Texas Photographic Society (TPS) is proud to announce the call for entry for the third edition of FotoTexas: People, Places & Culture—a 50-image exhibition juried by E. Dan Klepper, acclaimed photographer and gallery owner based in Marathon, Texas. TPS is honored to partner again with Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas, to present FotoTexas III from June 21 to August 31, 2024.

FotoTexas III seeks work produced in Texas that celebrates the rich history and current culture of the state that TPS proudly calls home—showcasing its people, icons, small towns, city life, varied landscapes, natural resources, and more.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 20, 2024 - Call for entry announced
April 23, 2024 - Deadline for entry (11:59 p.m. Mountain Time Zone)
May 10, 2024 - Exhibiting artists announced and emails sent to all entrants
June 7, 2024 - Work due in Alpine, Texas
June 21, 2024 - Exhibition opens with an opening reception at Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas
August 31, 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.

JURORS’ STATEMENT
Hello, fellow photographers. This greeting applies to everyone…literally. Thanks to the successful democratization of the medium, everyone is a photographer today. How did that happen? The smartphone comes to mind, no doubt a huge factor, especially considering the fact that our 90-year-old grandmothers can now take better cat pictures than we can…(thanks iPHONE 15 Pro Max). But this egalitarian transformation of the medium began way before the smartphone, in 1900, when Eastman Kodak started selling Brownie cameras for one dollar. Suddenly, everyone with a spare buck could start photographing everything about their lives and the world around them. Why “Brownie”? Because Kodak’s marketing department licensed the use of popular storybook characters called “Brownies” for their camera ads. “Brownies” were little magical elves, like Smurfs, who helped people out and enjoyed technology like riding on trains and answering telephones and, thanks to Kodak, taking snapshots. The ad campaign worked. In fact, the Brownie camera became one of the country’s biggest mass-marketing success stories and the most popular tool for personal expression. And we can blame it all on the Smurfs, America’s original amateur photographers.

What does this all mean for us professional photographers today? It just means we need to work a lot harder and think a lot smarter creatively. So get ready, contestants, for Foto Texas lll: People, Places and Culture, a title that covers a lot of ground. Where to begin? And where to go from there? Well, I’m sure we can all produce a top ten list of standard images that routinely represent Texas to the rest of the world. Here’s one: rodeos, wildflowers, cowgirls, oil derricks, Willie Nelson, hometown parades, tumbleweeds, the Alamo, Hank Hill, and the armadillo. I’m betting that you have a photograph of one or more of these in your portfolio. I know I do. As your juror, do I want to see any of them? Not really. Instead, think about the broad parameters of this competition as the motivation to be as experimental and innovative as you want, with one caveat – your image should also fit the brief. It’s a mashup of the editorial and the arts. So go for it. Go wild. And get personal. Show me exactly what the people, places and culture of Texas mean to you. And good luck.

--- E. Dan Klepper

ABOUT THE JUROR

Artist, photographer, and writer E. Dan Klepper has resided in the small, west Texas community of Marathon for over 20 years where he creates large-scale photo mosaics, prints, and experimental videos. His work combines a unique juxtaposition of subject matter rooted in the wild, untamed landscapes of the state, crafted with high-tech tools and methods.

“Living in the Big Bend has allowed me to create a portfolio of photo-based images and digital constructs representing the principles of the physical world,” Klepper explains. “To create the work, I combine the studio arts, photography, and technology to reconstruct the Texas landscape and its elements in ways that are meant to enhance their transformative characteristics. I use both digital and film photography as well as video and computer software in my process, frequently taking multiple photographs throughout a day or a season, and then combining them to create the final compositions. The results attempt to extract the uncanny from the natural world, to detect altered realities and dimensions, and to portray the curious laws of nature that guide our existence.”

“Klepper tackles the landscape and photography through an investigation of history, nature, and pop frontier culture,” Houston gallerist Sarah Foltz explains. “Many of his images are a kind of meditation on time, unfolding in the western landscape from seconds to hours to centuries.”

Klepper’s works can be found in collections, festivals, and exhibitions across Texas, the U.S., and abroad. Klepper’s book of fine art photography and essays, “Why the Raven Calls the Canyon”, is available in bookstores from Texas A&M University Press. Art critic and former Glasstire editor Christina Rees writes of the book, “Celebrated Texas photographer and writer E. Dan Klepper has captured the unsung and undiscovered vistas of the wild and vast Texas landscape. There he finds something sublime, not only in nature itself but in humankind’s idiosyncratic and fragile relationship with the natural world.”

SALES

TPS and our partner venues encourage the sale of exhibited work and will collect a commission from all prints sold during the exhibition. (The average commision is 30%; final sales/commission details for each venue will be included in the exhibition contract for accepted artists.) Please indicate the sales price of your framed print. If your photograph 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
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 a prepaid return shipping label must arrive at the Museum of the Big Bend, in Alpine, Texas, by June 7, 2024.

TPS and Museum of the Big Bend 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. Museum of the Big Bend does not insure artists' work. Please consider insuring your work.

Application 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.

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

FotoTexas III: People, Places & Culture 2024 is open to artists of all levels, internationally, who are at least 18 years old at time of entry. All photography-based work is encouraged including digital, silver, and alternative processes. 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.