Young Artists’ group exhibition:
Photographic Responses to 2020
Call for submissions: Deadline 31 August 2021.
Send submissions to curator@photographyaotearoa.org.nz by 31 August. Read to the end for submission criteria or download PDF.
2020 was an extraordinary year during which the onset of a global pandemic shook the world and our own everyday lives to the core. Our comfortable routines were invaded by previously unheard of impositions: lockdowns, personal protective equipment, ‘bubbles’ and contact tracing, while New Zealand closing its international borders to all but citizens and residents escaping from the situation overseas?
Overseas we saw rising trends of extremism and nationalism. The world is still reverberating with the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. The most powerful nation on earth witnessed increasing degrees of breakdown in its civic society. The attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol at the beginning of 2021 threatened the structures of democracy in the very nation that has long claimed the status of the leader of the free and democratic world.
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we remained sheltered from some of the extremes of the pandemic and the global situation in general. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that, ‘New Zealanders did something remarkable in our fight to beat COVID-19. We united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus.’ The occasional scares and local lockdowns we’ve been through are nothing compared to the massive upheaval confronting the rest of the world.
Nonetheless, all our lives were impacted – whether by the weeks of lockdown, the disruption to work and study and travel plans, the inability to exchange visits with friends and family overseas, or in more intangible ways by the uncertainty and anxiety we all experienced. At the same time, life continued. Relationships began and ended, friendships solidified or pulled apart, creative projects were modified or completed or abandoned and new ones begun.
One of the aims of the Photography Aotearoa Charitable Trust is to encourage and support emerging photographers in presenting their work to the public. Photography Aotearoa is therefore calling for submissions from young artists that reflect their responses to that unusual year of 2020. We are looking for portfolios of work from 3 or 4 individuals to feature in an exhibition to be held on the premises of Photospace Gallery, Wellington, opening 29 October 2021.
The Photography Aotearoa team believe that this is an exciting opportunity for young photographers or photographic artists to showcase their work in response to a period during a period of global upheaval, historic events and turbulent social, economic and political conversations. We are delighted to welcome Thomas Slade as guest curator for this inspiring and stimulating exhibition.
To register your interest as a contributor to this group exhibition, please email curator@photographyaotearoa.org.nz. Read to the end for submission criteria or download PDF.
Photos on this page are by Thomas Slade, the guest curator for our 'Young Artists' exhibition.
More from Thomas Slade's portrait series taken during level 4 lockdown, 2020.
2020 was an extraordinary year during which the onset of a global pandemic shook the world and our own everyday lives to the core. Our comfortable routines were invaded by previously unheard of impositions: lockdowns, personal protective equipment, ‘bubbles’ and contact tracing, while New Zealand closing its international borders to all but citizens and residents escaping from the situation overseas?
Overseas we saw rising trends of extremism and nationalism. The world is still reverberating with the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. The most powerful nation on earth witnessed increasing degrees of breakdown in its civic society. The attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol at the beginning of 2021 threatened the structures of democracy in the very nation that has long claimed the status of the leader of the free and democratic world.
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we remained sheltered from some of the extremes of the pandemic and the global situation in general. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that, ‘New Zealanders did something remarkable in our fight to beat COVID-19. We united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus.’ The occasional scares and local lockdowns we’ve been through are nothing compared to the massive upheaval confronting the rest of the world.
Nonetheless, all our lives were impacted – whether by the weeks of lockdown, the disruption to work and study and travel plans, the inability to exchange visits with friends and family overseas, or in more intangible ways by the uncertainty and anxiety we all experienced. At the same time, life continued. Relationships began and ended, friendships solidified or pulled apart, creative projects were modified or completed or abandoned and new ones begun.
One of the aims of the Photography Aotearoa Charitable Trust is to encourage and support emerging photographers in presenting their work to the public. Photography Aotearoa is therefore calling for submissions from young artists that reflect their responses to that unusual year of 2020. We are looking for portfolios of work from 3 or 4 individuals to feature in an exhibition to be held on the premises of Photospace Gallery, Wellington, opening 29 October 2021.
The Photography Aotearoa team believe that this is an exciting opportunity for young photographers or photographic artists to showcase their work in response to a period during a period of global upheaval, historic events and turbulent social, economic and political conversations. We are delighted to welcome Thomas Slade as guest curator for this inspiring and stimulating exhibition.
To register your interest as a contributor to this group exhibition, please email curator@photographyaotearoa.org.nz. Read to the end for submission criteria or download PDF.
Photos on this page are by Thomas Slade, the guest curator for our 'Young Artists' exhibition.
More from Thomas Slade's portrait series taken during level 4 lockdown, 2020.
Criteria for submissions: deadline 31 August 2021
Artists must be aged 28 or under at the time of submission. We are looking for portfolios of up to 5 or 6 images. The work must be photographically based and may take the form of prints for wall display, projections or mixed media. You may submit either work made during 2020, or new work made in response to some aspect of the events of that year. Work may focus on any aspect of life in 2020; it need not necessarily reference the pandemic.
Photography Aotearoa has a budget for printing, but any framing or mixed media work will need to be at the artist’s expense.
Send submissions by e-mail to curator@photographyaotearoa.org.nz, along with –
Artists must be aged 28 or under at the time of submission. We are looking for portfolios of up to 5 or 6 images. The work must be photographically based and may take the form of prints for wall display, projections or mixed media. You may submit either work made during 2020, or new work made in response to some aspect of the events of that year. Work may focus on any aspect of life in 2020; it need not necessarily reference the pandemic.
Photography Aotearoa has a budget for printing, but any framing or mixed media work will need to be at the artist’s expense.
Send submissions by e-mail to curator@photographyaotearoa.org.nz, along with –
- an artist’s statement outlining the conceptual background to the work (150 words);
- a physical description of the finished work (whether print, projection, mixed media etc) and the dimensions;
- a set of low-resolution sample images (files should be JPEGs of no more than 750 kB each);
- a brief biographical statement (150 words);
- your contact details, including e-mail address and telephone number.
