Call for Entries: Solo exhibition, Spring 2025

Call for Entries

Solo photography exhibition opportunity at PH21 Gallery

March 15 – April 2, 2025

PH21 Gallery invites photographers to submit their work for a solo exhibition opportunity. Please submit a cohesive portfolio suitable for a solo exhibition, along with an artist statement, and a short bio. The portfolio should include a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 35 images. Submission may feature one or two series, provided that the series can be harmoniously presented in a single exhibition. There are no stylistic, thematic, or genre restrictions; photographers working in all areas of photography are encourage to apply.

The winner of this competition will be awarded a solo exhibition, scheduled to take place from March 15 to April 2, 2025.
PH21 Gallery will cover all printing and installation expenses for the solo exhibition. In addition to the brick-and-mortar solo exhibition, the winner's work will also be presented on a dedicated page of our website.
Up to 10 other photographers will have the opportunity to present a mini-series of three images from their portfolio in the "Photographic Visions" group exhibition. Photographic Visions is a biannual exhibition hosted by PH21 Gallery showcasing mini-series by selected artists who participated in the solo exhibition competition. The Photographic Visions exhibition will also be presented on a dedicated page on our website.
A catalogue for the solo exhibition will be published and made available through Blurb Books.

Curators: Zsolt Bátori and Borbála Jász

Zsolt Bátori is a curator, photographer, photography theorist, philosopher of art, and educator. He is the founder director and curator of PH21 Gallery, providing group and solo exhibitions to photographers internationally for over a decade in PH21 Gallery, Budapest and in cooperation with galleries in Barcelona, Jersey City, and Rome. Zsolt has nurtured the careers of many photographers who received further exhibition and career opportunities after exhibiting at PH21 Gallery. After obtaining his PhD in Philosophy from Rutgers University he has taught and conducted research at universities in Hungary, the USA, Argentina, and Spain, and his own photographic work has been exhibited internationally. Currently, Zsolt serves as a member of the executive committee of the International Association for Aesthetics and the Association of Hungarian Photographers. He also serves as a juror for Photolucida Critical Mass for the years 2023 and 2024. For Zsolt's website, please click here.

Borbála Jász is a curator, art historian, philosopher of art, and educator. She has served as the vice-director and curator of PH21 Gallery for many years, providing international exhibition and career opportunities for photographers worldwide. Borbála earned her PhD in Philosophy and Art History from Eötvös Loránd University. As an art historian, Borbála is especially perceptive to the cultural and historical context, significance, and interconnectedness of photographic images. She also has first-hand experience with the artistic, legal, and practical aspects of collections, having worked extensively with collectors.

Submission deadlines:

Early bird deadline: December 30, 2024
Final deadline: January 6, 2025

Notification: All entrants will be notified 10-15 days after the deadline.

Exhibition dates: March 15 – April 2, 2025

Submission rules and guidelines:

