Call Detail
Focus Iran 2: Contemporary Photography and Video
Entry Deadline: 8/8/16
Application Closed
Work Sample Requirements
Images | Minimum:Min. 0, Maximum:Max. 1
Video | Minimum:Min. 0, Maximum:Max. 1
Total Samples | Minimum:Min. 1, Maximum:Max. 1
Call Type: Exhibitions
Eligibility: International
State: California

FOCUS IRAN 2: CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO

Submission Period:  
June 1- August 8, 2016

Exhibition Dates: 
Craft & Folk Art Museum
January 29 – May 7, 2017

UC Irvine Viewpoint Gallery
September 16 - October 13, 2017

Opening Reception
Saturday, January 28
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Focus Iran 2: Contemporary Photography and Video is a biennial juried international exhibition of photography and video organized by the Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) of Los Angeles and Farhang Foundation to showcase living artists whose works explore themes related to Iranian culture and heritage. The exhibition is an opportunity to facilitate the identification and development of emerging and mid-career photographers and media artists.

The exhibition will feature approximately 40 photographs and videos in a group exhibition to take place at the Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) between January 29 and May 7, 2017 and at University of California, Irvine’s Viewpoint Gallery between September 16 and October 13, 2017. Selected artists will be determined from among all eligible entries received and reviewed by a panel of qualified judges. The jurors will consider pertinence to Iranian culture, skill, artistic vision, and impact in the selection process.

JURORS

Claudia James Bartlett has managed and dealt art in several galleries, beginning with Larry Gagosian. She has intermittently worked for Artforum as a West Coast Representative and, in 2002 with her husband Peter, founded the Hayworth Gallery, which effectively championed the work of young emerging artists. From 2013-2016 she directed the Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles. Presently, she directs and co-owns the annual photographic exposition photo l.a., as well as the photo competition FOCUS photo l.a. She also works in conjunction with her husband as an art advisor.

Reza Deghati is a renowned photojournalist who has worked all over the world, most notably for National Geographic. His assignments have taken him to over a hundred countries as a witness to humanity’s conflicts and catastrophes. His work has been featured in international media, including Time Magazine, Stern, Newsweek, El País, and Paris Match, as well as in a series of books, exhibitions, and documentaries for National Geographic Channel. Author of twenty-nine books, and a recipient of many awards over the course of his career, Reza is a Fellow (2006-2012) and Explorer of the National Geographic Society since 2013, and a Senior Fellow of the Ashoka Foundation. His work has been recognized by World Press Photo and has received numerous awards, including the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography and a Lucie Award. France has also appointed him a Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.

Holly Jerger is the Exhibitions Curator at the Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM). She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ball State University, Indiana and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she also taught. She has served on the boards of the Museum Educators of Southern California (MESC) and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

Arpad Kovacs is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA. He is currently working on a solo exhibition of work by the English photographer Richard Learoyd, scheduled to open August 30, 2016, and an exhibition about artists who mine the news media for their subject. He received his Master of Arts degree in art history from York University, and his Bachelor of Arts in the same field from Queen’s University.

Steven McCurry has been an iconic figure in contemporary photography for more than thirty years. He studied cinematography at Pennsylvania State University, before going on to work for a newspaper. After traveling India for several months, he crossed the border into Pakistan and met a group of refugees from Afghanistan, who smuggled him across the border into their country just as the Russian invasion was closing the country to Western journalists. McCurry's images were among the first to show the world the brutality of the Russian invasion, including his celebrated image of the Afghan Girl. McCurry has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented four first prize awards from the World Press Photo contest.

Ali Akbar Sadeghi was born in 1937 and graduated from the College of Art, University of Tehran. He is one of the most prolific and successful Iranian painters and artists and has been active for 60 years. In his evocative paintings, he draws on the rich traditions of Persian art, with a surreal edge that involves dizzying spatial manipulations and startling combinations of real and fantastical objects, producing breathtaking kaleidoscopes of color and form. He has produced seven animated films and has won more than 30 awards at international film festivals such as C.I.D.A.L.C (Gandhi Peace Prize) and the London Film Festival. In 1989 he founded Sabz Gallery in Tehran, which promoted the works of Iranian painters until 2003. He established a permanent workspace and atelier in 2011, which continuously showcases works belonging to different periods of Sadeghi's long professional life. In total, he has participated in over 50 individual and group exhibitions and auctions, published over eight volumes of books, and juried over 10 international biennial exhibitions.

