OPENPhoto II: Victories and Violations African Photo Contest

The second annual OPENPhoto competition aims to encourage analytical and critical thinking about society in Africa – and support the development of photojournalism across the continent. We are looking for strong, interpretive documentary work that has a voice.

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is running its second pan-African photographic competition. After the success of the inaugural competition in 2012, OPENPhoto II will focus on:

Victories and Violations: The Struggle for Minority Rights in Africa

Who can Enter?

OpenPhoto II will recognise photographers based in Africa whose work highlights the struggles and successes of minority communities and individuals across the continent. You have to live more than six months of the year on the continent.

The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers, 18 years or older.

The winner and two runners-up, judged by an international jury, will be selected after the competition closes on November 30, 2013. Submissions are accepted from now until the deadline of midnight (CAT) November 30, 2013

Winners will be announced on December 16, 2013.

Image Ethics

• Only enter photographs that are un-manipulated, either in the field when shooting or in post-production.
• Besides portraits, the jury retains the right to query and possibly disqualify images where the photographer has interfered unfairly with reality.
• This is not a Photoshop competition, it is a photography competition.
• Do not alter your images in a way that enhance or change reality.  Do not remove something that bothers you (unless by cropping), and do not add or clone any objects to your image. If we suspect an image has been unfairly altered, we retain the right to ask for the original RAW file or film negative, or disqualify it. Dodging and burning is acceptable.
• Please keep to standard colour adjustment techniques, without overdoing anything. Do not submit HDR images.
• Converting digital files to black and white is accepted, but not preferred to scans from original negatives in black and white.
• Panoramas made from stitching images together are accepted, but please add in your captions or notes that they are panoramas.

Submission Requirements 

Please provide the following:

1. A picture story of between 10 and 15 images, with titles and complete captions.
   • Each image should be saved as a .jpg 
   • in RGB mode, 
   • 300 dpi and 1024 pixels on the longest side.
   • Each image must be readily available in high resolution should it be selected as a winner.
   • Please name each image as follows: LastnameFirstname_TitleSequence, eg. OkweKanaga_Housing01
   • Only images that subscribe to our stated ethics above may be entered.
2. A statement of up to 500 words about your entry.
3. Entries that are not properly submitted, may, at the discretion of the organizers, be rejected.
4. Once registered you must submit your work online. Mail-in submissions should abide by the same specifications on a disc or flash drive, compatible with Mac or PC. OSISA is not responsible for lost or damaged entries, and discs and drives will not be returned.
5. There is no time limitation during which the work must have been produced.
6. There is no entry fee.

By entering this competition, you agree that your photographs may be used to publicise the competition in ways deemed fit by the organizers and the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
The images may be used for an exhibition, on OSF websites, and in internal and external publications.

http://open-photo.org/submit-an-entry/