Note: New Deadline!  Photographic Society is proud to announce the call for entry for By Hand: Alternative Processes, our fifth exhibition featuring hand-made photo-based imagery created using alternative photographic processes and historical printing methods. Our juror is acclaimed artist, educator, writer, and editor Christina Z. Anderson. (See full bio and juror's statement below.) This call is open to artists of all levels internationally.

By Hand: Alternative Processes will open at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Abilene, Texas, on December 7, 2023 and run through February 3, 2023.

PLEASE NOTE: non-framed and three-dimensional work is now being allowed. Please see the IF YOUR WORK IS ACCEPTED section below.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

July 8, 2023 - Call for entry opens
New Date! Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - Deadline for entry (11:59 p.m. Mountain Time)
October 13, 2023 - Exhibiting artists announced and emails sent to all entrants
December 1, 2023 - Work due in Abilene, Texas
December 7, 2023 - Exhibition opens at the Center for Contemporary Arts
February 3, 2024 - Exhibition closes

AWARDS

First Place = $500

Second Place = $300

Third Place = $200

Up to 5 Honorable Mentions may be awarded

ENTRY FEE

The entry fee for current TPS Members is $30 for 5 images, plus $6 for each additional image. The Non-Member entry fee is $38 for 5 images, plus $6 for each additional image. You do not have to be a member of TPS to enter. However, if you enter the competition and join TPS or renew as a member at the same time, you can pay the reduced current TPS Member entry fee of $30.

You may enter up to 12 images.

TPS Member Benefits include member feature opportunities via our Members' Gallery, Member Spotlight, Blog, Members' News, Members' Instagram Takeover, social media accounts and E-Zine, discounted entry fees to most TPS competitions, and discounts to programs and services offered through our partnerships.

If you are not sure of your TPS member status, please contact TPS at ann@texasphoto.org. All entry and membership fees are non-refundable.

JUROR'S STATEMENT

In the 1960s there was a growing interest in creating photographs no longer tethered to factory-produced photographic paper. 19th century processes were resurrected as was experimentation with traditional and new photographic materials. It was said of this trend:

"Now the making process has not only become the subject matter for photographers, but by exploring a variety of new and old processes the shape of ideas as well as images has changed the appearance of what had traditionally been referred to as ‘photography.’…we do not know as yet where the freedom made possible by new techniques will lead." (Van Deren Coke, “Some Thoughts on the 60s Continuum” in Image Vol 15 No. 1 March 1972).

Sixty years later this trend continues. Alternative process photography or “alt pro” is all about engagement with the handmade print. I will be jurying the Texas Photographic Society’s call for contemporary handmade works slated for exhibition in December 7, 2023 through February 7, 2024. Processes that will be considered are numerous*, as long as the end product is a handmade print. My juror’s eye will be toward the contemporary expression of alt pro today.

*Processes such as kallitype, Vandyke brown, argyrotype, platinum, chrysotype, carbon, cyanotype, salted paper, gum bichromate, anthotype, wet plate collodion, tintype, ambrotype, chemigrams, daguerreotype, bromoil, chromo, liquid emulsion, lith, mordançage, cliché verre, lumen prints, and traditional analog materials used in experimental ways.

ABOUT THE JUROR

Christina Z. Anderson’s work focuses on the contemporary vanitas printed in a variety of alternative photographic processes, such as gum and casein bichromate, cyanotype, salted paper, chrysotype, palladium, chemigrams, chromo, mordançage, lumen prints, and combinations thereof. Anderson’s work has shown nationally and internationally in over 120 shows and 60 publications.

She has six books in print which have sold in over 40 countries: from newest to oldest, The Experimental Darkroom: Contemporary Uses of Traditional Black & White Photographic Materials, Digital Negatives with QuadToneRIP, Demystifying QTR for Photographers and Printmakers (co-authored with Ron Reeder), Cyanotype, The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice, Salted Paper Printing, A Step-by-Step Manual Highlighting Contemporary Artists, Gum Printing, A Step by Step Manual Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice, and Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact Printing Processes.

Anderson is Editor for Focal Press/Routledge’s Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography series and Professor of Photography at Montana State University. To see her work, visit christinaZanderson.com and @christinaZanderson.

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By Hand: Alternative Processes is made possible through funding from the Texas Commission on the Arts, a partnership with Fujifilm, and the support of our TPS Members.

