wa – ter : rain, tears, agua, springs, drink, rivers, wet, steam, flood, moisture, lakes, humidity, damp, soak, ocean, wash, aquatic, splash…

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“I remember when my grandfather asked me to go outside and drip the faucets. There was supposed to be a hard freeze that night. I was probably seven. Pawpaw had been a diver in the Navy in World War II. He damaged his lungs diving too deep and coming to the surface too fast. The injury finally had disabled him. I was very proud  milestone in my young life.

Pawpaw didn’t talk much about his wartime experiences, except for the time he and two other divers were dropped from a submarine offshore of the French fishing village of Palavas-les-Flots. He told the story many times, with Mamaw grinning and giggling all the way through. Palavas-les-Flots was in the Free French zone of France. They were sent to meet with the French Resistance and get intelligence on German troop strength and movements.

The town was a quaint fishing village on a picturesque peninsula in the Mediterranean. Before the war it had been a popular seaside vacation spot. He spoke about how they were met just offshore by a small fishing boat, given clothes and caps to make them fit in and taken to a comfortable café for a meal and good wine. He and the other two divers were French speakers from South Louisiana. They had to be careful because the Germans also had spies and informants all over that part of France.

When he would get to the part about how there was this beautiful young woman working at the café and how she spilled wine on him on purpose, Mamaw would laugh out loud and say, “You don’t know dat, mon couyon! I was jes clumsy. Ha, ha.” Mamaw over the years had let the Cajun French meld with the Cajun English dialect and her native French. She learned fast how to cook a really good gumbo…”  From “Water” By Franklin Cincinnatus

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JUROR | Catherine Couturier will be the juror for “water”.  Catherine is the owner and director of Catherine Couturier Gallery. Upon its inception, the gallery quickly evolved into the premier photography gallery in Houston, Texas and sits at the center of Gallery Row. The gallery is a member of AIPAD, and Catherine has served on the advisory council of Houston Center for Photography. Couturier also reviews portfolios for organizations and festivals such as Photo Nola, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, and Fotofest, is a juror for Critical Mass, the Center for Fine Art Photography, and LA Center for Photography, and give lectures to artists and collectors alike on a myriad of subjects related to the field of fine art photography. The Catherine Couturier Gallery is committed to excellence with a dedication to the medium in all its forms, with the goal to showcase the best fine art photography available.

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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.

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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 47 images in total. All artist included in the 47 images will receive the following:

1. The gallery will be featuring each of the 47 images on both Facebook and Instagram over the span of the exhibition.

2. Gallery Directors will be hosting a GalleryTalk and will discuss all 47 images.  The GalleryTalk will be posted in the blog section of the website.

3.  The gallery online store will include all 47 images listed for sale.

4. An exhibition catalogue including all 47 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 47 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 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 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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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