TEXAS PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

TPS 26: The International Competition

Juror Alison Nordström has selected 50 images by 40 artists for this year's competition. A complete list of the exhibiting artists is below, with award winners noted in bold. Congratulations to all!

The opening reception took place May 18, 2017, from 5:30-7:00pm at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where it remained on display through July 30, 2017. TPS 26 traveled to Precision Camera & Video in Austin, Texas, on view August 14 through October 3, 2017. Next the show hangs at The Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, Texas, November 22, 2017, through January 27, 2018. TPS 26 will conclude at Options Gallery at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas, on display January 29 through February 28, 2018.

Read more about the accepted works here.

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TPS is pleased to announce that TPS 26: The International Competition will be juried by Alison Nordström, independent scholar and former Senior Curator of Photographs at the George Eastman House. This call is open-themed, and submissions from artists of all levels are encouraged. TPS 26 is now closed for entry.

Calendar of Events
01-23-17 Call for entry announced
03-13-17 Deadline for entry (midnight CST)
04-05-17 Exhibiting artists announced and emails sent to all entrants
05-08-17 Matted and framed prints due in College Station, Texas
05-18-17 Show opens at J. Wayne Stark Galleries at TAMU, College Station, Texas
07-30-17 Show closes and travels to other venues

Awards
First Place = $500
Second Place = $300
Third Place = $200
Up to 5 Honorable Mentions may be awarded

Entry Fee
Entry fee is $30 for 5 images, plus $6 for each additional image. Photographers may enter up to 10 images. Please don't forget to include your membership fee, if also joining TPS at the time of entry.

Eligibility
TPS 26: The International Competition is open to artists of all levels internationally. All photographic based work is encouraged including digital, silver and alternative processes. You do not need to be a member of the Texas Photographic Society to enter this competition. However, you may join TPS and enter this show at the same time (read more about TPS member benefits). Works exhibited previously in a TPS show are not eligible, and all entries must be submitted digitally. Current members of the TPS Board of Directors are permitted to enter but are not eligible for awards.

Instructions for entry are outlined below, following the juror’s bio and statement.

About the Juror
Alison Nordström, independent scholar based in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Alison Nordström is known for her writing, speaking and curating, and for the administration of photographic projects both in the US and internationally. Recent publications include John Myers: Some Photographs, Then (University of Hertsfordshire, UK); After Baldus: Photographs of a Wounded Landscape (Ideas on Paper, Amsterdam); Ed Kashi: Abandoned Moments (Steidl, Göttingen, Germany); and Jessica Todd Harper: Home Stage (Damiani Editore, Bologna), just to name a few. She currently serves as Consulting Curator for International Programs at the Griffin Museum of Photography and holds an ongoing appointment as Visiting Scholar in the Graduate Department of Photography at Lesley University. In 2015 and 2016, she was Artistic Director of the Lodz Fotofestiwal (Poland) for which she curated 5 exhibitions. She currently serves in an advisory capacity to Photo London, Prix Pictet, Unseen (Amsterdam), Hamburg Triennale, and the Robert Gardner Fellowship (Harvard University). She is a regular portfolio reviewer for Houston FotoFest, Photolucida, and Landskrona Fotofestival (Sweden) among others.

From 2004 to 2013, Nordström was Senior Curator of Photographs at George Eastman House, the oldest and largest museum of photography in the United States. From 1991 to 2002, she was the Founding Director and Senior Curator of the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has curated over 100 exhibitions of photography including the popular biennial series Fresh Work and major surveys of landscape, portraiture, travel photographs and journalism. At George Eastman House, she curated numerous important exhibitions and contributed to their accompanying publications, among them Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atget and Christopher Rauschenberg; Why Look at Animals?; Know War; Found: Photographs by Gerald Slota; Truth/Beauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art 1845-1945; and Lewis Hine, which was shown at Eastman House, ICP and 5 major European museums. Nordström holds a BA in English Literature, an MLS with museum emphasis, and a PhD in Cultural and Visual Studies.

Juror’s Statement
For this exhibition I am most likely to select photographs that:

• are intended to be understood as art

• show a sophisticated understanding of what photography has been and is

• successfully express facts, ideas or emotions

• show an intelligent relationship between what you want to say and how you choose to say it. (This means there should be a reason a particular picture is presented as a tintype, a Polaroid, a platinum print, in color etc)

• can stand alone, even if created as part of a series

• are fresh and original, true to your vision

• that are technically accomplished; if they are flawed or imperfect that should be because you chose them to be, for a reason

Prepare Your Files
1. Files should be 1200 pixels in the longest dimension and saved in JPEG format on the highest quality setting. Images should also be saved in Adobe RGB color space.

2. Label each file as FirstName_Lastname_ followed by consecutive numbers. For example: Sam_Jones_1.jpg, Sam_Jones_2.jpg, etc. Please don't forget to include the "jpg" extension.

3. Do NOT use spaces in the file name, and do NOT use special characters such as :;’”/?}{()[ ]+=*&^%$#@! (use only alpha-numeric characters).

4. Please prepare the following information for each image: (1) print title; (2) process [Archival Digital Print, Gelatin Silver Print, Platinum/Palladium Print, etc.]; and (3) price or NFS.

Submit Your Entries and Make Payment via Online Entry Form
Please select the “Enter Now” button and follow the prompts to make your payment online (or by check) and then upload your files. If you experience difficulties with this online entry form, please notify TPS Executive Director Amy Holmes George at amy@texasphoto.org.

Sales
TPS encourages the sales of exhibited work. In support of our artists, we will not seek commission from print sales. Please print your name, address, telephone number(s) and price on the back of each accepted print. If your print is Not-For-Sale, simply note NFS but provide a dollar amount for record-keeping purposes. If you do not indicate a dollar value, the artwork will be listed as NFS.

Liability
TPS and the venues will exercise all due care when handling your work but will not be held responsible for loss, damage or replacement.

Reproduction
TPS and the venues retain the right to display, project and reproduce work accepted for this exhibition for publicity and promotional purposes only. Individual photographers still retain copyright to his/her own individual images. Also, an exhibition catalog will be created to showcase the selected works.

If Your Work is Accepted
* Remember, our friends at Frame Destination in Dallas, Texas, have prepared a special all-in-one kit for TPS artists that meets our matting, framing and presentation requirements. This package can be purchased online here, starting at only $51.61.

1. Send one exhibition quality, matted AND framed print for each photograph that is accepted.

2. Prints must be mounted and overmatted using 16" x 20" 4-ply (minimum) white museum quality mat board with at least 2" of mat visible on all sides of the print. Maximum print size is 12" x 16". Smaller prints, 3" x 5" for example, are acceptable if they are mounted and overmatted to the 16" x 20" size. To ensure consistency in presentation, please frame your work using simple black metal frames with Plexiglass ONLY (no glass). Also, attach hanging wire on the back of your frame, and clearly label the back of your framed work with your full name and contact information. TPS reserves the right to exclude works from the exhibition that are not matted and framed according to specifications.

3. Include return postage for prints to be shipped back to you when the exhibition concludes. Prints WITHOUT postage will NOT be returned. Prints will be returned in the container in which they were received.

4. No packing “peanuts,” and please be considerate of our limited storage space when choosing your packaging.

5. Prints must arrive at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries at College Station, Texas, no later than May 8, 2017.

Questions?
If you have any questions or concerns after reading all the guidelines, please contact TPS Executive Director directly at amy@texasphoto.org.