Open Call – Portfolio Contest  – Parallel Voices 2025

In the context of promoting modern photographic creation, Photometria International Photography Festival announces Parallel Voices portfolio contest, which will be open for submissions from November 1st to December 31^st, 2024.

Applicants are kindly asked to submit one (1) portfolio of fifteen (15) photographs, from which eight (8) will be selected by the jury. Photometria is looking for photographers being capable to capture topics of their preference, an idea open to multiple perspectives or even to narrate a story of the world we inhabit.

The selected nine (9) portfolios will be showcased in thePhotometria International Photography Festival 2025 as part of a group exhibition entitled “Parallel Voices”.

Jury team

Panagiotis Papoutsis, Founder – Photometria Festival

Achilleas Tziakos , Founder – Photometria Festival

Panagiotis Pappas, Artistic Director – Photometria Festival

The selection of the portfolios will be based on the following criteria :

         1. The relevance of the pictures to the topic.

         2. The coherence of the pictures as a united whole.

         3. The artistic and aesthetic quality of the photos.

Technical requirements & Fees

Image files must be JPG, 1500 pixels on the longest side, at 300 ppi. Please name your image files as follows: First name-Last name-Image number.jpg

Applicants need to send their pictures in a digital form via WeTransfer at portfolio@photometria.gr. Also, in the same WeTransfer the following data should be sent in PDF:

• Photographer’s portrait
• Project title
• Full name (name and surname)
• Nationality
• Address, City
• E-mail
• Phone number
• Short Bio (up to 150 words)
• Short project description (up to 150 words)
• Detailed project description – artist statement (up to 300 words), if available

The cost for each application is 15 euros. To find out ways of payment, please press: SUBMISSION

Results

The results will be announced, within two months from the end of the final submission of entries, on the festival’s website (www.photometria.gr) and social media pages.  The winners will be also informed via email.

The best nine (9) portfolios that will be selected will be the material of the exhibition entitled “Parallel Voices”, for 2025.

For the first time, all 9 selected photographers, will receive free accommodation during the Photometria International Photography Festival 2025.

Terms & Conditions

1. Eligible applications are considered only those that have completed the payment procedure and had their portfolios sent via WeTransfer.

2. In case the photographs depict individuals without their consent, the responsibility lies exclusively on the photographer at whom the work belongs to and not on the Photometria International Photography Festival.

3. Image files must be JPG, 1500 pixels on the longest side, at 300 ppi. Please name your image files as follows: First name-Last name-Image number.jpg

4. In due time, selected artists will be asked to send high-resolution images, so that they will be promptly printed for the exhibition.

5. Applications will be accepted until December 31^st, 2024, at 11.59pm.

6. Results will be announced on the festival’s website (www.photometria.gr) and social media pages. The winners will be also informed via email.

7. The selected portfolios will be part of the exhibition entitled ‘’Parallel Voices”, at a venue chosen by the festival. Photometria International Photography Festival reserves the right to use the selected pictures for the promotion of the exhibition, as also at future promotional activities of the festival, with reference to the artist. The printed portfolios will be reserved in the festival’s archive, which holds the right to manage and re-exhibit them.

8. By applying for the competition, you accept being informed about Photometria Festival activities via e-mail.

Submission of your portfolio entails acceptance of the above terms and conditions by each individual applicant.

We look forward to receiving your artwork!

Open Call – Portfolio Contest  – Parallel Voices 2025

In the context of promoting modern photographic creation, Photometria International Photography Festival announces Parallel Voices portfolio contest, which will be open for submissions from November 1st to December 31^st, 2024.

Applicants are kindly asked to submit one (1) portfolio of fifteen (15) photographs, from which eight (8) will be selected by the jury. Photometria is looking for photographers being capable to capture topics of their preference, an idea open to multiple perspectives or even to narrate a story of the world we inhabit.

The selected nine (9) portfolios will be showcased in thePhotometria International Photography Festival 2025 as part of a group exhibition entitled “Parallel Voices”.

