Deadline: May 3, 2021
Entry Fee: $15 CAD
Prizes: $2,000 CAD, participation in the exhibition
The Mountain Photo Essay Competition is a program of Mountain Culture at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. We promote understanding and appreciation of the world’s mountain places by creating opportunities for people to share and find inspiration in mountain experiences, ideas, and visions. Other Mountain Culture programs include the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival and World Tour, a Mountain Photography Residency, a world renowned Adventure Filmmakers Workshop and Masterclass. Literary Arts at Banff Centre also hosts a three-week Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program.
The competition’s goal is to showcase the best in mountain-themed photo essays – to recognize the best stories told through a series of still images.
The competition format is the photo essay. At its simplest, the definition of a photo-essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke emotions in the viewer.
We invite photographers to submit curated photo essays to illustrate their mountain related stories that fall under the sub-categories of culture, adventure, wildlife, sport, environment, or natural history.
The selection committee and jury will be seeking a sequence of images that conveys a compelling story or message – with each image strong enough to stand on its own while conveying a greater narrative when viewed in the photographer’s desired sequence.
Entry Guidelines
- Each essay submitted is to consist of three (3) to five (5) images.
- We suggest photographers include only those images required to tell their story – unnecessary images may reduce the overall impact of submissions.
- Please include a short description of the photo essay.
- Entry Deadline: Monday, May 3, 2021.
- $2,000 CAD Grand prize
Selection Process
- All entries will be viewed by a selection committee chaired by the Festival Director
- Finalists chosen by this committee will be viewed by an international jury
- The Grand Prize winner will be announced in June 2021
