Call Description

PhotoMidwest Festival 2022

PhotoMidwest Festival 2022 takes place in Fall 2022 and includes a wide variety of exhibitions and programs. The featured exhibition is the PhotoMidwest 12th Biennial exhibition which showcases the creative and important work of photographers based in thirteen (13) Midwest states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Photographers are encouraged to submit work that broadly represents their Midwest experience and utilizes all photographic techniques including: film, alternative process, digital, and all post-production techniques.  

This featured exhibition is held at Promega Corporation’s superb Art Showcase space. Committed to creativity and the belief that art, both observing and creating, re-energizes the imagination and inspires science and life, Promega has presented art exhibitions since 1996 that have featured the work of local, national, and international artists.

This year PhotoMidwest is fortunate to enlist esteemed an artist as its juror, Aline Smithson. Aline is a visual artist, editor, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She is also the Founder and Editor- in-Chief of Lenscratch, a highly acclaimed daily journal on photography. In addition to serving as juror, Aline will give a public talk as part of the opening reception and workshops the following day.

In addition to the PhotoMidwest 12th Biennial, the 2022 Festival includes group and individual exhibitions by PhotoMidwest members, educational programs, photo meet ups and other events. A complete schedule and additional info will be found at our 2022 Festival page here.

Awards And Recognition 

• Best of Show: $300 cash award*
• Honorable Mentions: (3) $100 awards*
• People Choice Award: $100 award

 *Selected by Juror Aline Smithson

Artist Notification

All artists will receive an email notification of which image(s), if any, were accepted by August 5, 2022. Accepted artists will also receive instructions for shipping or hand delivery. All images need to be received at Promega by September 15th.

Shipping and return shipping costs and insurance are the responsibility of the artist. All entries will be handled with reasonable care, but neither PhotoMidwest nor its representatives will be responsible for loss or damage. Additional packing and shipping information will be included in the acceptance email.

The PhotoMidwest Festival Committee reserves the right to reject any image that is unsuitable to exhibit at Promega’s Art Showcase, or whose framing does not meet a professional presentation. All work must arrive ready to be hung.

Exhibit Opening and Live Webcast of Artist Talk

September 22, 2022 at 3:30 – 7:00 p.m. CST

Webcast details will be sent out prior to the opening event to all entrants.

 Exhibit  Venue And Dates

The exhibit will run at Promega Corporation Artist Showcase from September 22 - December 2, 2022. Images from the exhibition will also be featured in an online gallery, our website, and social media platforms.

A message from Aline Smithson:

I am thrilled to be chosen as your juror for the PhotoMidwest Biennial Exhibition and very much looking forward to seeing your submissions.

As a juror and the editor of a daily journal on photography, Lenscratch, I have a broad interest in all kinds of photography. The privilege of looking at lots and lots of well-crafted photographs is not an insignificant one. Each image reflects a photographer’s unique point of view—some using photography as a tool for storytelling, some as an art form, some as a way to shine a light on sorrow and tragedy, and some simply use photographic processes to break new ground. All of these approaches are co-mingled and stand beside each other, and the process of selecting work from this diverse collection is not an easy one.

However, there are qualities that are universal to creating a compelling photograph. The work has to have an intangible resonance and a sensitivity that links together images and ideas. The photographs need to be well crafted and have power, sometimes in their simplicity and sometimes in their complexity. Most importantly, the work has to have authenticity—it has to convince the viewer that it has come from a genuine place and it needs to persuade us that there is meaning and purpose behind the effort. Photography is so much more than taking a beautiful photograph, it’s a unique and universal language all its own, with incredible power—and amazingly, the ability to create change.

Photography is a universal language. It allows us to travel the world, to weep over injustice, to laugh at absurdities, and to look at ourselves with wonder, without ever saying anything out loud. In a world where everyone has a camera, and many more image makers are contributing to the photographic dialogue, it is crucial to be unique, to be relevant, to be exacting, and to be professional. I can’t wait to explore your work!

Juror | Aline Smithson

Aline Smithson is a visual artist, editor, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She is best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, her work is influenced by the elevated unreal. She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at a variety of international institutions and her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and PDN.

Smithson is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. In 2012, she received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community and she also received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her first significant monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography, and in 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In 2018 and 2019, her work was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize. Kris Graves Projects published her book, LOST II: Los Angeles and included her work in SOLACE and On Death. Peanut Press released her monograph, Fugue State, in Fall of 2021. In 2022, Smithson was recognized as a Hasselblad Heroine. (http://www.alinesmithson.com, http//www.lenscratch.com)

About | PhotoMidwest 

PhotoMidwest (www.photomidwest.org) is a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1998 as The Center for Photography at Madison. It was renamed to PhotoMidwest in 2014 to reflect our interest in the Midwestern photographic community and to help foster a sense of fellowship among local and regional artists.

Now in its 24th year, PhotoMidwest serves as a home for the photographic arts in the region, with a mission to connect, educate and inspire all who create, support, and appreciate photography as a means to personal expression.

Our studio in Madison, Wisconsin serves as a gathering place for a vibrant, active community of artists and supporters. Our members have access to a wet darkroom, a digital print lab, and an exhibit gallery. We also offer classes and hold regular group meetings on a wealth of photographic topics. The gallery and Third Thursday lectures are open to the public. The Biennial Juried Exhibition is the highlight of the PhotoMidwest Festival.

CONTACT | For more information, e-mail festival@PhotoMidwest.org

About | Promega Art Showcases

Committed to creativity and community, Promega Corporation has sponsored quarterly art showcases each year since 1996. The Promega Art Showcases are open to the public and have featured the work of local, national, and international artists.  As a life science business, Promega supports the work of scientists who are charged to seek what is unknown, and answer questions ultimately designed to improve our quality of life. Creative thinking is essential to their method. As such, art - both observing and creating - re-energizes an imagination that inspires science and life. https://www.promega-artshow.com/

Application Requirements

Submissions

All entries must be uploaded via CAFÉ. New to CAFÉ? Visit their How It Works page for guidance.

Submission deadline: July 8, 2022

Entry fees: $45 for up to three images

Additional Images: Up to two additional images may be submitted for $10 each

PhotoMidwest members will receive a $10 discount. Not a member? Sign up for a membership here and we’ll email you the discount code that you can use upon checkout on the CaFÉ website. Note: You will need to enter the discount code before clicking “proceed to checkout” during the application process.

Image Upload Guidelines 

All submissions must be submitted digitally via CallForEntry.org. Interested artists are required to create a free CaFÉ profile to apply. Artist profiles can be created and saved for future use. Artists who have previously created a profile should check to confirm contact information is still accurate. 

Uploading Your Entries

• File Type: JPEG or JPG only
• File Dimensions: 2400 pixels on the longest side
• File Size: Under 5 MB
• Color Profile: SRGB
• In order to keep jurying anonymous, please do not submit images that are watermarked. Watermarked images will be removed from the juror’s consideration.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility

For purposes of this exhibition, the Midwest is defined as including the states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. All photographic imagery is eligible for submission. This includes traditional film, alternative process, digital, and all post-production techniques.

NOTE: While Promega Corporation's Gallery is open to the public, it is attached to a corporate workplace and exhibition content needs to be appropriate for such. We ask that no explicit nudity or violent images be submitted.

Images entered in prior years Festivals that were selected as finalists will not be included in the current Festival year judging. Images that have been entered in previous years that did not get selected as finalists are always welcome.