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SALES

TPS encourages the sale of exhibited work and will collect a 30% commission from all prints sold during the exhibition. Please indicate the sales price of your print, including frame/finishing. If your finished piece is not for sale, simply note NFS. If your work is accepted and you do not indicate a sales price, the artwork will be listed as NFS.

IF YOUR WORK IS ACCEPTED

UPDATE: Based on questions from artists, and because of the alternative and "by hand" nature of the work in this exhibition, TPS and CCA have decided to make an exception and allow artists to submit work with methods of presentation other than traditional frames and plexiglass. If an alternative presentation is essential to the work, two dimensional images may be hung with magnets, dowels, or other secure and simple-to-install methods (special hanging supplies must be provided by the artist). Three-dimensional work is also allowed and will be displayed on pedestals or wall shelves.

The size limit has not changed - no dimension larger than 20 inches. TPS and CCA reserve the right to NOT exhibit any artwork that is too fragile, unstable, or otherwise unable to be readily and safely installed on walls, open pedestals, or wall shelves, in a public gallery setting.

Also, please keep in mind that framing is still the safest and easiest way to ship and present your work. If you have any questions, please contact Ann Shaw at ann@texasphoto.org prior to applying.

1. Artwork must be ready-to-hang using wire stretched between D-rings on the back. The finished piece must not exceed 20" in the longest dimension (including the frame). Sawtooth hangers are NOT permitted. Please use white mats and white or black frames that are gallery quality and complement your work (color mats are NOT acceptable). Plexiglass must be used with the frame, NO GLASS ALLOWED. Photographs printed on metal are allowed, but must be framed, with the photograph safely recessed from the front of the frame, and packed appropriately. Clearly label the back of your work with your full name, address, telephone number, email address, image title, medium, dimensions and sales price or NFS. TPS reserves the right to exclude works from the exhibition that are not gallery-ready and professional in presentation.

2. A prepaid return UPS or FedEX shipping label MUST be provided with your work for prints to be returned to you when the exhibition concludes. Work WITHOUT return shipping will NOT be included in the exhibition and will NOT be returned. Please keep a copy of the prepaid return shipping label and your receipt. Packing peanuts are NOT permitted. Please ship prints in a flat box (do not use moving boxes) as our storage space is limited. Prints will be return-shipped in the container in which they were received. If additional exhibition venues are added, artists will be notified with location, dates, and other pertinent details, and work will be return-shipped from the final venue.

3. Framed prints with prepaid return shipping label must arrive at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Abilene, Texas, by December 1, 2023.

TPS and Center for Contemporary Arts will exercise all due care in handling your artwork. However, TPS is not liable for loss, theft, damage, or replacement of artwork, nor is TPS liable for damage during shipping. Center for Contemporary Arts does not insure artists' work. Please consider insuring your work.

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions, please contact TPS Executive Director Ann T. Shaw at ann@texasphoto.org.

Application Requirements

IMAGE REQUIREMENTS

Please submit digital JPG files only, minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side and 5 MB maximum. Please remove watermarks from images. For each image you will need to provide the image title and the process (medium) used to make the image/print (Archival Digital Print, Silver Gelatin Print, Platinum/Palladium Print, Wet Plate Collodian, etc.) To clarify, you will submit a digital file of your image for the contest application; if your work is selected for the show you will print your image, frame it, and ship it to the exhibition venue.

Please note: Applicants will need to create a free account here, on CaFÉ, with a portfolio of images, and then apply to this call with images from your portfolio. All images you intend to use for this application must be uploaded to your portfolio before you begin your application. Later additions to your application cannot be accommodated.

Need help resizing images? You can resize via a Mac or PC computer, or use a number of third-party applications, many of which offer free trials or solutions. Please go here for suggestions.

Eligibility Criteria

By Hand: Alternative Processes is open to artists internationally, of all levels, who are at least 18 years old at time of entry. Works exhibited previously in a TPS show are not eligible. Current members of the TPS Board of Directors are permitted to enter but are not eligible for awards.

All photography-based work using alternative processes is allowed, including but not limited to Albumen, Anthotype, Argyrotype, Athenatype, Bayard Direct Positive, Calotype, Carbon, Casein, Chrysotype, Cyanotype, Dusting-On Process, Gum Bichromate, Gumoil, Herschel’s Breath Printing, Inkjet Photopolymer Gravure, Ivorytype, Kallitype, Mordancage, Platinum/Palladium, POP, Solarplate Intaglio, Van Dyke Brown, Wet Plate Collodion, Whey Process, Ziatype and all photographic image-making techniques that incorporate traditional mediums such as printmaking, ceramics or painting.