Juror | Aline Smithson

‘An abstract photograph draws away from that which is realistic or literal. It draws away from natural appearances and recognizable subjects in the actual world. Some people even say it departs from true meaning, existence, and reality itself. It stands apart from the concrete whole with its purpose instead depending on conceptual meaning and intrinsic form.' John Suler

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic works that explore the world through an abstracted lens; utilizing elements of color, light, shadow, texture, shape and line to express meaning outside of traditional representational and documentary styles of photography. All genres, capture types, black & white and color, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme| The Portrait

Juror | --------------------

In her book, Portraits and Persons, writer Cynthia Freeland describes three essential elements that constitute a portrait: “(1) a recognizable physical body (2) an inner life, i.e., some sort of psychological or mental states and (3) self-presentation, or the "posing.”
 

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic works that celebrates the aesthetic and conceptual considerations involved in the creation of the portrait: revealing personal narratives or new anthologies through the artistic representation of the subject. All genres, capture types, black & white and color, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

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Theme | Words, Words, Words

Juror | Dallas Crow

The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” seems to suggest that a photograph transcends language, but words have been a key part of many important photographers’ work—from the billboards and signs in many Walker Evans’ photos to Lee Friedlander’s 2019 book, Signs, for example.   The interplay of language and image can create a vivid sense of tension, irony, or poignance. The size and shapes of a font are visual aspects that can carry as much weight as any other aspect in the frame.

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Praxis seeks submissions of photographic art that includes written language as a fundamental aspect of the composition. The text may be in the form of signs or fragments of signs, handwriting scrawled over the photo, graffiti, palimpsests, just to name a few iterations of the theme. All genres, capture types, black & white and color, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | MONO - KROMATIK

Juror | ------------------

Half a century after the advent of color film, black and white & monochromatic photography continues to capture our collective imagination.  Utilizing  tone,  contrast,  texture   and   shape, monochromatic photography strips its subject to only the most essential visual elements; revealing  a  sense of  soul,  substance  and meaning – separate from the shifting sentiments, symbolism and cultural associations of color imagery.

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic works that demonstrate the fundamental qualities that make black and white & monochromatic  photography an enduring, contemporary  art form. All genres, capture types, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission. 

Theme | Liquid ~ Sky

Juror | ---------------

Liquid conforms to the shape of its container. The sky is an abstract sphere, centered on the earth. Liquid, Water, Sky and the liminal space between are by definition poetic and symbolic. Yet there are infinite iterations of liquid & sky: consider our human drive to master and contain liquids (pools, levies, faucets and bottles); idiomatic lamentations of “spilt milk” or “water under the bridge”– while also reaching upward in towering buildings, air planes, and rockets pushing skyward.

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Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic art that explores the ideas of liquid and sky in their myriad iterations; from landscapes to still life – from scientific to conceptual, Praxis seeks a broadly interpreted investigation of these forever flowing, forever ethereal ideas. All genres, capture types, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | THE STREETS

Juror | -------------------

"Street Photography became recognized as a genre in its own right during the early 1930s. Street Photography is unique in the way it is associated with the photographer's skill in capturing something of the mystery and aura of everyday city living. The Street Photographer is then often likened to the historical figure of the flâneur: namely someone who mingles anonymously amongst the crowd observing and recording the ways the unsuspecting city

dweller interacts with his or her environment". www.theartstory.org

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Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic art that explores the genre of street photography from all angles, including people, urban structure, and documentary subject matter. All genres, capture types, black & white and color, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | The Shadow Aspect

Juror| -----------------
 

‘Most people think that shadows follow, precede, surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.’ Ellie Wiesel. 

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic art that explores the formal, conceptual and metaphoric implications of the shadow. Submissions may focus on the shadow as pure visual form expressed through the creation of line, shape, pattern and texture. They may also examine the cultural and psychological implications of the shadow - exploring ideas of foreboding, internal conflict, passages into the unconsciousness, or other ephemeral interpretations. All genres, capture types, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | The Sublime Landscape

Juror | --------------

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The sublime landscape is defined as having the quality of such greatness, magnitude or intensity, whether physical, metaphysical, moral, aesthetic or spiritual, that our ability to perceive or comprehend it is temporarily overwhelmed. According to aesthetic philosophy, the sublime landscapes can include any of five visual components: 1) great ideas, 2) passion, 3) the appropriate use of figures, 4) the right aesthetic diction, and 5) a skillful composition. 

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic artwork that explores the many iterations of this idea. We encourage a broad, interpretive, and personal investigation of the sublime landscape. All capture types, genres, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission. 

Theme | OPEN THEME

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“The Photograph is an extended, loaded evidence — as if it caricatured not the figure of what it represents but its very existence ... The Photograph then becomes a bizarre medium, a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest shared hallucination (on the one hand 'it is not there,' on the other 'but it has indeed been'): a mad image, chafed by reality.” Roland Barthes

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Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic art of any genre and any subject matter that represents the artist’s endeavor to reveal through the photographic process a personal declaration of visual significance - be it a celebration of pure aesthetic formalism, of humor or conflict - of fiction or fact - or any other literal or ephemeral lens based investigation. All subject matters, genres, capture types, black & white and color, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | Sensuous Geographies : The Nude

Juror | ----------------

​The nude form has been portrayed in art throughout history, from the classical era to the enlightenment and the modern era. The nude figure in western art - specifically in photography - has expressed ideals of female and male beauty along with other human qualities including life, energy, and an array of complicated human emotions.

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic works that explore the nude in any of its varied styles including: figure studies, environmental nudes, implied nudes and erotica - just to name a few of the many iterations of this genre. All capture types, genres, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission. 

Theme | MAKING STRANGE

Juror|------------
 

How do we document what happens and recurs everyday: the banal, the common, the ordinary? Can we rescue astonishment from the forgotten obvious by finding unexplored perspectives to depict our common places and familiar activities in startling and engrossing new ways?

Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic works that search for the iconic and ironic in the everyday world around us; that portray the people, places and things which have become ordinary to us in new, imaginative and expressive ways. All genres interpretations, capture types, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.

Theme | THE STILL LIFE

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Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer extensive leeway and precise control in the arrangement of design elements within a composition. Still life photography is a demanding genre, one in which the photographers are expected to be able to form their work with a refined sense of lighting, coupled with composition and design skills. The still life photographer makes pictures rather than takes them. 

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Praxis Gallery seeks the submission of photographic art that investigates the genre of the Still Life. Submissions may explore classical to conceptual aspects of the still life, photographing object arrangements that intrigue, engage or entertain the viewer. All subject matters, all genres, capture types, color and black & white, traditional and non-traditional photographic and digital post-production processes are welcome for submission.