Prix De La Photographie announces competition winners

Prix De La Photographie, better known as Px3, had an immensely successful second year of its annual photography competition, having received thousands of incredible entries. Judging in categories in Advertising, Photojournalism, Photographic Books, Fine Art, Nature, and Portraiture, along with numerous sub-categories, the panel selected a First and Second place winner in each. Entries were judged on the basis of originality, creativity, the quality of execution, and overall impact on the viewer. What's more, the People's Choice Award is still open for voting.

The title of Px3 Photographer of the Year was given to Balasz Gardi of Hungary, and his single image "The Valley" was highlighted for particular recognition. The Best New Talent Award went to Ryan Schude of Los Angeles, with his image "The Saturn" also receiving distinct praise. These two photographers, along with the First and Second Place winners in each category, will be featured at the Galerie Acte 2 in Paris June 26-28, 2008, and published in the Px3 Annual Book. Click here to see a full list of winners and images, complete with subcategories.

From Px3, Lucie Awards and Focus on AIDS Founder Hossein Farmani:

"I was extremely impressed with the quality of the photographs submitted. Considering Px3 is only in its second year, the overall excellence of work submitted was really outstanding."

Vote for your favorite entries in 2008's Px3 competition by clicking here.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Photography(book)now

An international symposium and celebration of fine art photography books, Photography(book)now is inviting photographers to submit their own books for a chance to be recognized at related events all over the world, as well as a $25,000 grand prize, bestowed to assist a chosen photographer in the competition and self-publishing of his or her book. A panel of recognized experts in the field are on board to give the winners added prestige and recognition in the fine art photography world. What's more, the seven top winners will be invited to attend the competition awards ceremony in San Francisco, CA, on September 12, 2008.

Confirmed jurors include Head Judge Darius Himes of Radius Books; Jen Bekman of Jen Bekman Gallery; Elisabeth Biondi of The New Yorker; Frish Brandt of Fraenkel Gallery; Charlotte Cotton, of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Photographer Stephen Gill; Lesley A. Martin of Aperture Books; Alan Rapp of Chronicle Books; Kathy Ryan of The New York Times; Photographer Brian Ulrich; and Denise Wolff of Phaidon Press. Entries will be judged in two seperrate categories: General and Thematic Photography Books.

From Eileen Gittins, Founder and CEO of Blurb:

“Any photographer would kill to have their work reviewed by this prestigious group. Our jurors are all excited to see the range and creativity of books that will be submitted, now that it is so simple and affordable to compose a book of great beauty and quality.”

All winners will have their work showcased and recognized at Photography.Book.Now salon events worldwide. Deadline for submissions is July 14, 2008. Click here to visit their website.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts presents Women to Watch

Until June 15, 2008, The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC will exhibit "Women to Watch," in which 32 works by 11 contemporary female photographers. The exhibition was designed to increase the visibility of emerging female photographers deserving of both national and international attention. Participating artists include Marita Gootee from Mississippi, Lissa Rivera from Massachusetts, Zoe Strauss from Pennsylvania, Tricia Moreau Sweeney from Illinois, Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig of Vermont, Valerie Belin from France, Jin-me Yoon from Canada, Elisa Sighicelli of Great Britain, Paulina Parra from Spain, and Joan Myers from New Mexico.

Joan Myers will contribute her images of industrial encroachment on nature—in this case, beautiful panoramas of generators and power plants. Strauss presents photographs of people in her hometown neighborhood of South Philadelphia. Gootee creates impressionistic images of nature, which emphasize the mutability of photographic perception. Rivera documents and unusual subject with deadpan attention to detail: the gaterings seen at college fraternity and sorority houses. Belin's images of Parisian models have been manipulated to appear lifeless and sexless, raising questions about contemporary identity.

This exhibition represents a collaborative effort between 10 of NMWA s national and international committees and the museum. For more information, click here.

Also, Joan Myers will soon present an exhibit at Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe, titled "Brimsone: Photographs from Iceland, Yellowstone and Pompeii," from June 27 to September 10, 2008.

