Lens Culture FotoFest Paris 2013 International Photography Portfolio Reviews

These awards are open to all students and recent photography school graduates, worldwide.

We aim to discover and promote talented, emerging photographers who have dedicated themselves to completing a formal education in pursuit of their careers.

Deadline for Submissions: Extended to April 22, 2013, Midnight, Pacific Time

We’re looking for exciting work from every continent, and from diverse points of view:

• documentary

•fine art

• staged/constructed

• portrait

• fashion

• conceptual

• photojournalism

We will grant awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in seven categories. Each of those winners will be presented in a special online exhibition via Lens Culture: “21 New & Emerging Talents”.

One winner will be awarded a grand prize of $1,000 cash.

Every entry will be viewed and judged by Jim Casper, the founder and editor of Lens Culture.

Lens Culture attracts more than 3 million enthusiastic visitors each year from countries around the globe — so the worldwide exposure can truly help to boost a career.

Submission Guidelines

Submit one to five photographic images that work well together as a group — thematically, aesthetically, as a story, or simply as a range of your photographic talent. Entry fee: $35.

Enter today!

Applicants must submit their entries online at: lensculture.slideroom.com. After you have uploaded your entries and information, you will be asked to pay your submission fee. Our online portal offers additional instruction for submitting work. For complete submission guidelines and rules, please see our FAQs and rules.

About Lens Culture

Lens Culture is one of the most popular and influential online magazines about contemporary photography today. On average, the site attracts 8-10,000+ unique visitors every day, from more than 50 countries (over 3 million visits each year). Our audience includes photography collectors, photo editors, book publishers, museum curators, art gallery owners, agents, critics, journalists, festival directors, and other passionate lovers of photography. Several artists whose photographs have gained attention as a result of their feature in Lens Culture have won book publishing contracts, solo and group art gallery shows, museum exhibitions, participation in international photography festivals, and commissions from around the world.

Anonymous Berlin, 118 x 83 cm, Toned Silver Print, 2007, Edition of 3, © Jeff Cowen

This is the second annual 5-day marathon for photographers interested in making a significant vertical leap in their work. It is geared toward fine art photography, with emphasis on strengthening your own distinct visual style and approach, understanding how the international art markets work, and developing multi-pronged marketing strategies to best present yourself to the world.

The Masterclass is coordinated by Lens Culture in Paris, France, in partnership with Bilder Nordic School of Photography in Oslo, Norway.

Price: NOK 12 500 (which is approximately 1 660 euros, or 1 409 GBP, or 2 139 USD) Max 15 persons, hotel with breakfast is included, material costs and travel are not included. See photos from the 2012 Masterclass, and apply online.

The class will emphasize composition, shooting, and editing. Shooting will take place in central Paris and in the studio. Students will have the opportunity to work with street photography, the nude, still life, and abstraction during the course of the class. There will also be group visits to the Louvre as well as some photography-based cultural institutions throughout Paris.

Class members will be expected to bring a body of work in progress to be discussed by the group. Each participant will also receive one-on-one consultations with Jim Casper and Jeff Cowen.

Jeff will stress how digital photographers can learn to use new technology while respecting the tradition of analogue-based photography and its position as a medium with respect to art history.

Career strategies in photography and the artist’s path are also topics for discussion and development. This class offers a unique perspective to create a dialogue with a working artist and an international photography critic, publisher and lecturer.

About Jeff Cowen
Jeff Cowen is known for his painterly style in photography, and also for his sculptural mural-size compositions. He works with the figure, landscape, abstraction and still life. He is represented by several leading galleries and his work is in over one hundred collections and institutions. His first monograph was published by Paris-Musée, and his galleries have produced books for his many solo shows around the world.

He participates regularly in art fairs such as Art Basel, Art Cologne, Art Bolonga, Arco, Photo Espana, LaArt Fair, Art Paris and others. In the fall 2012, his work was exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris in a special museum exhibition by the Huis Marseille Photography Museum during Paris Photo and the Month of Photography.

Jeff Cowen is a New York University honors scholar in Oriental studies. 26 years ago he was the assistant of Ralph Gibson and Larry Clark. His early street photography in New York City and his reportage work of the Romanian Revolution is in numerous collections and has been shown in Museums such as The Filature in Mulhouse and the New York Historical Society Museum.

See Cowen’s work here.

About Jim Casper
Jim Casper is the founder and director of Lens Culture, an international organization dedicated to the celebration and promotion of contemporary photography in all of its forms. He is a curator, writer, publisher and lecturer. He also serves on juries around the world.

Jim will work with each participant to help develop in-depth marketing and communications strategies to prepare photographers for critical and financial success in worldwide art markets. This includes review and editing of projects and portfolios, and — making the most of diverse opportunities to bring your work to the attention of collectors, gallery directors, curators, book publishers, magazine art directors, media assignment editors, agencies and commercial clients.

