27” will be available for purchase.

 

NOTIFICATIONS | All photographers who have submitted an entry will receive an email notification of the juror’s selection as well as confirmation of your entry being received.  Confirmation emails are sent directly from the gallery directors and may take a few hours to be sent.  Please note that gallery emails often end up in spam folders.  Please check your spam if you did not receive a confirmation email.  If concerned, please email amanda@asmithgallery.com.

AWARDS| The awards are as follows:

Jurors Award – an online solo exhibition, “The 27” exhibition book and feature story on the gallery blog
Directors Award – “The 27” exhibition book and a feature story on the gallery blog
Visitors Award (most Instagram likes) – $100

The solo exhibition awarded as the Juror’s Award will be scheduled at a mutually agreed time for the duration of a month.

 

SALES | The gallery has an online store and will include all images from the exhibition. The gallery will retain 30% of the sales price.  When a print sells, there are two options.  First, the artist may ship a signed print directly to the buyer.  Or the gallery will print the image for the artist.  Please see Printing Services for details.

 

USE RIGHTS | Photographers retain full rights to their own images. The gallery will use the photographer’s images for publicity purposes as well as on line gallery, online store, exhibition catalogue and “The 27” exhibition book.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION | amanda@asmithgallery.com