From Andrew Smith:

"Joan Myers is one of New Mexico's most intelligent and prolific artists. Over the last twenty-five years she has produced photographic projects and books about the Santa Fe Trail, Japanese relocation camps, images of older women, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, the environment of the Salton Sea near Palm Springs, California, and a comprehensive document and book of Antarctica.

"In recent years Myers has been photographing globally. The exhibit highlights her color photographs made in Iceland, Italy and in Yellowstone where she has been concentrating on geothermal sites that include boiling lakes, mud pots, hot springs and geysers, as well as the ancient city of Pompeii that was destroyed by the fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D."

Go to Andrew Smith Gallery's website for more information.

Image: Untitled (White), 2006 © Elisa Sighicelli. Partially backlit c-print on lightbox, 48 x 48 x 2.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: HeliRussia 2008!

HeliRussia 2008, the first Eastern European exposition for the Helicopter Industry, is extending an invitation for professional and amateur photographers to enter an International Photo Contest, "The Beauty of the Rotor Wing Machines." This event follows in the footsteps of the American Heli-Expо, West Europe's Helitech, HeliShow Dubai, and Heli-Asia. The exhibition is intended to promote awarness of the history and industry of Helicopter craft. There is no entry fee. Entries from photographers, publishing companies, Museums, and galleries will be accepted, for a maxiumum entry of five images. Entries are made by email, and finalists will need to submit a CD of images. The juried exhibition will run concurrently with HeliRussia 2008, May 15 to 17, 2008, at the Crocus Expo Exhibition Center in Moscow, Russia.

The deadline is April 15, 2008. Only Photographs, not mixed media or photo collage projects, will be accepted.

From HeliRussia 2008:

"All works must be sent to helicopterphoto@rambler.ru in JPEG format. The description in the email must include name of the photo work, full name of the author, date of birth, home address, phone number, and email."

Results will be available at the HeliRussia website here.

Trio of Humanistic Photography Exhibits at Hallmark Museum

Starting March 20, and running through June 15, 2008, three photography exhibitions will open at the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, each covering a unique and often unknowable way of life. In Gallery 56, Linda Butler will present "Meditations on Simplicity," a visual contemplation of the legacy of the Shakers, a religious society with its peak in the Eastern United States more than a hundred years gone; Lili Almog will present "Perfect Intimacy," an exploration of three Carmelite female monasteries in Maryland, Israel, and Bethlehem; and in Gallery 85, Stella Johnson presents "AL SOL," a series assembled from two decades' worth of photography among the rural people of Mexico, Nicaragua, and West Africa.

The Museum's featured galleries will be open for longer than usual on the day of the reception on March 29, and Almog and Butler will give talks, then sign copies of their books. A seperate reception for Johnson will be held later, on April 26. The Hallmark Institute of Photography Educational Center will host an artist's talk after the reception. It seems curious to push the reception back on the calendar, until you consider Stella's globespanning assignments and photographic outreach projects.

The emphasis of this exhibition is on the human condition, and all three photographers are superb examples of expression by camera of a people's way of life. For example, Johnson travelled to Mexico in 2006 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, teaching documentary photography and possibilities for the archiving of cultures in visual forms at (deep breath) the Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (CRIM-UNAM) in Cuernavaca. Almog's portraits have appeared in the most respected photography journals in the United States, Britain, and Germany. Butler has had more than 50 solo exhibitions in the US, Canada, and Japan.

To learn more about these photographers, their names are linked to their personal websites, all with excellent galleries. Hallmark Museum's information is still anemic, but that is bound to change soon as the premiere draws closer. Click here to go to the Museum's website.

Paul Ferman continues international tour of Necessary Illusions

Paul Ferman, Australian photographer and creator of the groundbreaking series "Necessary Illusions," will be exhibiting his mixed-media images at Interno Ventidue in Rome. Following an exhibition at M.O.P. Gallery in Sydney, Ferman continues his exhibition tour of composite photographic satire. The subject is Western culture's growing preoccupation with celebrity, and the vulgarity of tabloid sensationalism. With shocking juxtapositions of glossy magazine covers (deceptive, flashy headlines, airbrushed bodies and faces, and much more) with photographs of tragedy, squalor, and disaster, Ferman has attached an artistic microscope to the rose-colored lens of popular culture.

