The Exhibition

Things break. People struggle. Places change. And yet — something endures.

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Overcoming — What Remains Standing invites photographers to submit work about survival, resilience, and what's left after hardship. We're looking for images that show what it means to get through something — whether that's personal loss, illness, grief, displacement, or simply the passage of difficult time. There's no single right approach: your work can be documentary or staged, abstract or portrait, raw or quiet. What matters is that it's honest.

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All photographic processes and experience levels are welcome.

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Juror: Douglas Beasley

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Douglas Beasley’s work explores the spiritual and emotional dimensions of people and place, seeking to reveal how the sacred can be recognized and expressed in everyday life.

After earning his BFA from the University of Michigan, he built a career that spans commercial fashion, international assignments, and fine art photography. His projects, often supported by grants and commissions, have been exhibited and collected widely, including a permanent installation at the Castillo D’Albertis Cultural Museum in Genoa, Italy. He is the author of several books, among them Japan: A Nisei’s First Encounter, Earth Meets Spirit, and Zen & the Art of Photography.

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Beyond his own practice, Beasley is deeply committed to fostering creative vision in others. He is the founder of Vision Quest Photo Workshops, leads retreats worldwide and at his Trade River Retreat Center in Wisconsin, and is the publisher of Shots Magazine, a respected independent journal of fine art photography.

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Awards

$1,000 in total cash awards, plus a solo exhibition feature for First Place.

• First Place: $500 + Solo Exhibition on the Decagon Gallery website

• Second Place: $250

• Third Place: $150

• Two Honorable Mentions: $50 each

• Human Presence Nomination: Free entry to a future Decagon open call

All selected photographers receive inclusion in the curated exhibition, a dedicated exhibition page, Instagram feature, and inclusion in the printed catalog.

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How to Submit

$25 entry fee for up to 4 photographs. $5 each additional photograph. Open to photographers worldwide. All photographic processes and styles welcome.

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Submit JPGs sized to 2100 pixels on the long side, without text, watermarks, or borders.

Preferably under 4 mb.

Name files: First Name-Last Name_Title.jpg

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Photographers retain all rights, including copyright, to their photographs. We will never distribute your photographs to anyone without your permission.