New free photography open call for photographers
Collectible Shots
A journey beyond the visibleExhibit Around APS and dotART, in collaboration with the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery in Trieste, are pleased to announce a new edition of Collectible Shots. This project is designed to recognise photographic talent and support photographers on their professional journey into the world of authorial photography and art galleries.
Deadline 3 May 2026
Collectible Shots. When photography meets art galleries
Exhibit Around APS and dotART, in collaboration with the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery in Trieste, are pleased to announce a new edition of Collectible Shots. This project is designed to recognise photographic talent and support photographers on their professional journey into the world of authorial photography and art galleries.
The perks of being a Member.
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Discover the advantages of being an Exhibit Around member and gain access to reserved initiatives.
The project
Collectible Shots offers photographers an extraordinary opportunity to exhibit and sell their work in a contemporary art gallery, providing a bridge into the fine-art photography market.
Portfolios submitted to the open call will be selected for exhibition at the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery, where they will be displayed alongside the work of Giulia Natalia Comito (A/R Acqua e Ruggine), winner of the Trieste Photo Days 2025 Portfolio Review. Beyond the exhibition, Collectible Shots: A Journey Beyond the Visible will culminate in a high-quality photographic book featuring the winning project and the work of the Honourable Mentions, further strengthening the initiative as a space for those who see photography as an authentic and elevated form of artistic expression.
For who is it for?
The call is open to all members of Exhibit Around APS, who may participate in the competition free of charge. If you are not yet an Exhibit Around member, you can join here to gain access to exclusive projects and a range of benefits, which you can find on this page.
The winner will receive a complimentary three-night stay to attend the exhibition opening and the book launch as a special guest.
The exhibition
The exhibition will be held at the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery during the 13th edition of the international photography festival Trieste Photo Days. It will create a dialogue between the winning work from the open call, Giulia Natalia Comito’s photographic project "A/R Acqua e Ruggine" (winner of the 2025 Portfolio Reviews), and the sculptures of Alessandra Spigai from her series "Le Muse interiori".
Beyond the visibility offered by the exhibition, the project represents a gateway to the gallery world: the artist will have the opportunity to build direct connections with contemporary art professionals and explore new opportunities.
During the exhibition, photographs will be available for purchase, offering the winning photographer a genuine opportunity to establish themselves within the art market.
Theme
The 2026 edition, titled A Journey Beyond the Visible, invites photographers to move beyond mere documentation and embrace a more intimate, conceptual dimension.
In keeping with the artistic research of the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery, we are not seeking straightforward documentary work, but rather a plurality of artistic interpretations and photographic visions in which an inner journey guides the visual exploration towards paths that are open to multiple meanings.
Submissions may use any photographic technique (digital, film, or mixed media) and may also include painterly interventions or installation elements.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Giulia Natalia Comito
Winner of the Trieste Photo Days 2025 Portfolio Review, Giulia Natalia Comito presents her work A/R Acqua e Ruggine.
Her work was chosen for its ethereal atmosphere and its ability to evoke suspended worlds, making it an ideal counterpart to the theme of the “inner journey" this call seeks to capture. Through her work, Comito transforms the idea of travel into a narrative shaped by nostalgia, inviting viewers to explore their own inner landscapes.
Biography
Giulia Natalia Comito (Ravenna, 1984) lives and works between Rome and Calabria.
Active as a photographer since 2010, she has developed a visual practice centred on the relationship between human beings and the spaces they inhabit, with a particular focus on architectural contexts and lived-in landscapes.
Her work sits at the intersection of fine-art photography, documentary projects, and territorial research, investigating the tangible and intangible markers that define a place, its transformations, and how it is reclaimed by the community. She interprets the landscape as an intimate and personal dimension – a form of portraiture of humanity itself.
Alongside her artistic practice, she collaborates with the publishing and entertainment industries, producing book covers, portraits, reportage and stage photography. She also works with architecture and design studios, creating photographic documentation of spaces and interiors.
The images, captured through the window of a local train, reveal fragments of landscape marked by nostalgia and urgency. Through a delicate yet never repetitive aesthetic, Comito’s work evokes rarefied atmospheres and interior dimensions, transforming the experience of travel into a visual narrative and inviting the viewer to embark on an intimate journey through their own emotional landscape.
(Winning project of the Portfolio Reviews at Trieste Photo Days 2025.)
Alessandra Spigai
Alessandra Spigai is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Trieste. Self-taught, her research spans painting, sculpture, and writing, following an early background in graphic design and photography.
Her work builds a personal symbolic universe where archetypal figures, "interior architecture," and imagined landscapes become tools for investigating the poetic and transformative dimensions of the human experience.
Through material and colour, her works evoke thresholds, passages, and inner maps, opening spaces where the visible and invisible meet. She is the founder of the ArTS cultural association, through which she promotes exhibitions and initiatives dedicated to contemporary artistic dialogue.
The series Le Muse interiori (Inner Muses) represents the many facets of human inner life.
They act as a prism for human emotions, seeking to investigate the contradictory aspects of being and the heterogeneous complexity of our emotional selves.
In these works, states of mind such as grace, courage, contemplation and pride take physical form in different figures, expressions and configurations – sometimes provocative, sometimes ironic, sometimes reflective.
They embody the many facets of being: compromises and shame, what makes us proud and what we try to hide, the parts of ourselves that are man and woman, adult and child, warrior and guardian. These sculptures reveal the delicate and the intense, the hidden and coexisting aspects of the self. Recognising and celebrating these dimensions is at the heart of Spigai’s artistic research.
Her work reflects the struggle of living with awareness of one’s limits and impulses, and with the fullness of desires, fears and the drive toward inner transformation. This is the essence of her poetics. Within these works we encounter the emotions and challenges that have always accompanied humanity, yet which today manifest with a renewed tension.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
The call is open to all Exhibit Around members and registration is free of charge. Selection for the exhibition and the book also incurs no cost. To submit your photos, simply register or log in to the user area at my.dotlogic.net, select the Collectible Shots call, and follow the procedure for projects/portfolios.
Each author is free to apply their own unique style and choose the photographic approach that best reflects their artistic vision.
Prizes
The curators of the gallery will choose the Best Author as well as the Honorable Mentions of the project.
The selected authors will be contacted by the end of July 2026.
Best Author
The Best Author of the project will be rewarded with (total value of €5,000):
- Free 3-night stay in Trieste during Trieste Photo Days 2026 to attend the exhibition opening and the award ceremony.
- A "STELE d’autore", a custom trophy created by the renowned artist Giorgio Celiberti.
- Digital Certificate of selection.
- Invitation (as a guest) to the Authors' Dinner of Trieste Photo Days (October 23rd, 2026) and the URBAN Photo Awards Gala Dinner (October 24th, 2026).
- One copy of the book dedicated to the project.
- A percentage of any sales of the exhibited works (to be agreed upon with the Passage Arte Contemporanea gallery).
- Social media promotion of the project, the photo, and the author’s biography on our official channels for maximum visibility.
Logistics, organization, HQ museum-grade printing, exhibition setup, book printing, visual communication, and photographic reportage are covered by Exhibit Around APS and Passage Arte Contemporanea. Additional expenses for special requests -such as specific prints, frames, or transport - will be reimbursed up to €200. Exhibit Around APS and Passage Arte Contemporanea reserve the right to retain two Fine Art prints (one copy each). Any unsold works will be returned to the artist.
Honorable Mentions
The Honorable Mentions will receive the following (total value €500):
- A "SIGILLO d’autore", a custom medal created by the renowned artist Giorgio Celiberti.
- Invitation (as a guest) to the Authors' Dinner of Trieste Photo Days (October 23rd, 2026).
- One copy of the book dedicated to the project.
- Social media promotion of the photos and the authors’ biographies on our official channels for visibility.
ANY DOUBT? - FAQ
Potrebbe esserti utile...
Who can participate in the open call?
The call is open to all Exhibit Around APS members. Those who are not yet members can join here and participate according to their membership level.
Is participation free?
Yes, participation is free for all Exhibit Around APS members.
What kind of work can I submit?
Only projects or portfolios may be submitted; single photographs are not admitted. Each portfolio must include a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 30 photographs.
What technical requirements must the images meet?
Images must be in JPG format, with RGB or sRGB colour profile, a maximum file size of 10 MB each, and a minimum size of 2000 px on the shortest side. File names must not contain special characters.
Who owns the rights to the submitted works?
Authors retain the moral and intellectual property rights to the submitted works. By entering the call, they grant the Promoters a non-exclusive right to use selected or winning images for promotional purposes related to their non-profit activities, with the author always credited.