Categories & Fees 2012

CATEGORIES   

(and definitions, as compiled and conceived by the Director of NYPH’12; applicable to both General and Student divisions unless otherwise indicated)

Fine Art, Single Image
Individual images resulting from personal or collaborative artistic practice and or experimental photography, be they abstract, formal representation, or imagistic creation. Also called personal work; images whose formal aesthetic and conceptional frameworks are ends in themselves rather than subject-focused storytelling.

Fine Art, Image Series
Same, except more than one, i.e. a suite or collection of images comprising a fictional narrative or story, image presentation suite, or amalgamation of images defined above whose ultimate meaning is derived from the collection rather than the single piece.

Documentary, Single Image
Individual images resulting from a perspective of documenting something observed, in a natural or slightly controlled setting. Street photography, photojournalism, some portraiture, magazine stories, and photo essays are some well known examples. More importantly, these pieces may be published or unpublished—meaning they may have or may have not appeared in a newspaper, magazine, online news site, or blog slide show anywhere on any topic. This category includes reportage and expository photography.

Documentary, Image Series 
Same as above, but whose focus now is the story or meaning effect creating by the composition of several images: what story is being told, narrative illuminated, collection presented. More often than not these are “real world” images captured in real time in natural settings that in some fashion document  a subject, sometimes with its environment and or its activity. This work may be published or unpublished as outlined above.

Advertising, Single Image (no student category)
This category is now expanded to include work conceived for but perhaps never executed (published, incorporated, purchased for ad campaigns or public service announcements) and made primarily to promote something: a product, a brand, a message. Such work can be—and often is—manipulated and constructed, and incorporate text elements. Such work is often made by graphic designers, ad agency groups, and creative directors. Photographers may submit work as can departments and committees; brand managers and arts collectives, as well as non-profit organizations and governmental agencies can submit work as well. They can be drafts or final pieces. The key point is message, and how clearly and effectively communicated. This category applies to work designed for print as well as for digital or online viewing or interaction.

Advertising, Image Series (no student category)
Same as above, though now the focus is on the breadth of the campaign, the message clarity across many iterations of the concept.

Photographic Book
This is a great category, and my favorite. This category can be absolutely anything you wish it to be; it can be fine art oriented, documentary in nature, it can contain text in any form (yes even poetry); there is no limit nor set definition to what your book is; it can be published, self-published, unpunished, it can be sitting with a literary agent, it can be your masterwork living on your hard dive, it can be something you printed and bound with Blurb or Lulu. It can be your BA or MFA thesis, it can be your incredibly artistic family album. It is above all you. You—your ideas, your perspective, your art statement, your visual manifesto—your brand, laid out and sequenced, designed and presented in unfolding wonder, embedded with your virtuosic DNA. Like a cinematic film, the book is the combination of author, actor, director, editor, and producer, the whole nine yards. Go to town.
Work should be submitted in blocks or sets of 10 images. (You don’t have to use all 10 slots, but they are there if you need them. You will need one slot for every ten images you intend to submit, meaning 11-20 images in the submission will require two slots.) You do not need to submit the entirety of your book. Whether presenting the jurors with photos of page spreads, single images used in your book, or PDF pages (converted to JPEGs before you upload, of course), it’s up to you how you share your vision and relate your books overall message.

Multimedia
This one is pretty open too, except electricity is required to view the intended project. Naturally, this category contains some portions of digital (or analog) audio or visual components; static, slideshow, or moving imagery is typical. Work can be filmic or digital, it can be artistic, documentary, news-related, or ad-based. It can be a promo, a PSA, a school project, a YouTube sensation or a spectacular WTF? Viewing platforms are pretty much everything today that is not made of wood pulp, and requires a screen and a decent battery charge. Work can be designed for television, theater, laptop, Avid editing suite, tablet iPad, smartphone, that Mission Impossible air gizmo. That said, you have to put it on our favorite video sharing site, Vimeo, for us to view it (not a plug, I wish).

That’s it, I think I have covered it, if any questions email yours truly Daniel (at) NYPHotofestival.com. Good luck!

ENTRY FEES  

SINGLE IMAGE: $20 per image, any category
SERIES IMAGE: $75 per set of 6 images, any category
PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK: $75 per set of 10 images
MULTIMEDIA: $75 per video (please post the Vimeo link in submission)

STUDENTS ONLY (Students must submit proof of enrollment in a school, college institution, or equivalent if and when their work is chosen.)

SINGLE IMAGE: $12 per image, any category
SERIES IMAGE: $45 per set of 6 images, any category
PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK: $45 per set of 10 images
MULTIMEDIA: $45 per video (please post the Vimeo link in submission)