Call Description

2025 CPA International Juried Exhibition

Submission period: Tuesday, July 1 through Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 11:59pm Mountain Time (10:59pm Pacific)

The Center for Photographic Art (CPA) is excited to announce the 2025 International Juried Exhibition with over $5,000 in awards! Forty-five juror-selected photographs will be exhibited from December 6, 2025 through January 4, 2026 in our historic gallery in Carmel, California, and vie for eight cash awards totaling more than $5,000.  These photographs will also be featured in an online gallery on the CPA website along with an additional forty-five juror selected images. An exhibition catalog of the entire gallery and online exhibition will be available for purchase. An entry discount is available for new and current CPA members.

2025 IJE Juror

CPA is pleased to announce this year’s International Juried Exhibition juror: Cig Harvey.

Cig Harvey is a British-born artist and writer, who lives in Maine, USA, working in large-scale color photography and poetry, whose practice seeks to find the magical in everyday life. She uses both images and language to explore sensory experiences and elevate the everyday. Rich in implied narrative, deeply rooted in the natural world, her work is devoted to the topic of what it is to feel.

Cig has published four sold-out monographs: You Look at Me Like an Emergency (Schilt Publishing, 2012); Gardening at Night (Schilt Publishing, 2015); You an Orchestra You a Bomb (Schilt Publishing, 2017); Blue Violet (Monacelli/Phaidon, 2021). Her latest book, Emerald Drifters, was just published by Monacelli/Phaidon in 2025.

Cig’s photographs and books are in the permanent collections of many museums across the world, including The Library of Congress (New York); Yale University; Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); the Farnsworth Art Museum (Maine, USA); and the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House, (New York). Cig is represented by galleries worldwide and has exhibited at Paris Photo, Art Miami, and at AIPAD (New York) for the past twenty years.

Cig had her first solo museum show at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway (2012), and more recently at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine (2019).

She was awarded the Prix Virginia Laureate (2018) and The Maine in America Award by the Farnsworth Art Museum (2021). She was a nominee for the John Gutmann Fellowship, the Santa Fe Prize, the Prix Pictet, and a finalist for the BMW Prize, the Estee Lauder Collection, the Karl Lagerfeld Collection at Paris Photo, the Clarence John Laughlin Award, and The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.

Cig featured in Ross McDermott’s documentary Return to Cuba - In the Footsteps of Walker Evans (2016) of her endeavor with fellow photographers Mark Klett, Abe Morell, Sam Abell, and Greg Gorman to retrace Walker Evans’s footprints and photographs in Cuba. She is currently the subject of a new short film, Eat Flowers, by River Finlay, which will premiere at the Camden International Film Festival in 2022.

Cig Harvey lives in a farmhouse in Maine with her husband Doug and daughter Scout. The passing of time and the natural surroundings of her rural home has made her alert to the magic in the mundane.

Cig brings a deep understanding of photography and a broad appreciation of diverse photographic styles, genres and mediums to CPA's 2025 International Juried Exhibition.

The juror will grant the following awards:
First Place:                  $2500
Second Place:                $1000
Third Place:                    $500

Four awards of merit:   $250 each

Plus the public with vote for a People’s Choice Award: $150 plus cool CPA gear!

2024 International Juried Exhibition Timeline:
Early submission rates open:      7/01/25
Early submission rates end:        9/5/25 11:59 PM MDT     
Final day for submissions:           10/01/25 11:59 PM MDT     
Artists notified via email:            10/21/25                                
Framed artwork due at CPA:       11/25/25                               
Opening reception, awards presentation, catalog release:  12/06/25
IJE exhibition closes:                     1/04/26                          
Artwork Returns:                           January 2026

Eligibility
The 2025 International Juried Exhibition (IJE) is open to all living photographers, worldwide, over the age of 18, working in all still photographic media (no video). There is no theme; any subject matter is eligible. Photographs accepted for previous CPA IJE gallery exhibitions are not eligible.

Entry Fees:
Early Submission Period:             7/01/25 – 8/27/25 11:59 PM MDT
$45 (with member discount)      3 images for CPA members 
$65                                                 3 images for non-members

Regular Entry Period:                   9/5/25 – 10/01/25 11:59 PM MDT
$55 (with member discount)      3 images for CPA members
$75                                                  3 images for non-members

All entrants are welcome to submit up to 17 additional images at a cost of $10 each for a total of 20 images.

To retrieve your CPA Members discount:
•   For current CPA members, log into your account via the CPA website. Under the Members menu you will find the IJE Discount code: https://www.photography.org/ije-prospectus

 
•  You are welcome to join CPA. Log into the CPA membership page at https://photography.org/shop/joincpa/. Once you enroll, you can access the IJE Discount code and enjoy the benefits of CPA membership including our members only show in the spring!

You will apply the discount code at the end of the online CAFE entry system. It is difficult to see where the box is at check out. You have to click the box to pay the full price and then a discount code field will appear once that box has been checked. Not straightforward, we know!

