Critical Mass

From Critical Mass 2012: Maxine Helfman, Yelra; Jennifer Kaczmarek, Resiliance; K.K. DePaul, Barbara; Meike Nixdorf, In the Orbit of El Teide, View #2; Alinka Echeverria, Romero During the Revolution

Registration for Critical Mass 2013 will open June 1, 2013.

Please check our blog for updates on Critical Mass.

Click here for list of jurors for Critical Mass 2012.

Click here for Critical Mass 2012 TOP 50.

Click here for monographs of past Critical Mass book award recipients.

Click here for Critical Mass Success Stories.

Congratulations to Mila Teshaieva (Book Award recipient), Tamas Deszo (Blue Sky Solo Show recipient), and Heidi Kirkpatrick (The Center for Fine Art Photography Solo Show recipient)!

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 ($90 for international submissions). This work is then pre-screened by a committee of approximately 20 great jurors. From those votes, the 200 top Finalists are determined. These 200 Finalists then pay an additional submission fee ($200) and their work goes on to a jury of approximately 200 of the world’s best photography professionals who have agreed to view and vote on the Finalists’ work. Using these votes, at least one photographer is chosen to receive a book award and once the monograph is published, everyone who enters and juries will receive a copy of the book.

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. Jurors are given the opportunity and encouraged to provide written feedback, but we can only guarantee that:

Everyone who enters will receive a copy of the Book Award Winner’s monograph.
Everyone who enters will receive a DVD 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 200 Finalists will have their work seen, and voted on, by over 200 jurors.

Book Award!

This year, Photolucida is excited to co-publish the book award winner’s monograph with exemplary publisher KEHRER VERLAG. The book award winner will be chosen from among the top-scoring Finalists. The book award is reserved for artists without a previously published monograph. Photographers with self-published books are still eligible for the book award. If you already have a monograph, you still have over 200 great reasons to participate in Critical Mass!

CM 2011 Winner - Jennifer B. Hudson (in progress)
CM 2010 Winner - Jeff Rich
CM 2009 Winners - Alejandro Cartagena, Birthe Piontek
CM 2008 Winners - Andy Freeberg, Céline Clanet, Priya Kambli
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!

Other Awards!

In addition to the book award, Photolucida is pleased to partner with Blue Sky and The Center for Fine Art Photography in offering a solo show to two Critical Mass Finalists. Founded in 1975 as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Blue Sky is one of the leading venues exhibiting contemporary photography in the United States. The Center for Fine Art Photography was founded in 2004 in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and it provides educational programming, exhibition space, and support services to the photographic community.

The illustrious W. M. Hunt will curate an exhibition from the Critical Mass Top 50. In summer of 2013, the exhibition will travel to the following locations:

Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, in Atlanta, Georgia
Southeast Museum of Photography, in Daytona Beach, Florida

And, additionally, Photolucida is awarding three “golden tickets” to our popular Portfolio Reviews event in April, 2013. Three names will be randomly chosen from the Finalist group for an opportunity to attend Photolucida’s Reviews gratis.

International Scholarships

Each year, Photolucida awards five scholarships to photographers who live and work outside the US. In previous years, scholarships have been given to photographers from Poland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, and Georgia. This year, we are pleased to offer this opportunity to five select photographers from Guatemala.

Procedure

Critical Mass has a two-part submission process.

First you pay a $75 registration fee to upload your images and text. ($90 for international entrants due to increased international shipping rates). We will then format your work and distribute the pages to the pre-screeners for scoring.

The 2012 Pre-Screening committee comprises the following people:
- Alexa Becker, Kehrer Verlag Publishers
- Fabian Gonclaves Borrega, Art Museum of the Americas
- Darren Ching, Photo Distrct News & KLOMPCHING Gallery
- Jennifer DeCarlo, jdc Fine Art
- Julia Dolan, Portland Art Museum
- Roy Flukinger, Harry Ransom Center
- Hamidah Glasgow, Center for Fine Art Photography
- Cherie Hiser, Educator
- Laura Valenti Jelen, Newspace Center for Photography
- Rupert Jenkins, Colorado Photographic Art Center
- Joni Kabana, Photolucida Board
- Dennis Keil, The Light Factory
- Stu Levy, Portland Art Museum Photo Council/Photoludica Board
- Yan Li & Hou Wei, Beijing High Noon Culture & People’s Photography
- Mary McClean, Knopf Art Department, Random House
- Blue Mitchell, Diffusion Magazine
- Laura Moya, Photolucida Director
- Claire Annette Mussard, Curator/Consultant
- Sharon Lavier O’Keefe, Northwest Center for Photography
- Shawn Records, Photolucida Board
- Mary Anne Redding, Santa Fe University of Art & Design
- George Slade, re:photographica
- Christina Spielvogel, Blue Sky Exhibition Committee
- Barbara Tannenbaum, Cleveland Museum of Art
- Paula Tognarelli, Griffin Museum of Photography
- Madeline Yale Preston, Independent Curator

If you are one of the top 200 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 jurors.

200 Jurors!

Our Critical Mass jurors are truly an international group of industry professionals representing a wide variety of photographic interests. We have made a great effort to represent the range of professional affiliation (gallery owners, curators, publishers, editors, etc.). In addition to seeing the work during the online process, jurors will also be sent a DVD of the Finalists’ work, which serves as a good reference tool in a multitude of ways.

Note: Critical Mass jurors are not allowed to submit their own work to Critical Mass.

Online Submissions

Enter Critical Mass via our registration page.

Click here to read detailed instructions on how to enter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please check our answers to the most frequently asked questions. If you still don’t find an answer to your questions, please email us at registration@photolucida.org.

Fine Print

Photolucida reserves the right to reproduce all work submitted for Critical Mass in the materials distributed to Critical Mass jurors and participating photographers. One may not pull work from Critical Mass once it has been submitted. Photolucida reserves the right to reproduce submitted work in announcements, catalogs, web sites and publications that report on or promote our programming. Any necessary permissions required to use images of people and/or property are the responsibility of the photographer. Submission of an entry to this program signifies acceptance of all conditions stated.

Partner Acknowledgements

Photolucida is also pleased to be able to partner with Kehrer Verlag, Blue Sky Gallery, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, and the Southeast Museum of Photography on our Critical Mass 2012 Awards.