Practical information – travel and expenses
Included in the workshop fee is a five nights stay in a double room at the Classics Hotel Bastille. The hotel is in a safe, lively neighboorhood, about 20 minutes walk or a short bus ride from the workshop venue. Please note that the fee includes rooms shared by two people each. Travel is not included in the workshop fee. We recommend that you arrive in Paris the night before the workshop kick off, as we’re starting early. We finish the workshop in the afternoon on the 27th of may, so it is possible to travel home in the evening.

Comments from 2012 Masterclass participants
“It has taken me time to land… to focus and to see….and evaluate… to let it all sink… Thank you for an incredible 5 days of challenge… from the smallest of smiles to echoes of the Masters… we were filled with so much. I believe that the vote of the group is that it has been the best workshop… and we have been to a few… You two rock.. what an educating and wonderful experience you challenge all of us. resetting us all .. and from a personal experience resetting me on a much more intriguing journey…Thank you for the warmth and the keen interest in which you approached us..” — A.S.

“It was an absolute wonderful time together with you all. I really enjoyed the workshop.” — N.S.

“Thanks so much for a wonderful few days in Paris and for opening up your home to all of us. Special thanks to Jeff and Jim for a brilliant course. I had an amazing time and only wish it had lasted longer. I hope you will carry on holding these workshops as it was an invaluable experience from which I have learnt a great deal!” — M.N.H.

“I’ve attended quite a few workshops, at locations around the world. This was the best of all of them. I appreciate the personal attention you gave me, and being encouraged to push beyond my own comfort zone to get different kinds of pictures.” — J.B.

March 23, 2013 (Sat), in Paris.

Target Audience, Marketing, Branding, Networking, Social Media

These are the terms that we see all the time when people speak about selling, and building a business. But, how does this work when you’re a photographer?

During an intense two-day workshop, photography consultant Marc Prüst and Lens Culture founder Jim Casper will address these issues, and show how you can use them to build your business as a photographer. Through lectures and hands-on activities, this workshop covers essential and practical elements that are key to a successful career (beyond being a talented photographer). The workshop provides insight, hands you tools, and will help you understand what business model will work best for your photographic practice.

We review the rapid changes in the marketplace that are challenging and disrupting the “traditional” methods of the photography business. And we look to new methods and practices that are setting new paths to success.

The workshop helps you refine the verbal and visual ways that you present yourself and your work – in person, online, in your communications. We explore how to build and extend your personal and professional networks. How do you actually market photography? And how to gain exposure in new markets?

We also explore how to plan a photography project, from creative and marketing preparation through shooting, editing, sequencing and presentation.

All the elements come together with practical exercises, portfolio reviews, and discussions between the participants and Casper and Prüst. The theory will be clarified and put to use in recognizable exercises.

With a maximum of 16 participants, there is a lot of room for one-on-one feedback with the organizers, while the group is large enough to allow for peer-reviews and practical exercises with like-minded photographers.

Fee: 290 euros (not including TVA). Still a couple places open — Register today!

To apply to participate, send an email to Marc Prüst <marc@marcprust.com>. Please include a link to your website, and a brief statement of why you are interested in participating in this workshop. Be sure to include your billing address and VAT or TVA registration number if you have one.

About the organizers:

Marc Prüst is active as a photography consultant, curator, and teacher. In that capacity he edits books, creates exhibitions, teaches and organizes workshops and masterclasses, lectures and writes on photography, and advises photographers on how to develop their work and how to market it.

He successfully launched the Northern Lights Masterclass, a one year masterclass for professional photojournalists and social documentary photographers, in September 2010. Prüst also teaches Visual Identity classes at Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris. He was one of three curators for the FotoGrafia festival in Rome for the period 2010 – 2012, and the creative director of the only photo festival in Nigeria, LagosPhoto.

Marc Prüst (1975) worked for the World Press Photo Foundation from 2001 to 2007, where he organized and installed exhibitions all over the world. In 2005 he was responsible for the exhibition and award winning publication “Things As They Are, Photo Journalism in Context since 1955″, for which he worked in close cooperation with curator Christian Caujolle and editor Chris Boot. For two years, he was responsible for international cultural activities at Agence VU’. In 2009 he launched his own business as a curator, consultant, and teacher. marcprust.com

Jim Casper is founder and director of Lens Culture, and has been the editor of its popular online magazine about global contemporary photography since 2004. He is co-founder and director of Lens Culture FotoFest Paris, the yearly international photography portfolio review event in Paris. He writes, lectures, curates, reviews portfolios and serves on the juries of international photography competitions. Prior to Lens Culture, Casper was founder and president of an international branding and corporate communications design firm based in California for 20 years.

Photos from the workshop:

SUMMARY
Location: Central Paris, France
Dates: October 18-22, 2012
Fee: 9900 NOK
Limit: 15 photographers
Full details (in Norwegian and English): Bilder Nordic School of Photography
The Masterclass will be conducted in English.

ABOUT THE MASTERCLASS

This will be a 5 day marathon for photographers interested in making a significant vertical leap in their work. It is geared toward fine art photography, with emphasis on strengthening your own distinct visual style and approach, understanding how the international art markets work, and developing multi-pronged marketing strategies to best present yourself to the world.

The Masterclass is coordinated by Lens Culture in Paris, France, in partnership with Bilder Nordic School of Photography in Oslo, Norway.