Fashion photography buffs need not picket this one: images of beautiful models and clothing are frequently covered up by other subjects, leaving only the over-energetic proclamations from an editorial formed and fed by information mass-consumption. With glamour squarely out of the equation, the context is completely transformed. There is also a savvy consciousness that points to a twisted kind of optimism: the anodyne of the masses is taking on a life of its own, and Ferman hints that is a childish, misguided—but benevolent—consciousness that is linking more and more people together.

From Paul Ferman's website:

"Celebrity Culture, let's call him CC, has followed a long and winding road to enlightenment, searching his soul in areas such as spiritualism, the arts, benevolent work and the media. It therefore seems only right that CC would at some point begin to compile sacred texts on all he has learnt."

Rome has ever been a center of art, both from the finest classical traditions and from the cutting-edge. This exhibition will satisfy fans of the latter, though this exhibition risks passing Rome's glamour community in the night, despite the prestige of the venue. Click here to view a gallery of images.

Image: Necessary Illusions #323 © Paul Ferman.

Bill Armstrong at ClampArt

A photographic project that has been underway for more than ten years—Bill Armstrongs' "Infinity" series—will be exhibted at ClampArt in New York City. The series of new images, dubbed "Renaissance," was created by the capture of found images with an out-of-focus lens. The setting of the lens is placed at infinity, hence the title of the larger project. Bill Armstrong uses master drawings from the Renaissance and presents them in vivid color. The human figures featured in Armstrong's images reflect the state of the human condition as they are locked in dramatic, sometimes ambiguous poses.

The exhibition runs until February 17, 2007. This is Armstrong's third exhibition at ClampArt. The photographer has been exhibiting all over the world for 25 years, and is represented in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Musée de l'Eysée in Lausanne, and Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, among others. His images in "Renaissance" comprise the interest in the self and humanity that characterized much of the art and learning of the 15th century along with a focus on the ongoing spirit of discovery, fueled by a universal creative energy.

Bill Armstrong is one of the featured photographers in the January/February 2008 issue of CameraArts.

To learn more, visit ClampArt's website here.

AI & AP Encourages entries from every level of illustrators and photographers

The AI27 & AP24 Call for Entries, from sibling publications American Photography and American Illustration, are now accepting entries from journalistic and publication-oriented photographers and illustrators, whether they are long-term professionals or enterprising amateurs. Works for both competitions must be produced or published between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007, and will be judged in the the categories of "Editorial," "Books," "Advertising," "Graphics/Promotional," "Film and Animation," "3-D," "Unpublished/Personal/Fine Art" and "Student Work." The competition is open to all photographers, illustrators, creative professionals, students and teachers worldwide.

Deadline for entries is January 25, 2008.

AI & AP has listed a detailed description of each category:

"Editorial: Individual images or stories on any subject for magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals, including reportage, portraiture, still-life, photo essays and includes all assigned outtakes.

"Books:Trade books, limited editions, graphic novels, comic books and self-published editions, including covers, individual images or series of images.

"Advertising Ads: in consumer and trade magazines, newspapers and all other media. Entire campaigns or individual images accepted.

"Graphics/Promotional/3-D: All forms of designed material for brochures, annual reports, catalogs, direct mail, announcement cards, calendars, posters, websites, point-of-sale or merchandising and self-promotion pieces, in print or digital media.

"3-D: 3-D vinyl and plush toys and installation for either non-profit or commercial purpose.

"Television and Film: Live action and animation for feature films, television commercials, documentaries, websites and music videos.

"Unpublished/Personal Work/Fine Art: Unpublished, personal or experimental and fine art work.

"Student Work: Full or part-time students may submit work completed in the past year."

AP Entry fees are $356 a photograph, $95 per published book or photographic series, $10 per student photograph, and $60 per ten-image student portfolio. Click here for more information.

