2020: AN INTERNATIONAL JURIED PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION 
February 5 - March 22, 2021

The University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art and School of Performing and Visual Arts are pleased to announce 2020: An International Juried Photography Exhibition, an online exhibition of photographs from a year like no other, 2020.

Whether your photographs address social, racial or political issues, the Covid-19 pandemic, community and family, or your own creative quarantine, we encourage you to apply and share your personal perspective from the 2020 experience.  

DEADLINE: December 30, 2020

ENTRY FEE: $20 for one entry. $5 for each additional entry

ENTRY PORTAL: Entries will be accepted through CaFÉ (callforentry.org)

ELIGIBILITY: 2020: An International Juried Photography Exhibition is open to anyone 18 years of age or older. All types of photography and subject-matter are acceptable as long as the photographs were taken in the year 2020. (This is a fully online exhibition. No printing or shipping will be required.) 

JUROR: Betty Press is a documentary fine art photographer, well-known for photographs taken in Africa where she lived and traveled for many years. Now living in Mississippi she has just completed a project called Finding Mississippi, recording "real life" in small communities throughout Mississippi with black-and-white film, and toy and vintage cameras. She taught photography at The University of Southern Mississippi from 2003 to 2015. She is twice the recipient of a Visual Artist Grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission. 

Her photographs have been widely exhibited as well as selected for many juried competitions. In addition, her photographs have been featured in publications such as Shots, Silvershotz, South x Southeast, Lenscratch, ACurator, RfotoFolio, and Don’t Take Pictures. Her work is held in a number of public collections including Beinecke Library at Yale University, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, The Harry Ransom Center for the Humanities, The University of Texas, Austin, Mississippi Museum of Art and The Do Good Fund of Southern Photography.

In 2011, Betty published a photobook I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb, that portrayed a stunning, life-affirming portrait of the African people and culture. For this book she received a statewide award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters and was selected for Critical Mass Top 50. Her other books/zines include La Dolce Vista, Hub City Impressions and Finding Mississippi.

In August 2019, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya to photograph urban culture and social injustice, but returned to the USA in April 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Her most recent project, They Were Us: Stories of Victims and Survivors of Police Brutality in Kenya, was selected for Photo Lucida Critical Mass Top 50.

Betty was invited by Lenscratch to curate the States Project for Mississippi. She also helped organize the Do Good Fund Exhibition of Southern Fine Art Photography at the USM Museum of Art and organized several simultaneous local exhibitions. Most recently, she co-curated an online show Virtual Photography 20:20 for One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.

She is represented by Panos Pictures, London; International Visions, Washington, DC; Fischer Galleries, Jackson, Mississippi; Treehouse Gallery, Oxford, Mississippi; and One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.

As a former educator, journalist, and avid traveler, Betty Press brings a wide-ranging perspective and appreciation of diverse photographic styles, genres and mediums. 

For more information about Betty, visit www.bettypress.com, @bettypress on Instagram.

CALENDAR:
Entry Deadline..............................................December 30, 2020
Notification of Acceptance............................January 21, 2021
Show Opens Online......................................February 5, 2021
Online Juror's Presentation...........................February 18, 6:30 p.m. (CST)

SALES:  Works can be available for purchase or listed as NFS (Not for Sale). Buyers will be directed to individual photographers for purchase. We take no commission for sales. 

GUIDELINES FOR ENTRY:  All entries will require the following: Artists name, title of entry, preferred print size H x W (size for virtual exhibition purposes only) and a brief statement about your photography, no more than 500 words. 

IMPORTANT: Please use correct spelling, capitalization and punctuation for all entry fields. 

FILE SIZE AND IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS: Each entry will require the upload of 1 digital JPG-JPEG image, 72-150 ppi, no more than 5 MB for each image and no smaller than 1920 pixels on the longest side. More details on image size and how to enter or create an account in CaFÉ can be found here: https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/

USE OF IMAGES: The University of Southern Mississippi reserves the right to use images of selected photographs for marketing and publicity purposes without compensation. 

QUESTIONS: For questions, please contact Museum Director, Mark Rigsby, mark.rigsby@usm.edu, (601) 266-5200.

ABOUT: The University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art was established in 1997 by the Mississippi Institute of Higher Learning Board of Trustees as an expansion of the C.W. Wood Gallery founded in 1977. Recently completed in 2014, the Gallery of Art and Design, a 2000 sq.ft. contemporary art gallery, is now the primary exhibition space for all USM Museum of Art and Department of Art and Design exhibitions and events. 

LEGAL TERMS: Entry into this show is a commitment to participate and signifies full acceptance by the artist of the rules and guidelines of this exhibition. This is a fully online exhibition. Works selected cannot be substituted and must be available for the duration of the show. USM reserves the right to use these photographs and any images provided for promotional purposes. 

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria