“PLAY! – Let the Game Begin!” – Photography Open Call full regulation

Open call

dotART and Exhibit Around APS associations, creators of the Trieste Photo Days festival, are launching an open call for the new project “PLAY! Let the game begin!”.
The call is open to everyone.
Submissions to the Open Call are free.

Deadlines

The call is open from 20th December 2023 to 29th February 31st March 2024. To submit photos, simply register on our User Area at my.dotlogic.net, select the call PLAY! Let the game begin! and follow the uploading procedure for Single Photos and/or Projects/Portfolios.

Photo volume

Only the Selected Works will become part of a prestigious photographic volume that will be presented during the International Festival of Urban Photography Trieste Photo Days 2024 (set at the end of October). A selection of photos and/or projects will become part of the festival catalog.

Exhibitions

The best photos will be displayed in an international collective exhibition at the end of October 2024 as part of the Trieste Photo Days festival.

• Exhibition venue: Sala Umberto Veruda, in the heart of the city of Trieste (North-eastern Italy)

Selected photographers with more than one photo may also be exhibited as part of the Photo Days Tour (in Friuli Venezia Giulia region, at one or more prestigious venues to be defined). The aim is to make “PLAY! Let the game begin!” a widespread exhibition.

Video

Exhibit Around APS will contact some of the selected photographers for interviews that will become part of the official video of the project. It will be a “behind the scenes” video documentary, officially screened during the presentation event and published on the social media channels of Trieste Photo Days and Exhibit Around.

Meetings and conferences

PLAY! Let the game begin! also includes a cycle of conferences, meetings and related events, aimed at promoting and presenting the book, the exhibition and the topics addressed.

Selection and Fees

Participation in the Open Call is free.

Exhibit Around APS is a non-profit organization that aims to promote the art of photography. Only selected authors will be contacted by the Exhibit Around staff within the end of March 2024 and will receive a proposal for publication and an expense contribution to become part of the project and the Exhibit Around circuit.

The will of participating in the cost contribution does not affect in any way the participation in the initiative, let alone victory.

The contribution requested will cover the costs of logistics, organization, printing of the photos and the volume, production and editing of  the video documentary, merchandising, visual communication, transport, set-up and photographic reportage, which will be handled by Exhibit Around.

All the Authors published in the book will be entitled to a special discount valid for the purchase of 1 copy of the volume (no free copies are provided, unless otherwise specified). All Authors will receive a digital copy of the book in PDF format, which will also be published online.

Awards

Exhibit Around will chose one Best Author among the Selected Authors that will be awarded with:

• Free 3-night stay for 2 in Trieste on the occasion of the presentation of the photographic volume PLAY! – Let the Game Begin! as part of Trieste Photo Days 2024 (end of October)
• Special and personalized trophy
• 25000 PhotoPoints worth 250€ in discounts (learn more)
• Digital certificate of victory
• 1 free copy of the original volume of PLAY! – Let the Game Begin!
• 1 free copy of the Trieste Photo Days 2024 catalogue
• 1 free entry to a photography masterclass with special guest during the Trieste Photo Days 2024

Honorable Mentions will be chosen from the Selected Authors, and will be awarded with:

• Personalized medal
• 10000 PhotoPoints worth 100€ in discounts (learn more)
• Honorable mention digital certificate
• 1 free copy of the original volume of PLAY! – Let the Game Begin!
• Photo and author shared on our social networks for visibility

Remarkable Rewards will be chosen from the Selected Authors, and will be awarded with:

• Personalized medal
• 5000 PhotoPoints worth 50€ in discounts (learn more)
• Remarkable Rewards digital certificate

Themes and Style

“PLAY!” explores the vibrant relationship between humanity and sports. Sports embody movement, and movement is life. Those are the elements that Exhibit Around APS aims to celebrate with a new photography editorial project to be presented at the eleventh edition of Trieste Photo Days festival.

