Deadline: August 14, 2019 Entry fee: from $35 to $60 Prizes: $2,000, Participation in the Exhibition, Promotion
Seeking the World’s Top 25 Emerging Photographers
Now in its sixth year, the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards offer an unparalleled opportunity for new and exciting voices in photography to gain massive exposure and recognition for their work. We’re searching the globe for early-career photographers who demonstrate great promise and a distinct creative vision; artists and storytellers who are ready to step into the spotlight and those who could be future leaders in our industry.
Our expert jury will select the work of 25 outstanding talents who have not yet received exposure at an international level. There are absolutely no limits on age, location, or genre, so gather your best work together and share your work with us for the opportunity to kickstart your career on the world stage. Now is your time!
We are thrilled to be able to exhibit the winners of this award in Paris alongside Paris Photo this November and everyone who enters a series qualifies for a free professional written review of their submission.
Exhibition During Paris Photo 2019!
All winning photographers for this award will be exhibited in November at Galerie Joseph during Paris Photo! An opening reception will be held for artists, invited media, photo editors and industry insiders for a night of art appreciation and networking during the world’s largest international art fair dedicated to photography.
Featured At International Photo Festivals
Selected works will be screened at photo festivals and events worldwide. Over the past year, our winners and finalists were screened at festivals in the UK, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Japan, Australia, Spain, France, the US, and more.
LensCulture is continually forging new partnerships with leading photo festivals around the world (like Voies Off, FORMAT, Tokyo International Photography Festival, and more) to increase exposure and showcase opportunities for the winners and finalists of our competitions.
Permanent Exhibition On Lensculture Online Gallery
LensCulture has become a key resource for discovering new photography work all over the world.
All winners, finalists and juror’s picks for this award will be prominently featured in the permanent online gallery on our site.
This is a wonderful opportunity to have your work seen by thousands of people around the world with a true love and appreciation for photography.
Published In The Best Of Lensculture, Volume 4
In partnership with Schilt Publishing, we’re thrilled to be planning our fourth book, featuring the work of LensCulture’s award-winning photographers. This beautifully printed and unique collection of photographic work will be available for purchase and distributed to influential industry members worldwide.
International Press Exposure
Award winners receive press coverage from publications and media outlets around the world — the kind of exposure that can lead to viral, global recognition of your work. Winners, finalists and selected entrants have been featured in major publications including BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Internazionale, VICE, The Times of London, Huffington Post, Spiegel Online, The British Journal of Photography, and The Telegraph. Share your work with the world.
Be sure to check out our latest feature on The Guardian, a beautiful image gallery showcasing the work of our Visual Storytelling Award-winners with the world.
Awards & Benefits
8 Jurors’ Picks
Each juror will select an individual Juror’s Pick to receive $2,000 USD Cash Prize each
Emerging Talents
Our jury will select 25 outstanding emerging photographers from the submissions received.
Finnish people have a special relationship with nature, animals in particular—one that has endured the country’s rapid urbanization and continues to provide a sense of continuity in a changing world.
A series depicting religious adherents in rural Haiti that is defined by its particular intensity and a hushed sense of quiet, ageless, spiritual devotion. Whether or not you believe, there is something here that brings you closer to the light.
How has the development of digital technology altered the way we depict (and perceive) the natural world around us? A richly conceptual—and uniquely constructed—series about an island off the coast of Spain.
This series of photographs depict portraits of babies who are born refugees – in the womb of Rohingya women when crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, and born at refugee camps inside Bangladesh.
The future of these babies are called into doubt in the context of them being stateless under Bangladesh’s Citizenship Law – born inside a refugee camp in Bangladesh, which does not recognize them to be citizens by birth, fleeing Myanmar, which does not recognize them as children of citizens.
Deep in the Ozarks, some individuals chose to live in complete solitude. Here, photographer Matthew Genitempo speaks about the necessity of “losing your agenda, quieting your anxiety, and just following along” in order to create a powerful series.
In the aftermath of a stroke, a lifelong photographer was rendered legally blind. Rather than give up image-making, he transformed his practice to reflect his new way of seeing the world.
In 1905, around 1,000 Koreans arrived in Mexico aboard the SS Ilford. They had departed an impoverished country falling under the crutches of the Japanese Empire, and were promised future prosperity in a paradisiac land. However, once they arrived in Yucatan, they were sold off as indentured servants.
They were set to work in henequen plantations under harsh conditions, harvesting an agave known as Yucatan’s green gold. They worked side-by-side with local Mayans, often learning the Mayan language in preference to the Spanish of their masters, and many went on to marry local Mayans.
By the time their contract ended in 1910, Korea had already been incorporated into the Japanese Empire. With no homeland to return to, they decided to stay in Mexico. Some went on to seek work elsewhere in Mexico and in Cuba.
Taking from stories told by the descendants of Korean henequen workers in Mexico and Cuba, this project provides a poetic account of their memories.
Mixing historical and contemporary photographic practices, these multi-layered images push beyond the edge of artistic control and emerge as complex and unconstrained.