Jury team

Panagiotis Papoutsis, Founder – Photometria Festival

Achilleas Tziakos , Founder – Photometria Festival

Panagiotis Pappas, Artistic Director – Photometria Festival

The selection of the portfolios will be based on the following criteria :

1. The relevance of the pictures to the topic.
2. The coherence of the pictures as a united whole.
3. The artistic and aesthetic quality of the photos.

Technical requirements & Fees

Image files must be JPG, 1500 pixels on the longest side, at 300 ppi. Please name your image files as follows: First name-Last name-Image number.jpg

Applicants need to send their pictures in a digital form via WeTransfer at portfolio@photometria.gr. Also, in the same WeTransfer the following data should be sent in PDF:

• Photographer’s portrait
• Project title
• Full name (name and surname)
• Nationality
• Address, City
• E-mail
• Phone number
• Short Bio (up to 150 words)
• Short project description (up to 150 words)
• Detailed project description – artist statement (up to 300 words), if available

The cost for each application is 15 euros. To find out ways of payment, please press: SUBMISSION

Results

The results will be announced, within two months from the end of the final submission of entries, on the festival’s website (www.photometria.gr) and social media pages.  The winners will be also informed via email.

The best nine (9) portfolios that will be selected will be the material of the exhibition entitled “Parallel Voices”, for 2025.

For the first time, all 9 selected photographers, will receive free accommodation during the Photometria International Photography Festival 2025.

Terms & Conditions

1. Eligible applications are considered only those that have completed the payment procedure and had their portfolios sent via WeTransfer.

2. In case the photographs depict individuals without their consent, the responsibility lies exclusively on the photographer at whom the work belongs to and not on the Photometria International Photography Festival.

3. Image files must be JPG, 1500 pixels on the longest side, at 300 ppi. Please name your image files as follows: First name-Last name-Image number.jpg

4. In due time, selected artists will be asked to send high-resolution images, so that they will be promptly printed for the exhibition.

5. Applications will be accepted until December 31^st, 2024, at 11.59pm.

6. Results will be announced on the festival’s website (www.photometria.gr) and social media pages. The winners will be also informed via email.

7. The selected portfolios will be part of the exhibition entitled ‘’Parallel Voices”, at a venue chosen by the festival. Photometria International Photography Festival reserves the right to use the selected pictures for the promotion of the exhibition, as also at future promotional activities of the festival, with reference to the artist. The printed portfolios will be reserved in the festival’s archive, which holds the right to manage and re-exhibit them.

8. By applying for the competition, you accept being informed about Photometria Festival activities via e-mail.

Submission of your portfolio entails acceptance of the above terms and conditions by each individual applicant.

We look forward to receiving your artwork!

Here are the 3 picks of Martin Parr, for Photometria Awards 2024 “Constructed Realities”:

Nikos Panayotopoulos was born in Exarchia in 1945. He studied photography in London (BA, Polytechnic of Central London) from 1974-77 and obtained a PhD in Arts and Humanities specialised in photography (PhD, University of Derby) in 2008. He is a founding member of the Photography Centre of Athens (1979-2004). As a consultant to the Ministry of Culture, he coordinated the formulation and reform of the institutional framework for photography in Greece for a decade (1994-2004). He was a member of the working committee that drafted the National Policy for Art Photography for the Ministry of Culture (1994-95), and an Independent Expert at the European Commission (since 1999). He has published a significant number of theoretical and critical texts, organized and curated photographic exhibitions, seminars, workshops and research projects, and has organized and/or participated in conferences and workshops. Since 1978, his photographic work has been exhibited and published extensively in Greece and internationally (Europe, USA, Israel, Turkey, China, USA, Turkey). He taught Art Photography at the Department of Photography of TEI Athens from 1986 until 2012 when he retired as Associate Professor.