The submitted photos can capture life moments related to sport, from its execution to the surrounding environment. From the emotion of watching a game to the joy of playing chess with our children, from the Olympics to dog agility. This can be football ultras or ballet dancers, street workouts, luxury yoga retreats or children’s school tournaments.
We would like to be able to collect moments imprinted in time: of fun and hard work, celebration and dedication, sweat, muscles, tears of joy and desperation, on the field, on the street or at home. It cane be a professional event or a moment of pleasure.

Here are some other suggestions:

• Watching sports: moments of adrenaline followed from the stadium seats to the the comforts of home
• Practicing the art of a sport through training and dedication
• The joy of learning a sport for the first time, with children and family
• The wide range of sports activities – from the historic Olympic games to modern and new disciplines
• Combining movement with beauty: dancing away! Classic, modern, exotic or salsa dances…
• Taking the streets: parkour, jogging, training in parks and using the public space for our activities
• Fighting the elements of nature as a sport: adrenalinic mountains, impressive sea waves, skiing through snow,…
• Showing off a sport: a real sports performance, to be enjoyed by the public!
• The energy and emotions that sports bring us: tears, sweat, anger, joy, dispair, delusion, happiness,..
• Exercising your mind: playing board games, chess,
• Discovering the connection between body and mind through yoga and meditation.
• Celebrating a victory, enjoying sports as social leisure activity, making new memories or building new muscles!

Each photographer is encouraged to interpret the theme through their preferred photographic genre—be it street photography, portraiture, social reportage, creative photography, documentary photography, or fine art.

Guidelines

• Non-Exhibit Around members can upload up to 10 Single Photos and 1 Project / Portfolio (which must consist of a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 20 photos).
• Exhibit Around APS members will be able to upload up to 20 single photos.
  Subscribers will be able to upload a different amount of portfolios based on their subscription level: Photography Member: up to 3 portfolios, Photography Enthusiast: up to 4 portfolios, Photography Master: up to 5 portfolio and Photography LEGEND: up to 10 portfolios. The portfolios must consist of a minimum of 3 photos to a maximum of 20.
  For more information on how to sign up and become an Exhibit Around member, visit our dedicated page.
• We accept both color and black & white photos.
• Projects and portfolios have to be accompanied by a brief description or presentation. Exhibit Around reserves the right to modify, edit and / or not publish it. The author’s name will always be present.
• You can submit your photos into the selection for “Mercury: Mythography special issue”. This editorial project is connected to PLAY! and focused on the world of Professional Sports and Athletes. To be part of the selection for this special issue, select assign the tag “sportspro” to your Single Photos or Projects / Portfolios during the upload in the image data form.
• Exhibit Around editors will select one photo that will become the cover image and the official visual of the project. We invite the photographers who wish to do so, to title one of the candidate photos as “Book cover”. The ideal image for the cover is evocative, it well represents the spirit of the project and contains “empty space” for the insertion of the title. You can find some examples of cover photos in our Exhibit Around Bookshop area.
• Photos must not contain signatures, filigrees, watermarks or frames.
• Artificial Intelligence cannot be used.

Upload Technical Specifications

• JPEG format only
• RGB color profile only
• File size must be less than 10MB for each photo
• Short edge of the photo minimum 2000 pixel wide
• Long edge of the photo maximum 6000 pixel wide
• Nospecial textual characters nor glyphs in the name of the files (example of special characters in a file name: %, /, @, £, €, etc.)

Upload

To make sure to have the right sequence of images in the Project / Portfolio, please add add the sequential number to the beginning of the file name.

• Example: 03filename.jpg / 03_filename.jpg / 03-filename.jpg

To be part of the selection for “Mercury: Mythography special issue”, dedicated to Professional Sports and Athletes, add the distinctive tag “sportspro” to your Single Photos or Projects / Portfolios during the upload procedure (check the tags field of the form) .

Copyright

The submitting photographer (the Author) owns the copyright to all of his images. The photographer grants the associations dotART and Exhibit Around APS a non-exclusive right to use the images to promote / publicize the Project / Open Call. The associations also reserve the right to use them within the scope of its own non-profit associational activities after sending an official communication to the Author.

The Author, whose name will always be attributed to the work, maintains in any case their moral rights in regard to the work, in addition to the intellectual property rights to the same.