Rennaissance Photography Competition 2010 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Renaissance Photography Competition 2010 has been announced. 16 images in four categories are competing for the overall prize. 80 photographs have been selected by judges Michael Hoppen, Eamonn McCabe, Charlie Waite and Brigitte Lardinois and will be exhibited in the Gallery of The Hospital Private Members’ Club, London where the overall winner will be announced on 21 April. The Renaissance Photography Prize 2010 is given to a single image in categories covering Movement, Reflections, People and Landscapes with an overall theme Moments that Matter. Visit the website for a look at the 16 shortlisted and the highly commended but you’ll have to wait until April for the winner.

I am so pleased to see that there were over 3,700 entries and the competition has already raised £22,000 for the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care. The final amount raised will be available on the website at the end of April. I met founder and organizer Fiona Gifford,  a 36 year-old lawyer and keen amateur photographer who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, at photomonth London last year which I mentioned in a post at the time. I cannot begin to express my admiration for her in organizing this competition. The sheer energy, dedication and drive needed to deal with cancer as well as work and organize a competition of this stature deserves the highest level of support. Indeed the competition appears to be going from strength to strength as it works on a philanthropic as well as a creative level.

In the lead up to the opening of the exhibition and overall winner announcement I will be talking to some of the judges through the blog, as well as Gifford. Can’t wait to find out who bags the overall winner prize. Follow the shortlisted Rennaissance Photography link to see the entries. Who do you think should receive it?

Photobooks seminar and Steidl exhibition in Lausanne

If you’re in Switzerland or near Lausanne over the weekend of Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 February, there’s a seminar dedicated to the photo book. Lasting Impressions, or fading impressions?: The Photobook today and tomorrow.

Round table discussions cover topics ranging from Profusion & Confusion: What is the photography book today?, Concepts & Objects: A Photobook Laboratory to Menaces & Promises: Where is the photography book going? The event marks the end of the exhibition Lasting Impressions The Fine Art &Craft of the Steidl Book. Guests include Alec Soth, Gerhard Steidl - who leads a guided tour of the exhibition, Michael Mack, Joachim Schmid and William A Ewing, who wrote a piece for The Guardian in 2005 looking at upcoming photographers and also leads a guided tour of the exhibition.

The seminar costs chf 50.–/day (£30 approx), meal included. Students: free entrance to the colloquium, lunch chf 10.– (£6.00 approx). Cash payment on site, see website for details. The discussion will be simultaneously translated in French/English. The event is organized by the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, in collaboration with the ECAL/Universty of Art and Design Lausanne.

Even if you can’t make the event, the titles of the discussions look interesting and suggest that the photo book is being examined seriously as a significant cultural object.

Call for entries for New York Photo Awards 2010 and photo exhibitions in New York and Milan

There’s a call for entries for the New York Photo Awards 2010 (NYPH’10) from the organisers of the New York Photo Festival looking for photographers from all over the world, “whose exceptional work breaks new ground visually, intellectually, and aesthetically”, plus a couple of photography shows. Finally, a news snippet on the the Magnum Archive Collection move.

NEW YORK PHOTO AWARDS 2010 (NYPH’10)

© Andrea Star Reese, New York Country runs the Batcave from The Urban Cave, 2009

One of last year’s deserving winners in the Student Social Documentary Essay category was Andrea Star Reese. Keep an eye out for her ongoing project, The Urban Cave. She is currently working on parts two and three.

DEADLINE
30 April

PRIZE
Work showcased in a group exhibition at next year’s festival and an online “feature presentation on the New York Photo Festival website”. 12 awards will be presented and 24 artists will receive honorable mentions at the New York Photo Awards 2010 ceremony to be held in Brooklyn, New York on 14 May.

COST
General
$30 per individual photograph, $65 per series of 5 to 15

Student
$20 per individual photograph, $40 per series of 5 to 15

SUBMIT
Two Categories: General (7 categories – single image and series) and Student (5 categories – single image, series, essay). Categories cover editorial, fine art, advertising, social documentary and photo books.

Only works “produced or published” between 1 January 2009 and 30 April 2010 are eligible for submission.
WINNERS
Announced in May, “during the third edition of the New York Photo Festival”.

© Andrea Star Reese, New York Country and Snowwhite from The Urban Cave, 2009

New free guide for photographers from PhotoShelter on using social media

Talk about everything happening at the same time. I’m sitting in a workshop with freelance creatives, including photographers and journalists, on networking via the web. Lo and behold – a free guide by PhotoShelter on Social Media for Photographers lands in my Inbox. It’s 55-pages long and you can download the report at PhotoShelter. This is the blurb:

“Social Media for Photographers is filled with actionable strategies that photographers can start using immediately. This comprehensive guide covers the ground rules every photographer should know about using social media, choosing where to participate, smart strategies to foster conversation, tips to increase social sharing and generate quality links, measurement, and tools that can help achieve maximum results.

“Whether you’re hoping to build your brand, manage client relationships and find new ones, generate more online image sales, improve your SEO for your photography website, or simply find inspiration – Social Media for Photographers will help you set these goals and determine how to best spend your time on key social media platforms. Plus, for each platform, we’ll look at smart metrics for your success and show you how to monitor them.”

I have to admit that I haven’t had a chance to look at Social Media for Photographers, so I’m offering it out to you in good faith. However, I will check it out over the weekend and feel free to let me know what your thoughts are on the guide. I’ve been in contact with PhotoShelter and will be interviewing someone from the organization later this month for the blog.

Brighton Photo Biennial launches series of Artist Talks and London Photographic Association portrait competition

There’s a great series of Artists’ Talks in the lead up to the Brighton Photo Biennial and a last call for a London Photographic Association portraiture competition, Let’s face it 6.

© Ori Gersht, Evaders, Far Off Mountains and Rivers, 2009

ARTIST TALKS – BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNIAL
In the run up to the Brighton Photo Biennial, Photoworks and the University of Brighton will be holding three discussions “by artists, writers and curators working with contemporary photography. The current series focuses on the nature and use of objects within the representational space of the photographic image”.

If you are in, or near Brighton, I highly recommend getting to Ori Gersht’s talk which kicks off the series. He’s been featured in HotShoe magazine with Liquidation and The Clearing and a review of his current show Places That Were Not (currently showing at the Mummery + Schnelle gallery in London) is featured in the next issue of the magazine, due out first week in February. His film Evaders was previewed in an earlier post. Gersht will be in conversation with David Chandler (writer, curator and Director of Photoworks) tonight  27 January.

This will be followed by Richard Wentworth on 10 February and David Spero on 10 March.

The talks start at 6pm and are open to all. Book online. £5 per talk, £2.50 concessions. All three talks for £12/£6 concession.