Women by Women: A Global Open Call by PhotoVogue

This year’s PhotoVogue Global Open Call celebrates the limitless ways women see and are seen—embracing photography and film as powerful tools to reclaim, redefine, and expand visual storytelling.

The Urgency of Representation

The illusion of linear progress—the belief that rights, visibility, and recognition are irrevocable—has been shattered by the current political climate.
Across the globe, we are witnessing increasing pushback against women's autonomy, from reproductive rights to freedom of expression, reminding us that what once seemed secure can also be taken away.

As these rights are contested, it becomes more urgent than ever to not only consider how women see but how they continue to carve out spaces for their perspectives.
In a world where their ability to shape narratives and define vision remains a battleground, representation is both an act of resistance and a tool for change.

For generations, women have fought not only to reclaim how they are seen but to assert their right to see on their own terms.
Photography and video have long been arenas where vision is not just about aesthetics but about power.

This year’s PhotoVogue Global Open Call is dedicated to Women by Women—a celebration of the myriad ways women represent themselves and one another through photography and video.

From The Female Gaze to Women’s Vision

This is not a new conversation.

In 2016, the PhotoVogue Festival explored The Female Gaze, featuring artists such as Cindy Sherman, Petra Collins, Aida Muluneh, Nan Goldin, and Zanele Muholi.
At the time, it felt urgent and revolutionary—a necessary counterpoint to the Male Gaze theorized by Laura Mulvey. A new generation of female photographers and filmmakers was reclaiming their right to look and be looked at on their own terms.

Nearly a decade later, we ask: Does The Female Gaze still capture the evolving complexity of how women see today?

While female-led perspectives in photography, film, and video have expanded, systemic barriers persist.
Women continue to face disparities in visibility, opportunity, and financial stability.
Meanwhile, digital platforms—while offering new avenues for representation—have also intensified scrutiny, commodified feminist narratives, and constrained women’s freedom of expression.

Perhaps The Female Gaze, as a direct response to The Male Gaze, is no longer sufficient—it remains tied to a binary opposition.
Instead, contemporary feminist and critical theories have expanded our understanding of vision and representation, moving beyond rigid categories to embrace fluidity, intersectionality, and self-definition.

Thinkers shaping this evolution include:

bell hooks – Explores how race, class, and resistance shape women's ways of seeing.
Judith Butler – Argues that gender is fluid, performed, and constantly evolving.
Rosi Braidotti – Links identity to technology, environment, and shifting social structures.
Audre Lorde – Reframes difference as a source of power rather than division.
Sylvia Wynter – Questions colonial and racial hierarchies that shape dominant visual paradigms.
Donna Haraway – Challenges essentialism, advocating for hybridity and interconnectedness.

By drawing from these perspectives, we move beyond binary frameworks and acknowledge that women's ways of seeing are dynamic—shaped by lived experiences, histories, and the socio-political forces that both restrict and redefine them.

Why Women by Women?

This open call does not seek to define a singular “woman’s gaze” but rather to embrace the limitless ways in which women see, interpret, and reconstruct vision.
It is not about opposing dominant visual paradigms but about affirming women's perspectives as diverse, fluid, and self-determined.

We welcome submissions from all women and those who identify with womanhood—across race, gender identity, sexuality, ability, and socio-political backgrounds.

Identity is not only shaped by who holds the camera but also by the act of being seen.

As Susan Sontag reminds us in On Photography, photography does not merely reflect reality—it constructs it.

At a time when women’s identities are under attack, when their rights and very existence are being erased, photographing women is an act of affirmation.
It is a declaration that they exist, that they see, and that they are seen—on their own terms.

Women by Women: Reclaiming the Narrative

In 2016, The Female Gaze was a crucial intervention in a world where women’s perspectives had long been overlooked.
It was an essential step in reclaiming space in visual culture.

Nearly a decade later, the conversation must evolve.

This open call moves beyond a binary response to The Male Gaze, embracing a more fluid, intersectional approach that reflects the complexities of identity, power, and representation today.

In 2025, Women by Women affirms that women’s vision is not merely a reaction to The Male Gaze—it is a powerful force in its own right, free to shape its own narrative.

If the camera is power, then let’s wield it—in our own voices, in our own thousand ways.

How to Submit

Who We’re Looking For

We seek women photographers and video makers worldwide whose work offers fresh and compelling perspectives across all genres—from fashion to documentary, portraiture, fine art, and beyond.

Grants & Opportunities

We are awarding a total of $12,000 in grants to three artists whose work challenges conventions and expands creative possibilities:

$6,000 – Outstanding Vision Grant For an artist pushing creative boundaries.

$4,000 – Vision Grant For an artist with a compelling and unique perspective.

$2,000 – Rising Voice Grant For an emerging artist showing originality and promise.

Recognition & Exposure

Selected artists will:

Be showcased at the next edition of the PhotoVogue Festival
Have the opportunity to be published in Vogue editions worldwide
Be selected to participate in the next PhotoVogue Virtual Portfolio Reviews

^{Image: Ramona Wang}