In 1982, he photographed the Psychiatric Hospital of Leros as part of a photographic assignment for the magazine Tachydromos, exposing the horrific conditions at the facility; the publication of the images prompted the drive for reform and a process of de-institutionalization.

(See also: https://press.ert.gr/tv/ert1-istorikoi-peripatoi-leros-exoristoi-sto-aigaio-a-kai-v-meros-20-amp-27-02-2020/)

Penelope Petsini was born in Bucharest, 1973. Studied Photography in Athens and UK (University of London, Goldsmiths College –MA in Image and Communication; University of Derby –PhD) sponsored by the State Scholarship Foundation (I.K.Y.). She is a Doctor of Philosophy in Arts and Humanities, specialized in photography. Her research interests, both in terms of theory and practice, focus on photography and its relation to personal and collective memory, history and politics. She has exhibited and published extensively both in Greece and internationally. She curated a series of photography and visual art exhibitions, the most recent being “Another Life: Human Flows | Unknown Odysseys” (Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, 5-11/2016) and “Sites of Memory” (Benaki Museum, Athens, 6-7/2016). She also curated Photobiennale 2018, that is two international group exhibitions at the Museum of Photography and the Center of Contemporary Art/ MOMus entitled Capitalist Realism: Future Perfect | Past Continuous (28/9/2018 – 29/3/2019, Thessaloniki), and the eponymous book (University of Macedonia Press, 2018).  Recent publications also include Sites of Memory: Photography, Collective Memory and History (Athens: Hellenic Center of Photography & NEON Foundation, 2016); the collective readers Censorship in Greece (Athens: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2016) and Companion of Censorship in Greece: Weak Democracy, Dictatorship, Metapolitefsi (Athens: Kastaniotis, 2018) co-edited with Dimitris Christopoulos; and Photography and collective identities: Greek Photography Studies I (Athens: Koukkida 2021)and Photography and the anthropological turn: Greek Photography Studies II (Athens: Koukkida 2023( co-edited with John Stathatos. 

She has had affiliated appointments as lecturer of photography theory and contemporary art since 2004. Since 2018, she is lecturing in the MA course “Censorship: Interdisciplinary approaches” in the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University, Athens.

Hristos Vihas lives and works in the city of Arta. He studied civil engineering and his involvement with photography started in the photography department of the cultural groups of the University of Patras. 

In recent years he has been participating in the Photography Group art.A’s Foa and has taken part in various group exhibitions and photography seminars.

Exhibitions / Awards / Education

2023 – Participation in the group exhibition of the 20 winning photographs in the international competition of the festival, with the theme: “Perpetual Dance” of the Corinthian Photography Festival 2023.
2022 – Participation in the workshops and group exhibition of the Memorial Walking Festival 2022.
2021 – Participation in the group exhibition “Mystery” at the esp+ gallery
2020 – Participation in the group exhibition of MOMus – Thessaloniki Museum of Photography “Anthropause” on the pandemic of covid-19.
2019 – 1st Prize in the Janos photography competition on “Contrasts” and participation in the group exhibition at IANOSCAFÉ.
2019 – Participation in the photography workshops of Postcards from home North West
2019 – Participation in the group exhibition “Street Photography” at Blank Wall Gallery
2019 – Participation in the group exhibition “Woman” of ifocus Gallery
2019 – Participation in the group exhibition “The Faces of Violence” by the Women’s Advisory Centre of the Municipality of Artaion at the Municipal Gallery of Arta “G. Moralis”.
2018 – Attendance of the Professional Education & Training Program (E-Learning) of the Center for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning (K.E.DI.V.I.M.) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) on the topic “Photography: Theoretical Approaches and Personal Style”
2018 – 2022 Participation in the group exhibitions of the Photography Group art.A’s F.O.A.
2018 – 2022 Participation in the group exhibitions of the photometria Festival “Entefxis”.

