The Belfast Photo Festival is Northern Ireland's international premier visual arts festival and photographic biennial. This major photographic event celebrates some of the finest national and international contemporary photography and visual culture, with the next festival taking place on June 2019.
Through a range of national and international interactive events the festival aims to inspire the countries future photographers, artists and entrepreneurs, offering new, exciting, welcoming and sometimes challenging experiences to audiences through the programme of events.
The theme has been left open to remove any restrictions; submissions must be photographic or lens-based but can include incorporations of other art forms with the photographic medium (i.e. performance, painting, sculpture, music, literature etc).
Individuals and collectives are welcome to apply; individuals should select and enter between 1 and 15 photographs from a particular series or body of work and/or submit their Photo-book for exhibition by providing a link to a single PDF (stored on for example: Google Drive or Dropbox).
Collectives are also welcome to apply; as a collective, you can submit up to 15 photographs (a 22 EUR / 29 EUR submission fee will apply for every 15 images submitted).
The author of each image submitted retain full ownership of the copyright in each entry.
Eligibility
Open worldwide to all photographers, artists, curators, archives, collectives.
Prize
Between 20 and 40 photographers / artists will benefit from:
• Awards and cash prizes
• Exhibition exposure at the Festival's main city centre gallery
• Exhibition exposure at the 2020 Photo Schwiez Festival (Switzerland)
• Inclusion in the special Festival issue of Abridged Magazine
• Long-term Festival representation and promotion
• An opportunity to participate in an Instagram Residency
• Exhibition alongside some of the biggest photographic names as part of the major photographic event
• Publication and inclusion in the Festival programme
• Inclusion in the Festivals marketing & PR campaign, which has an estimated reach of 20+ million
• International press exposure
• Being seen by a substantial number of visual arts professionals and the media
• Dedicated feature on the Festival website and online gallery
The Open Submission Exhibition will be presented at the Festival Photo Park in the heart of Belfast City and the center of the Cultural Cathedral Quarter.
