Call for Entries
Witching Hour: Imagery from Darkness
© S. Gayle Stevens
Open to all artists working in any photographic medium
Deadline: August 31, 2016
Juror: S. Gayle Stevens
In October of 2014 we presented A Midnight Eerie. We followed that up last year with A Mystery and a Dream. This year, to continue a variation on a theme, we bring you Witching Hour: Imagery from Darkness.
Historically, the witching hour is that time of night when witches, ghosts, and supernatural beings are thought to be most active. The exact time varies depending on particular beliefs, but is generally considered to be some period of darkness between dusk and dawn. An everyday use of the term might define the witching hour simply as “after dark.”
Whatever one’s beliefs or lack thereof in the supernatural, it is certain that the perception of one’s surroundings at night can be substantially different than the perception of one’s surroundings during the day. Moonlight creates soft shadows; forms merge together; imagination and fear lurk in the darkness. Perhaps fatigue sets in and feeds our mind irrational images—”a trick of the light and too much caffeine,” to borrow a line from the gothic rock band Bauhaus.
We are seeking images, in any photographic medium, that convey interpretations of the witching hour. How do you photograph darkness? Forty to fifty pieces will be chosen by the juror to be exhibited at Gallery 136½.
Timeline
Deadline for Entries: Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Notification of Acceptance: Monday, September 12, 2016
Deadline for Receipt of Accepted Pieces: Friday, October 7, 2016
Exhibition: Saturday, October 15–Saturday, November 12, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 15, 2016: 5–7pm
Pieces Return Shipped: By Friday, November 18, 2016
Juror
S. Gayle Stevens is an award-winning photographer and exhibits extensively nationally and internationally. She has worked in antiquarian photographic processes for over twenty years; her chosen medium is wet plate collodion for its fluidity and individuality. Ms. Stevens received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. She is an educator, speaker, juror, curator and an active member of the photographic community. Named one of the Critical Mass Top Fifty Photographers for 2010 and 2014, she received second place in the Lens Culture International Exposure Awards in 2011 and was named a finalist for the Clarence John Laughlin Award in 2012 and 2014. Her work has been featured in Fraction, Square, Shots, Diffusion, B + W Photography, Vignette and Fuzion magazines and in Inventing Reality, New Orleans Visionary Photography. Christopher James featured her work in the third edition of The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. Stevens’ work is widely collected and is part of the permanent collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Rockford Museum of Art, the Center for Fine Art Photography, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum among others. She divides her time shooting in Pass Christian, Mississippi and Downers Grove, Illinois, where she resides. Stevens is represented by Tilt Gallery, Catherine Couturier Gallery, and Gallery Kayafas, and Paul Cava.
Please visit Gayle’s website here.
Entry Fee
$30 for the first five images
$6 for each additional image (maximum of five additional)
Eligibility
This call for entries is open to amateur and professional photographers everywhere.
Awards
Juror’s Award: $150, an exhibition catalog, and a gallery t-shirt
Director’s Award: $100, an exhibition catalog, and a gallery t-shirt
Honorable Mentions: an exhibition catalog
Submission Procedure
Images are submitted online through our website only. We will not accept submissions that are emailed, snail-mailed, or carried in. Please fill out the form at the bottom of this page. We use EntryThingy to handle all submissions. You will be directed to log in or sign up. Payment is handled via PayPal, which also accepts major credit cards if you do not have a PayPal account. The whole process is quick and painless, but please contact us with any questions. You will be guided through the process, but the images are to be prepared for submission as follows:
- Images for submission are to be sized at 8 inches on the longest side at 300ppi.
- Color space must be sRGB, Adobe RGB, or grayscale.
- Save the file as a high-quality JPEG.
Notification of Acceptance and Next Steps
All entrants will receive an email telling them whether any of their pieces are accepted or not. Entrants with accepted pieces will receive further instruction. The following is a summary of what to expect only for those with accepted pieces:
- Accepted entrants are asked to closely follow the guidelines. Issues occasionally arise that require clarification. Please do not hesitate to ask.
- Prints should be made on high-quality paper.
- Frames should be black metal or wood, glazed with glass or plexi, wired and ready to hang. Please use clean and undamaged frames.
- We understand that some pieces do not use conventional framing in their final presentation (photo sculpture, books, certain mounted photographs, etc.). If this is the case, please include all appropriate hardware and instructions for displaying your piece properly if it is not obvious how to do so.
- Mats should be white or off-white. Grey or black are acceptable if they benefit the image. Do not use colored mats.
- Photographs must be well-packed and shipped with pre-paid return shipping and a return label. We will use the same box to return your work.
- You may use UPS, FedEx, or USPS to ship your work.
- If your accepted entry is a digital photograph and you would prefer not to deal with shipping, we do offer a printing service. If you opt for this service, we have complimentary mats and frames in standard sizes that will be used for this exhibition.
- Accepted entries will also be posted on our website for the duration of the exhibition.