Newsha Tavakolian is a documentary photographer who began working professionally in the Iranian press at the age of 16 at a women's daily newspaper called Zan. At the age of 18, she was the youngest photographer to cover the 1999 student uprising, which was a turning point for the country's blossoming reformist movement. She later joined the New York based agency Polaris Images. In 2002, she began working internationally, and has since covered regional conflicts and natural disasters, as well as made social documentaries in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Yemen. Her work is published in international magazines and newspapers such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Le Figaro, Colors, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad, and The New York Times Magazine. She has shown her work internationally in museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the British Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

JUDGING CRITERIA

  • Technical Excellence
  • Content (How well the work relates to Iranian culture and heritage) 
  • Composition/Structure
  • Impact

RULES OF ENTRY

  • Open to international artists, 18 years of age and older.
  • Only digital format photographs and videos are eligible. Video length: 9 minutes or less
  • Maximum of one (1) photographic work OR one (1) video/new media work per artist is accepted.
  • Each entry must be the original work of the participating artist, and they must be the sole owner of the copyright of such entry. 
  • Employees and their immediate families (defined as spouses, parents, siblings, children, grandparents and in-laws) and any members of their households employed by CAFAM or Farhang Foundation, or any of its affiliates, parent corporations, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, are not eligible to participate.
  • All entries and payments must be received between 12:01AM PST (Pacific Standard Time) on June 1, 2016 and 11:59PM MT (Mountain Time) on August 8, 2016. Any entries and/or payments submitted before the Competition Start or after the Final Deadline automatically will be void.
  • Photograph size maximum: 36 inches on the longest side. Photograph size minimum: 12 inches on the shortest side.

All entries will be processed through CaFÉ at www.callforentry.org. Please do not send your entry to the CAFAM or Farhang Foundation. CaFÉ is free for artists to use. Create an account, upload your images, and select the images to enter into Focus Iran 2. Directions for uploading photos and video to CaFÉ are noted below.

Upload options for photography:

  • File format: JPEG only
  • File dimensions: No smaller than 1920 pixels on the longest side
  • File resolution: 72 ppi/dpi (standard web resolution)
  • File size: 5 MB maximum

Upload options for video files:

  • File formats: 3GP, WMV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MPG, MP4, M2T, MKV, M2TS
  • Resolution: minimum 640 x 480, maximum 1920 x 1080
  • Aspect ratio: 4:3 or 16:9
  • Bit rate: recommended above 240 kbps
  • Frame rate: minimum 12 fps, recommended 30 fps. The frame rate of the original video should be maintained without re-sampling. In particular, pulldown and other frame rate re-sampling techniques are strongly discouraged.
  • Codec: h.264, h.263, mpeg-1, mpeg-2, mpeg-4, Windows Media Video, and motion jpeg mpeg-1 muxed, Apple Lossless
  • Container: 3gp, asf, avi, mov, mpeg, mpeg-2, mp4, ogg
  • File size: 100 MB maximum

ARTIST NOTIFICATION AND DELIVERY OF ARTWORK

Finalists will be notified by email on or approximately October 17, 2016. Selected photographs and videos will be printed and framed or transferred to DVD by CAFAM for exhibition display.

Selected artists will be required to send a high-resolution copy of their selected work to Focus Iran’s Hightail account (link to be provided). Photographs must be sized to be 36-inches on the longest side (i.e. 36x20, 36x24, or 36x36) @ 300 DPI, saved either as a TIFF or a Photoshop file. Videos must be saved and uploaded as MP4 or MOV files @720p resolution with h.264 encoding. All works must be uploaded to Hightail no later than 11:59PM PST on October 28, 2016; a late submission may result in disqualification.

Finalists who are unable to meet the above requirements must contact Sasha Ali (sasha@cafam.org) at the museum to make alternative arrangements. Non-compliance with this time period or with these Rules of Entry may result in disqualification.

RETURN OF ARTWORK

Upon the completion of the exhibition at CAFAM, the Artist can elect one of the following options:

  1. Finance the return shipment of photographs to their home/studio. Payment and transport arrangements must be made with Sasha Ali (sasha@cafam.org) by May 5, 2017.
  2. Donate the work to Farhang Foundation for Farhang’s exclusive and unrestricted use.
  3. Request for the work(s) to be destroyed.

CALENDAR

  • Submission period: Between 12:01AM Pacific Time on June 1, 2016 and 11:59PM Mountain Time Zone on August 8, 2016
  • Judging period: August 15 – September 16, 2016
  • Digital delivery of selected artworks via Focus Iran’s Hightail (link to be provided at time of selection) by 11:59PM PST on October 28, 2016

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Please contact Farhang Foundation for sponsorship opportunities at focusiran@farhang.org.

QUESTIONS AND INFO

For further information about Focus Iran 2: Contemporary Photography & Video, please contact focusiran@farhang.org.

 

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria