Critical Mass
l to r: Louie Palu, Camille Seaman, Joni Sternbach, Peter John Van Agtmael
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Critical mass 2008
Alejandro Chaskielberg |
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Critical Mass 2006 Books are here!
Camille Seaman - The Last Iceberg
Amy Stein - Domesticated
Donald Weber - Bastard Eden, Our Our Chernobyl
Click here to order!
For Critical Mass updates, please check our blog.
What Is Critical Mass?
The aim of Critical Mass, and all Photolucida programming, is to provide participants with career-building opportunities and to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working today.
Critical Mass is a program about exposure and community. The idea is simple- photographers (from anywhere) submit a 10 image portfolio for $75. This work then gets pre-screened by a committee of 25 great jurors and from there, 175 top finalists are determined. These top finalists then pay an additional submission fee and their work goes on to a jury of approximately 200 of the world's best curators, editors, and professionals who have agreed to vote on these finalists. From these votes, two or three photographers receive book awards and once the monographs are published, everyone who enters and reviews will receive copies of the books.
We are pleased to continue to give scholarships to pre-selected photographers by geographical region. In 2007, we gave scholarships to Polish photographers, this year the focus will be on photographers from Mexico.
What to expect?
As an entrant to Critical Mass, you shouldn't necessarily expect feedback from the jurors unless they want to contact you about doing something with your work. Reviewers are given the opportunity and encouraged to provide written feedback, but we can't guarantee anything other than:
- Everyone who enters will receive copies of each of the Book Award Winners.
- Everyone who enters will receive a cd containing all of the submitted work.
- Everyone who enters will have their work seen, and voted on, by the Pre-Screening committee.
- Those who continue on in the top 175 will have their work seen, and voted on, by the full jury of over 200 reviewers.
Click here for Critical Mass Success Stories.
Book Awards!
Photolucida will publish monographs for 2 or more photographers from among the top-scoring finalists. All book awards are reserved for artists without a previously published monograph. Photographers with self-published books are still eligible for the book awards. If you already have a monograph, you still have over 200 great reasons to participate in Critical Mass!
CM 2007 Winners - Joni Sternbach, Peter van Agtmael
CM 2006 Winners - Camille Seaman, Donald Weber, Amy Stein
CM 2005 Winners - Hiroshi Watanabe, Louie Palu, Sage Sohier
Click here to see!
Procedure
Critical Mass has a two-part submission process. First you pay a $75 registration fee to upload your images and text. We will then format your work and distribute the pages to the pre-screeners for scoring.
The 2008 pre-screening committee is comprised of the following people:
- The Photolucida Board
- Susan Baraz, Co-Chair, Lucie Awards
- Paul Buckley, Vice President, Executive Art Director, Penguin Group
- Jim Casper, Lens Culture
- Sean Corcoran, Museum of the City of New York
- Crista Dix, Wallspace Gallery
- Jon Feinstein, Curatorial Director, Humble Arts Foundation
- Roy Flukinger, Research Curator of Photography, Harry Ransom Center
- Nelson Hancock, Founder/Director, Nelson Hancock Gallery
- Rob Haggart, aphotoeditor.com / APhotoFolio.com
- Shannon McDonald, Panopticon Gallery
- Claire Annette Mussard, Consultant
- Brady Nichols Sloane, Independent Curator
- Kerri Rosenstein, Gallery Saintonage
- Tina Schelhorn, Galerie Lichtblick
- P. Elaine Sharpe, Independent Curator
- Susan Spiritus, Susan Spiritus Gallery
- Tina Schelhorn, Director, Galerie Lichtblick
- Paula Tognarelli - Griffin Museum for Photography, Executive Director/Curator
If you are one of the top 175 photographers chosen by the pre-screeners, then you will pay an additional $200 fee and your work will be sent out to the full panel of over 200 reviewers.
200 Reviewers!
Like last year, this is a truly international group of jurors representing a wide variety of photographic interests. The list of jurors is now available - we have made a great effort to represent the range of professional affiliation (gallery owners, curators, publishers, editors, etc.) and expressed artistic preferences (documentary, conceptual, social landscape, portraiture, etc.). Jurors will be sent a CD-ROM of the photographers' work, as well as a hard-copy thumbnail image index of all the artists with contact information. This serves as a good reference tool for a multitude of purposes. Critical Mass jurors are not allowed to submit their own work to Critical Mass.
Online Submissions
Enter Critical Mass via our registration page.
Download and print this pdf with clear instructions on how to enter.
Photolucida reserves the right to reproduce all work submitted for Critical Mass on the materials distributed to the Critical Mass reviewers and fellow participating photographers. One may not pull work from the competition after it has been submitted. Photolucida reserves the right to reproduce winning work in announcements, catalogs, Web sites and publications that report on or promote the competition. Any necessary permissions required to use images of people and/or property are the responsibility of the photographer. Submission of an entry to this competition signifies acceptance of all conditions stated.
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