The art of photography

Although photography first emerged as a technological invention, it was also quickly conceived as an artistic practice as well. Pictorialist photographs in the nineteenth century were created to look like paintings, while advocates of straight photography in the first part of the twentieth century strived for the purely photographic means of creating photographic meanings. Street photographers devote the medium to capturing the fleeting moment, while in the last decades of the 20th century many photographers turned to staging and directing in order to utilize photography for artistic visual communication. Art photography also includes numerous genres and creative practices from portraiture, landscape and still life to abstract and conceptual photography. In this call we ask contemporary photographers to show how they understand art photography in the 21st century.

PH21 Gallery invites photographers to submit their work for a group exhibition themed The art of photography. We are looking for submissions from all photographers who are interested in photography as an art form and would like to share their work with a wider international audience through the exposure of PH21 Gallery. The theme is broadly construed; we welcome submissions from all artistic photographic genres and styles, including abstract compositions. We are interested in all possible creative photographic interpretations of what photography as an art form might be.

Please note that this PH21 Gallery exhibition will be presented in Rome, Italy, in collaboration with KromArt Gallery and Centro Sperimentale di Fotografia Adams, a renowned Italian centre for photography.

One juror's choice and up to three honourable mentions will be announced. The juror's choice receives three free entries for any upcoming themed group exhibition calls at PH21 Gallery. (Each free entry includes up to 15 images.)

Curator: Zsolt Bátori

Zsolt is a philosopher of art and photographer. He currently serves as director of the Institute of Art and Design Theory, Faculty of Art and Creative Industries, Budapest Metropolitan University, and visits the University of Murcia, Spain for regular research collaboration. He has conducted research and taught philosophy of art and photography courses at various universities in Hungary, the United States, Spain and Argentina, and has exhibited his photographic work internationally. Zsolt is also the founder and director of PH21 Gallery.