Alnis Stakle (1975, Latvia) is Latvian photographer and the Professor of photography at the Rigas Stradins University (LV). He holds PhD in art education from Daugavpils University (LV). His work brings a critical approach to questions of visual representation of collective and private trauma, loss, memories and the materiality of the medium of photography. Working both documentary and conceptually his works disclose how sociopolitical ideas can be examined through both fact and fiction as well as the interplay of collective and subjective experience. Ideas of autoethnography and psychogeography are an essential part of his art-based research approach in art. Since 1998, his works has been exhibited widely, including solo & group exhibitions at the Latvian Museum of Photography, Latvian National Museum of Art, Modern Art Oxford (GB), Art Center ‘Winzavod’ in Moscow (RU), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires (AR), Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR in Brussells (BE). Alnis Stakle works are represented in private and public collections such as Yale University Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, New Haven (USA), Rijksmuseum Library, Amsterdam (NL), Latvia Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian Photography Museum, Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils (LV), The Robert Elwall Photographs Collection, RIBA British Architectural Library (UK), Thessalonica Museum of Photography (GR). His work has been awarded various grants and cultural prizes, such as the Sony World Photography Award architecture section (2011) and Creative section (2022), Artist of the year at DongGang International Photo Festival (2021), winner photobook competition at FOTO WIEN (2019), New East Photo Prize by Calvert 22 foundation (2018), shortlisted for the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards (2017), nominated for Discoveries Award at Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles (2017). His works has been published in British Journal of Photography, GUP, Wired, Camera Austria, Membrana, Gente di Fotografia, EYEMAZING, IMAGO, OVER, OjodePez, Archivo, Leica Fotografie International, ect.

      Self-portrait, Havana, Cuba, 2000

© Martin Parr Collection / Magnum Photos

Martin Parr is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. With over 100 books of his own published, and another 30 edited by Parr, his photographic legacy is already established. Parr also acts as a curator and editor. He has curated two photography festivals, Arles in 2004 and Brighton Biennial in 2010. More recently Parr curated the Barbican exhibition, Strange and Familiar. Parr has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 – 2017. In 2013 Parr was appointed the visiting professor of photography at the University of Ulster. Parr’s work has been collected by many of the leading museums, from the Tate, the Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Martin Parr established the Martin Parr Foundation in 2017. In 2019 the National Portrait Gallery in London held a major exhibition of Parr’s work titled Only Human.

Martin Koenig, parallel to his fieldwork, co-founded and served as longtime co-director of the Balkan Arts Center in New York City (later the Ethnic Folk Arts Center; today, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance), an organization that seeks to promote the traditional folk arts of immigrant communities in the U.S. Still an active member of this not-for-profit’s Board of Directors, he remains a dedicated advocate for community-based traditional artists, especially those active in urban immigrant enclaves throughout the United States. His interests extend to all facets of ethnic music and musicians. He has produced recordings, films and videos and curated concerts and festivals. His ethnographic photographs and recordings have been widely published and exhibited in periodicals, newspapers, magazines and cultural institutions. 

Ukrainian artist and documentary photographer Alena Grom was born in Donetsk. In April 2014 she was forced to leave her hometown due to military events in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2017 she has lived in Bucha, a town outside of Kyiv. 

As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Grom and her family became refugees for the second time, but returned after the de-occupation of Bucha.

These events largely affected her artistic practice. Photography became a salvation for Alena and a way to deal with the traumatic reality of war. Since 2016 Alena Grom’s work focuses on places affected by military aggression. Her lens captures victims of the war, migrants and refugees, and war-torn Ukraine in large. 

However, her photographs are not illustrations of pity or grief. Life in spite of everything is one of the main themes of the artist.

Alena Grom’s projects were exhibited extensively in Ukraine and internationally; and recognised by a number of international photography awards. To name a few recent ones: LensCulture Portrait Awards 2023/ Finalist; 2022 Tokyo International Foto Awards / Prize Gold ; International Photography Awards “Best of Show 2022” by this year’s curator; Prix de la Photographie, Paris (PX3).