FotoFest's International Discoveries

The annual International Discoveries exhibition, presented by FotoFest, the international bi-annual photography festival, will be on view until December 8, 2007, at FotoFest Headquarters in Houston, Texas. The creative directors of FotoFest, Founders Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin and Exhibitions Coordinator Jennifer Ward selected nine photographers from the touring of photography and art festivals around the world, including those from Uruguay, Mexico, England, Argentina, South Korea, and Poland. The exhibition was planned to help prepare for the upcoming FotoFest 2008 Festival, for which over 100 spaces throughout the city will participate.

From FotoFest's website:

"Chan-Hyo Bae's work reflects his feelings as an Asian immigrant in the West. Lydia Panas examines her family and community. Alessandra Sanguinetti profiles the relationship of two young children as they grow. Diego Ranea takes an unconventional view of landscapes. Kelly Flynn's ironic look at sexual iconography and gender roles is as serious as it is funny. Przemyslaw Pokrycki documents rituals from birth to death. John Chervinsky's scientific schemata reflect his career as a scientist and professor. Roberto Fernández Ibáñez addresses nature and the seasons through the pairing of haiku and equally poetic photographs. Jesús Jiménez plays for the camera. All of these artists shows serious attention to their subjects and a decidedly contemporary aesthetic."

FotoFest 2008 will take place March 7 to April 20, 2008, and the series of accompanying exhibitions, mixed media installations, and film and video programs have nearly been finalized.The theme for 2008 will be China, and the evolution of photography in the country from its origins to contemporary work being shown today. Regular FotoFest programs will return as well, such as the Fine Print Auction, the International Meeting Place Portfolio Review, and auctions.

Click here for details.

2nd Annual Photography Masters Cup honors conservation photographer

This international competition, presented by The National Color Awards, aims for the world's best photography. In 2007, the Photography Masters Cup saw over 15,000 entries from 69 countries in 2007. Conservation and Environmental Photographer Joe Zammit-Lucia was selected for third place in the Professional Nature Photography category. His winning image, "Defiance," captures a Cotton-Top Tamarin in superb clarity and detail. Winning photographers in the competition receive the Masters Cup, exhibition at the Masters of Photography Biennale, international press and exposure, and endorsement from the biggest names in imaging.

From the press release:

"The winning images were selected by a who's who Jury of the most celebrated professionals in art and photography from National Geographic, Musee de E'Lysee, Financial Times to The Art Newspaper and Fine Art Society in London. Awards were presented in 21 categories to photographers of twenty five nationalities. Joe Zammit-Lucia's image "Defiance", an exceptional image entered in the Nature category received a high percentage of votes to win third place overall."

Pre-orders of the book FIRST STEPS: Conserving Our Environment will be available for preorder November/December 2007. The book's release is planned for April 22, 2008, on Earth Day. Zammit-Lucia is currently working with environmental organizations on multiple projects around the world. Proceeds from the Masters of Photography Biennale Charity Auction will benefit Art for Disabled Children for the second year in a row. At the first International Color Awards in 2006,the Exhibition was held in Brazil and benefited APADEH School. No artform seems to have quite the ability of photography to show what in the world needs protecting.

Go to Zammit-Lucia's website to find out more about his work, or here for all of the Photography Masters Cup winners.

National Geographic announces shortlist for 2007 Photographic Prize

Four top photographers have been selected for National Geographic’s fifth annual major international photography award, The Photographic Portrait Prize. 60 portraits were selcted from a pool of 6,900 entries from 2,700 photographers. This record-setting number of submissions comes from photographers all over the world. The exhibition will run from November 8, 2007 to February 24, 2008 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

England-based photographer Michelle Sank was selected for her single portrait Janine; Argentinian photographer Julieta Sans for Lucila a.m.; English photographer David Stewart for Alice & Fish; and Israeli photographer jonathan Torgovnik, for Joseline Ingabire with her daughter Leah Batamuliza, Rwanda. The winning portraits can be viewed here.

From the National Portrait Gallery’s press announcement:

“The prize-winners for the National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Portrait Prize will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday 6th November 2007 at 7pm. The Godfrey Argent Award for the best portrait taken by a photographer aged between 18 and 25 will also be presented that evening. The Press View for the exhibition will be Wednesday 7 November 11am-1pm. The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday 8 November. The exhibition will tour in 2008.”

Click here to read more about the exhibition.