How to Enter
All entrants must use the CallForEntry (CaFE) online entry system.

1.   Access the CaFE site and create a free personal account. https://www.callforentry.org/
2.   Upload your files into your CaFE portfolio with these specifications:
Image resolution:  1920 pixels (long dimension) @ 72 ppi,

Profile:    AdobeRGB.  Save file as an 8bit Jpeg. Files must not exceed 5MB.

Please remove any visible names, titles, watermarks, etc.

Please note: Selected images and caption data will be printed in the exhibition catalog directly from your uploaded files. Your personal profile and image data will be our only source of information. Be certain that your name, titles, dates, sales prices, are complete and that you select the correct process type (digital pigment, platinum, silver gelatin, ambrotype, etc.). Please title each image; "Untitled" is not allowed.

You can upload your files to your CaFE portfolio at will. However, you must complete your ENTIRE entry before you check out and pay your fees.  Once your IJE entry is submitted, it cannot be changed, nor can you add additional images. Therefore, please do not finalize your entry until you have entered the minimum number of images plus any additional images (up to twenty total) and have double-checked that all your information including your name, all titles, dates and processes, as well as your artist statement is accurate. You may enter your CPA members' discount code towards the end of the checkout.

Please plan accordingly. CaFE is an automated system so late entries cannot be accepted.

For assistance, please refer to the FAQ on the CaFE website, or email: ann@photography.org. No telephone calls please. We will do our best to respond quickly to your email. Keep in mind that we will be very busy near the end of the submission deadline.

3.  Notification and Submission of Work for Gallery Exhibition
If selected for the gallery or online exhibition, you will be notified via a CaFE auto generated email by October 21, 2025. THESE NOTICES MAY APPEAR IN YOUR SPAM/JUNK FOLDER.

For accepted gallery artists only: framed photographs must be delivered to the CPA gallery no later than November 25, 2025. Artists selected for the online gallery need not send work.

Preparing your image for exhibition
All artwork for display in the gallery must be ready-to-hang, except for sculptural pieces and 3D works that will be displayed on a pedestal or shelf. Framed pieces can be wood or metal and in any style or profile and must be glazed with acrylic Plexiglas only; absolutely no glass.  Mounted prints are welcome as long as they have some hanging method. Matted but unframed work will not be displayed. Your finished piece must not exceed 30 inches on the long side and weigh less than 10 pounds, with hanging wire securely attached to the back of the frame. Please no saw tooth hangers. Diptych, triptych, multiple images, etc. should not exceed 30 inches combined on the long side. For the safety of your piece and our gallery visitors, no exceptions will be granted for these framing requirements.

Delivery and Return of Artwork

Framed pieces are due no later than November 25, 2025. Hand deliveries and pickups are welcome during regular gallery hours – Wednesday through Sunday, Noon to 4:00 pm. But please call ahead!

If you ship your work, please use sturdy and reusable packaging as it will be used for return shipping. Reusable fiberboard shipping cases are preferred. If you do not use a fiberboard case, please use sturdy cardboard and bubble wrap to protect your work. Please NO STYROFOAM PEANUTS or similar pelleted packaging material! Containers using this material will not be unpacked and the piece will not be exhibited.

Please use only Federal Express or UPS for shipping. USPS is not allowed. Our shipping address is:

Center for Photographic Art
Sunset Center
San Carlos Street at 9th Avenue
Carmel, CA 93923
(831) 625-5181

Please enclose a prepaid FedEx or UPS return shipping label with any applicable insurance. No cash, personal checks or stamps will be accepted. Costs for international customs and import duty is the responsibility of the artist.

Prints that do not meet our requirements, arrive damaged, use pelleted packaging, cannot be hung properly, or are deemed by the juror to be of poor quality will not be exhibited nor eligible for awards.

No exceptions to these rules. Failing to meet the stated criteria will disqualify your entry.

Center for Photographic Art - Meaning Made Visible
Please join CPA! Members receive exclusive benefits and discounts on events, competitions, workshops and lectures. CPA depends on our membership and welcomes donor and corporate underwriting to help sponsor CPA's world class exhibitions, lectures and other vital programming.

For more information and to  join, visit the CPA membership page at https://photography.org/shop/joincpa or click here

Center for Photographic Art is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.

Application Requirements

2025 International Juried Exhibition checklist:

√ Name, contact information, titles, process, dates and sales prices are complete and correct
   before submission. "Untitled" is not allowed.
√  Entry completed and fees paid before October 1, 2025, 11:59 PM MDT
√  Maximum frame side of 30 inches, acrylic glazing only, no glass,
√  Reusable, sturdy packaging. No Styrofoam peanuts or other pelleted packing material
√  Prepaid return address label included
√  Framed work must arrive at CPA no later than November 25, 2025

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility
The 2025 International Juried Exhibition (IJE) is open to all living photographers, worldwide, over the age of 18, working in all still photographic media. No video. No AI. There is no theme; any subject matter is eligible. Photographs accepted for previous CPA IJE gallery exhibitions are not eligible.