2023 OPEN CALL

OUR THEME:
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THROUGH THE LENS OF A CAMERA -
AN ARCHIVE OF EVERY DAY LIFE

The world is in flux - everything is changing at almost every level of our daily lives. The jurors for this year's Open Call were looking for work that documented ‘personal inventories of experience’ which ties in with the Festival’s theme - ‘The Hidden Power of the Archive’.

We wanted to see how the world looked to our entrants right now. Fresh, energetic and connected to the great themes of our age: identity, climate change, Covid, sexuality, the domestic landscape, work (or lack of it), inflation, power (and shortages of it) and democracy for starters. But what is in their ‘personal inventory’ that speaks to their recent experience? We asked to see tomorrow’s archives being formed today.

We welcomed photographers from over 60 countries who submitted 9,000 images. Our stellar panel of jurors selected the following images. These will also be on show in The Yard, Modern Art Oxford from 4 April to 14 May 2023.

Rollator © Simen Lambrecht 
Margriet © Simen Lambrecht
Picknick © Simen Lambrecht

Project Winner

Congratulations Simen Lambrecht, with his project, The Art of Living Twice:


Rereading the letters my grandma had sent me before her terminal cancer diagnosis reconfigured the landscape I escaped from as a teenager. The stillness of the fields and small winding roads between them had never been interesting to me. Neither were the traditions, rituals, habits and people. Until she died. This project is about the memory of her, my grandma, who lived 82 years in the same village, and our relationship.

Follow @simenk.lambrecht

Congratulations also to our project runners-up: Owen McCarter, Wolfgang Schwan, Lydia Goldblatt, Vincen Beeckman, Shou-An Chiang, Kavi Pujara, Giulia Parlato and Ioanna Sakellaraki

Images from all our runners up will appear on the website for the Festival period.

© Anne-Sophie Guillet, Single-image winner

Single Image Winner

Congratulations Anne-Sophie Guillet, with her winning image, Nick and Martin, from her series Together:

Anne-Sophie Guillet suggests that we change our perceptions and attitudes toward emotionality, friendship, and sex as we relate to others and ourselves. She questions social injunctions - the heteronormative codes that weigh on us and regiment our lives and relationships.

View Anne-Sophie Gullet website

Congratulations also to our singles runners-up: Julianna Foster, Ole Brodersen, Francis Augusto, Anthony Gebrehiwot, Adrian Alarcon Sanchez, Lucy Bentham, Antonina Mamzenko, Hanna Wolf, Ilkin Eskipehlivan and Matt MacPake.

Images from all our runners up will appear on the website for the Festival period. 

MEET THE JURORS

Phillip Roberts
(Bodleian Library, Bern and Ronny Schwartz Curator of Photography)

Phillip is the Bern and Ronny Schwartz curator of Photography at the Bodleian Library.  He is a writer, an artist and a media historian. His work is all about the ways that life is captured and recorded by media technologies, and what is lost.

Jermaine Francis
(Photographer)

Jermaine Francis is a London based Photographer and Artist who’s practice works within the disciplines of Book, Gallery & editorial, primarily in the discourse of the Photo Document.He contributes projects to magazines such as I-D, Autre Magazine, Beauty Papers, Boy Brother Friend. His most recent project ‘A Storied Ground’ which ask the viewer to consider the Black figures complicated relationship with the English Landscape & Nature, is exhibiting at Galeriepcp Paris 2022. He will also be making a new work for the Oxford Photo Festival in april 2023.

Alicia Colen
Director, Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC)

Alicia Colen serves as one of the directors of Howard Greenberg Gallery. Having been with the gallery since 2007, Alicia is responsible for client relations, artists relations, and has organized numerous exhibitions for the Gallery including William Gedney, All Facts Eventually Lead to Mysteries (2016); One Third of Nation: The Photographs of the Farm Security Administration (2020); and Baldwin Lee (2022).

Matthew Finn
Photographer, winner of the 2017 Photo Oxford Open Call)

Matthew Finn (b. 1971, UK) explores personal relationships both within the corpus of the family as well as the wider stage of personal relationships through long-term photographic projects. 

He is the recipient of the Jerwood/Photoworks Award 2015 and has published 2 monographs; Mother (Dewi Lewis, 2017) and School of Art (Stanley/Barker, 2019).

Emily Graham
(Magnum Cultural Commissions and Partnerships; Photographer)

Emily Graham is an artist and photography consultant based in London. She also works as a photography consultant, working on exhibitions and cultural programming with partners including Magnum Photos, Saatchi Gallery, American Museum in Bath. 


She has exhibited internationally, most recently at PhotoEspaña 2022 (Spain). Her first book The Blindest Man was published in July 2022 by VOID. 

Andrée Latham

(Curator, DIgital Content, Museum of Modern Art)

Andrée Latham is a curator, digital content producer and creative marketeer based in Oxford. In her work as Curator, Digital Content at Modern Art Oxford, Andrée is committed to audience-led programming, widening access and exploring the health and wellbeing benefits of art and creativity. In her role, she oversees the gallery’s growing digital programme of creative content, artist commissions and audience participatory project

Kalpesh Lathigra
(Photographer)

Kalpesh Lathigra was born in London, England, in 1971 and studied photography at the London College of Printing. He started life in photojournalism at The Independant newspaper in 1994 where he won 1st prize in World Press Photo competition.


Kalpesh now works in long term projects as well as magazine and editorial assignments. He has been awarded both the W. Eugene Smith and Churchill Fellowships and has received numerous awards including The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and PhotoEspaña Descrumbientos. And he has been exhibited widely including shows at; Jen Beckman Gallery New York, Johannesburg Photo Umbrella, Taylor Wessing, London and Sifest Italy.

WHAT WINNERS RECEIVE

The Project Winner:

Prominent inclusion in a dedicated exhibition of up to 8 of your winning project images
Prominent inclusion on the Festival website and social media
A 30 minute Zoom meeting with the juror of their choice.
10 day Jury Curated Instagram Takeover of Photo Oxford IG account

Single Image Winner:

-  Prominent inclusion in an Open Call winners exhibition during Photo Oxford
Prominent inclusion on the Festival website and social media
3 day Instagram Take Over of Photo Oxford IG account

Runners Up:

10 Runners up will be featured in the physical and online exhibitions.

Entries have now closed. Thank you to all who entered!