Please add ph21.gallery@ph21gallery.com and reg@ph21gallery.com to your whitelist, so that our letters are not treated as spam by your e-mail client.
Please submit a cohesive portfolio suitable for a solo exhibition, along with an artist statement, and a short bio. The portfolio should include a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 35 images. Submission may feature one or two series, provided that the series can be harmoniously presented in a single exhibition. There are no stylistic, thematic, or genre restrictions; photographers working in all areas of photography are encourage to apply.
Please note that curating this exhibition will possibly involve selections from your portfolio as well as exhibition print size decisions to suit the exhibition space of PH21 Gallery. In case of being selected as the winner, some of your submitted images may not be included in the final selection for the exhibition; the curators may also suggest size modifications to suit the gallery space. Presentation of the work of the photographers selected for the Photographic Visions exhibition will also be based on curatorial selections from the submitted portfolio.
The entry fee until the early bird deadline is €40.00 for the whole portfolio (15-35 images). There is also a special rate for students and unwaged persons as well as for applicants from low-income economies. The special fee until the early bird deadline is €25.00. Please do not ask us about your eligibility or send us any proof; we trust your judgement. The special rate is simply for people who – for the reasons indicated above – would not be able to afford the standard fee.
The entry fee after the early bird deadline is €45.00 (regular fee) or €30.00 (special fee).
The entry fee is not refundable.
This call for entries is competitive; entrants are not guaranteed an exhibition or online acknowledgement by submitting an entry. The selection of the curators is final.
Please send in the entry fee first (see the payment option at the bottom of the page), and then submit your images by e-mail to submission@ph21gallery.com, indicating “solo exhibition portfolio” in the subject line.
Images must follow the following format: 8 bit JPEG; Adobe RGB or sRGB; longest dimension maximum 1280 pixels (preferred width for landscape orientation: 1000 pixels; preferred height for portrait orientation: 775 pixels); 72 dpi; maximum 1 MB.
File names: lastname_title or lastname_title_number. File names of maximum 40 characters should only contain letters of the English alphabet and underscores. Titles may be shortened (please avoid very long file names), and they should be given without spaces in the file name. No spaces in the file names, please. (The image titled A Little Cottage in the Rain by Maria Martínez would have this file name: Martinez_LittleCottage.jpg; the third untitled image by Huan Lee: Lee_Untitled_3.jpg; the second photograph of the series "Surface" by Lena Petrovich: Petrovich_Surface_2.jpg)
In the body of your submission e-mail please include
- a) your name;
- b) your city and country (with state abbreviation if USA);
- c) your website address (if you have one);
- d) titles of all included photos with the corresponding file names (in case of a series, please number the photos of the series, and indicate the title of the series, if it has one);
- e) the actual or desired print size (in centimetres or inches) of each photograph.
All photographers 18 years or older worldwide may enter the competition by submitting their own, original work.
PH21 Gallery welcomes submissions from, and exhibits work of emerging and established photographers as well.
Photographs entered to this call do not have to be editioned. If accepted to the exhibition, it still remains the choice of the photographer to edition the images (e.g.: "ed. 10") or to leave the work uneditioned ("open ed.").
Photographs entered to the call do not have to be for sale.
By entering, entrants automatically accept the conditions of the competition; they grant PH21 Gallery nonexclusive right to use and reproduce submitted photographs (with the name of the photographer and the title of the work indicated) for promotional (e.g.: website and social media pages of the Gallery, catalogue) and exhibition purposes. No royalties or compensation will be paid for these purposes. All copyrights and ownership of the works are retained by the photographer. Entrants assume and accept all legal and financial responsibility for any infringement on the privacy rights or copyright of others, caused by creating or presenting their work in public. PH21 Galley retains the right to exclude from the competition entries that violate the conditions of the competition and ones that violate any human or privacy rights.

The winner selected for the solo exhibition will be asked to provide high-resolution (300 ppi) TIFF (or JPEG) files for us to have the photographs of the exhibition printed. As mentioned above, PH21 Gallery will cover all printing and installation costs for the winner of the solo exhibition. The photographers selected for the Photographic Visions exhibition will also be asked for high-resolution files (of the selected 3 photographs), and they will need to contribute to the printing and installation costs. (The photographers may also opt for shipping their own exhibit-ready prints.)

Exhibition prints will be kept on file for six months for future promotion unless the photographer prefers some other arrangement. In case of a sale inquiry the photographer will be promptly contacted. PH21 Gallery commission is 25%. (Submitted photographs, however, do not have to be for sale; exhibition prints will never be sold, they are for exhibition and promotion purposes only.)

PH21 Gallery archives all photography exhibitions electronically, allowing us to promote our exhibiting photographers to curators, collectors as well as the viewing public. Our website also functions as a virtual gallery site, and all photographs included in our exhibitions are published on the dedicated page of the exhibition.

Further information: ph21.gallery@ph21gallery.com

Please use PayPal for paying your entry fee. We can only accept payment via PayPal at the moment.

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