Self

The Exhibition

 

Some photographs are made to show the world something. Others are made to find something out about yourself. This exhibition is for the second kind.

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SELF is a call for self portraits that go beyond likeness — images made in the act of looking at oneself honestly, uncomfortably, tenderly, or strangely. We're not looking for vanity or performance. We're looking for the photographs that came out of a real reckoning: with a body, a memory, a loss, a transformation, a question you couldn't answer any other way.

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The self portrait is one of photography's oldest and most exposed forms. The camera becomes both mirror and confessional — there is no subject to direct, no one else to blame for what appears. What's left is just you, deciding what to reveal and what to withhold.

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We welcome work that engages with identity, aging, illness, grief, joy, gender, memory, solitude, family, transformation, and the body — staged or unstaged, constructed or straightforward, single images or series. What matters most is that the work carries real emotional stakes, and that the artist was willing to be seen.

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What We're Looking For

• Photographic self portraits in any style — documentary, constructed, conceptual, or experimental

• Work with a clear, felt point of view — not simply "photos of the artist," but images that use the self as a way of asking something larger

• Series or single images accepted

• Work that risks vulnerability over polish

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Juror: Douglas Beasley

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Douglas Beasley’s personal vision explores the spiritual and emotional aspects of people and place and is concerned with how the sacred is recognized and expressed in everyday life. 

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Awards

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• First Place: $500

• Second Place: $250

• Third Place: $150

• Two Honorable Mentions: $50

• Human Presence award: Free entry to a future exhibition of their choice

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Selected photographs will be exhibited online by Decagon Gallery, published in a

professionally designed exhibition catalog, and accompanied by digital badges and

certificates for exhibiting artists.​

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How to Submit

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$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. You grant Decagon Gallery the right to publish your photograph in our online exhibition, in the exhibition catalog, and to promote the exhibition in social media and newsletters.

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Note

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Not every exceptional photograph can be included in an exhibition. Space is limited, and many submissions that deserve recognition simply cannot be selected. Throughout the year, Decagon Gallery may feature a small number of these photographs on our Instagram account as Curator's Picks, giving additional visibility to work that impressed us during the review process. Being featured on Instagram is separate from exhibition acceptance, but it reflects our appreciation for photographs that made a lasting impression.

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If you would like your work to be considered for this additional recognition, simply check the permission box on the entry form. Your photograph will only be featured with your consent.