CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS — International Digital Pinhole Photography Exhibition (3rd edition)

This call to artists is no longer current.

photo: André Paquin        



Deadline for submissions to be received: Monday, August 6, 2018
The exhibition will take place at Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle
At 67 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
From September 21 to October 23, 2018
The opening reception will take place Thursday, September 27, at 5 p.m.

Les corps éblouis (The Dazzled Elements)
Capturing a scene with pinhole photography is a bit like taking ownership of an ephemeral meeting of a place and a time; it abides by, so to speak, the very essence of photography. It is a return to the fundamental image, that which forms by itself, without human intervention.

I have imagined since a long time that in the depths of a cave, a picture of the sun-drenched space in front of its entrance develops. This reversed image slowly imprints itself on the back wall, hidden from sight.

This is what inspires us for this third round of the International Digital Pinhole Exhibition: bringing us back to the roots of the medium, to the era when the first images formed without lenses, in black and white.

The theme Les corps éblouis (The Dazzled Elements) is of course about this piece of nature captured, but also the resulting image, and the subsequent viewing of it. In order for there to be bedazzlement, it is important that light hits an object so as to be perceived by the observer, who is in his turn dazzled.

The dazzled elements, in shades of grey: this is the challenge!

The idea behind the project is to use an old process, the pinhole camera,
adapted to modern technology – an interchangeable lens digital camera. (All one needs do is take off the lens and replace it with a piece of blackened cardboard, or the body cap, with a small hole pierced in it.)

Today’s technology allows the piercing of holes so small and so perfectly round that astronomers, to obtain an ever more precise image of the universe, are once again using pinhole photography in their research.

The opening called a pinhole, is nothing, after all, but a hole. This orifice lets the light rays through without focusing the light, therefore without distortion nor aberration. We take a photo without a lens, but it is the photo that takes us. Chance looms, and is captured without us knowing it.

The images thus formed by light travelling in a straight line and by the inexorable passage of time, are intrinsic carriers of nebulous truths. And this noticeable blurriness in a pinhole photograph is actually the imprecision of the process which continuously captures luminous reflections.

Modern cameras, with their high-performance lens, functioning in thousandths of seconds and with the help of a thousand foveas, perhaps give too much to see. Let us be caught up in the mystery in which a pinhole image lets us soar.

When a simple cardboard box lets us confine light to create a faithful and durable image of an ephemeral reality, artists find again the spirit that animated the pioneers.

— André Paquin, Curator

The entries must include:

  • Curriculum vitae (maximum 3 pages)
  • Artist’s statement (150 words) on the theme Le corps éblouis (The Dazzled Bodies). For more information, visit www.voixvisuelle.ca
  • A maximum of 10 images in JPEG format (300PPI, 8.5” x 11” minimum)
  • Each image file must be titled with a number, the name of the artist, and the title of the piece
  • Detailed list of the visual documentation (numbers, titles, and annotations)
  • Each JPEG file must show, in its file properties, the following information about the image capture:
    • Date of image capture
    • Camera model
    • Exposure time
    • ISO setting
    • Focal length (i.e., f0 or f-)

PLEASE SEND YOUR ENTRY BY EMAIL TO:

[email protected]

The entries will be evaluated by André Paquin, and the chosen pieces will be printed by Voix Visuelle.

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