- The class will emphasize shooting, editing and the final print. Shooting will take place in central Paris and in the studio. Students will have the opportunity to work with street photography, the nude, still life, and abstraction during the course of the class. There will also be group visits to some photography-based cultural institutions throughout Paris.

- Class members will be expected to bring a body of work in progress to be discussed by the group. Each participant will also receive one-on-one consultations with Jim Casper and Jeff Cowen.

- Jeff will stress how digital photographers can learn to use new technology while respecting the tradition of analogue-based photography and its position as a medium with respect to art history.

- Career strategies in photography and the artist’s path are also topics for discussion and development. This class offers a unique perspective to create a dialogue with a working artist and an international photography critic, publisher and lecturer.

© Truls Rundgren, from a previous Leica Streetsmart Workshop at Lens Culture’s space in Paris.

ABOUT JEFF COWEN

Jeff Cowen is known for his painterly style in photography, and also for his sculptural mural-size compositions. He works with the figure, landscape, abstraction and still life. He is represented by several leading galleries and his work is in over one hundred collections and institutions. His first monograph was published by Paris-Musée, and his galleries have produced books for his many solo shows around the world.

He participates regularly in art fairs such as Art Basel, Art Cologne, Art Bolonga, Arco, Photo Espana, LaArt Fair, Art Paris and others. In the fall 2012, his work will be exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris in a special museum exhibition by the Huis Marseille Photography Museum during Paris Photo and the Month of Photography.

Jeff Cowen is a New York University honors scholar in Oriental studies. 25 years ago he was the assistant of Ralph Gibson and Larry Clark. His early street photography in New York City and his reportage work of the Romanian Revolution is in numerous collections and has been shown in Museums such as The Filature in Mulhouse and the New York Historical Society Museum.

Visit Jeff Cowen’s website.

ABOUT JIM CASPER
Jim Casper is the founder and director of Lens Culture, an international organization dedicated to the celebration and promotion of contemporary photography in all of its forms. He is a curator, writer, publisher and lecturer. He also serves on juries around the world.

Jim will work with each participant to help develop in-depth marketing and communications strategies to prepare photographers for critical and financial success in worldwide art markets. This includes review and editing of projects and portfolios, and — making the most of diverse opportunities to bring your work to the attention of collectors, gallery directors, curators, book publishers, magazine art directors, media assignment editors, agencies and commercial clients.

APPLICATION/REQUIREMENTS:
Requirements: This course is open to all serious photographers. Digital printing equipment will be available for all participants. If you choose to work with film, we have arranged for professional lab film processing, contact sheets and digital scanning (you must pay extra for the lab work). We do not have a full darkroom available, so we will focus on digital printing for this purposes of this workshop.

Equipment: Bring your own camera, and a laptop if possible.
Price: NOK 9900,- (Maximum 15 persons. Material costs, travel and stay is not included.)
Conditions: Before signing up, please read the conditions and agreement carefully.
THE WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD IN ENGLISH.

Register here!

Jeff Cowen Photographic Works, Artist Talk, Köln 2012 from Jim Casper on Vimeo.

Read more about Cortona OnTheMove photography festival here.

© Jim Casper

© David Graham

About the work
This award-winning work was selected from entries that came in from 48 countries. The quality, and sheer amount of submissions, amazed (and almost overwhelmed) the members of our international jury.

The winning entries cover a broad and diverse range of subject matter, stylistic approaches, and technical processes. So, in many ways, the judges’ selections represent a true snapshot of some of the best photography and multimedia as it is being practiced today.

Multimedia Category Winners:

Grand Prize: Olga Kravets, Maria Morina, and Oksana Yushko
2nd Prize: Florence Royer
3rd Prize: Markel Redondo

Portfolio Category Winners:

Grand Prize: Michael Marten
2nd Prize: Rachelle Mozman
3rd Prize: Jody Ake

Single Image Category Winners:

Grand Prize: Kerry Mansfield
2nd Prize: S. Gayle Stevens
3rd Prize: Andrey Ivanov-Eftimiopulos & Sasha Shikhova

Honorable Mention Awards:

David Adams
Justyna Badach
Pierfrancesco Celada
Matthew Conduit
Julia Cybularz
Marrigje de Maar
Luca Desienna
Tamas Dezso
Laura El-Tantawy
Odette England
Claire Felicie
Eran Gilat
Lucia Herrero
Line Hjorth
Dave Jordano
Andrea Land
Boots Levinson
Mayra Martell
Kenneth O’Halloran
Donna Pinckley
Markel Redondo
Laura Stevens
Pat Swain
Stephen Vaughan
Cam Wrigley

Read more about the awards here.

For more results from the workshop, visit the Leica Norway site.

The FotoFest Biennial is the first and longest running Biennial of its kind in the US, and one of the largest photography events in the world. The 2012 Biennial is a citywide event, with over 110 participating museums, art galleries, non-profit arts organizations, universities, civic organizations and corporate spaces across Houston, Harris County and Galveston.

Lens Culture will be there reviewing portfolios.

See all of the reviewers here.