Plastic and homemade lenses along with pinholes eschew perfection — like drawing with the charred end of a log or singing opera to the accompaniment of ukuleles.  The drawing can be exceptional and the music sublime, unexpected.  Removing the technical and using simplistic tools allows the image maker to focus on what is in front of them to achieve their creative vision.  Images captured using toy, pinhole and any camera using homemade lenses are eligible for submission. The camera that the lens is attached to is immaterial.  Creativity is encouraged….

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JUROR | Amanda Smith, founder and co-director of A Smith Gallery, has a thirty year background as a photographer. She was an active board member of the Texas Photographic Society for fifteen years. Her work is in institutional and private collections across the country.   She has been a juror for numerous exhibitions including All About Photo, High and Dry, Analogue Forever, Dodho magazine, Lamar University Alumni Art Exhibition, Texas Photographic Society, International Photography Hall of Fame, Slow Exposures and Critical Mass. Her body of work “LuLu’s Dreams” recently received a Julia Margaret Cameron honorable mention in the storytelling category.

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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 shttps://asmithgallery.com/application/pam 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.

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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.

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ONLINE EXHIBITION and CATALOGUE | Jurors will be selecting up to 47 images in total. All artist included in the final selection of images will receive the following:

1. The gallery will be featuring each of the final selection of images on both Facebook and Instagram over the span of the exhibition.
2. Gallery Directors will be hosting a GalleryTalk and will discuss all selected images.  The GalleryTalk will be posted in the blog section of the website.
3. The gallery online store will include all selected images listed for sale.
4. An exhibition catalogue including all selected images will be published and available for purchase.
5. 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 selected images will be selected for “The 27”, a hardbound fine art book of the exhibition.  “The 27” will be available for purchase. Both the Juror and Director Award recipients will receive the hardbound exhibition book.

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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 GalleryTalk on the gallery blog
Directors Award – “The 27” exhibition book and a GalleryTalk on the gallery blog
Visitors Award (most Instagram likes) – $100

The solo exhibition awarded as the Juror and Director Awards will be scheduled at a mutually agreed time for the duration of a month.

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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.

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JURYING PROCESS | Our jurying process is blind, meaning the jurors do not see your name on the images you have submitted. All images submitted are renamed and assigned an entry/image number. The juror sees each entry together as a group in the order the images were submitted.

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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.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION | amanda@asmithgallery.com