The Noorderlicht International Photo Festival is putting out an Open Student Call for the second time. The 2020 edition was a great success – 144 students from 37 countries exhibited on the grounds behind Museum Belvédère in Heerenveen. The theme of the 28th edition of the festival in the summer of 2021 is ‘The Makeable Mind’, which explores the relationship between visual culture and reality. What is the influence of visual technologies, communication media and (citizen) journalism on our thinking?
Something fundamental is changing in how we see the world and in how the world is shown to us visually. Firstly, in recent decades, digital technologies have eroded the reliability of the photographic, cinematic or pictorial medium as a ‘window on reality’. Secondly, the Internet has become a crucial source of information, with a major impact on our worldview; half, whole and empty truths are fired at us from all directions. We are constantly asked to judge: what and who do we trust? You can read more about the festival here.
THE CALL
Noorderlicht calls on students worldwide to document what it means to you to live in a world that seems to offer little grip. Do you, for example, see through fake news? Can you distinguish ‘real’ from ‘not real’? And is that distinction actually there? Capture in one image (lens-based or computer-generated) what you feel is ‘reality’.
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SUBMISSIONS
Please note: we ask for a single shot! From all submissions, we will put together an exhibition in a later-to-be-determined form. Participating in the call therefore also means participating in the festival. Furthermore, you give Noorderlicht permission to use your image on its website and social media, with photo credits of course.
Image
File format: maximum (native) resolution of your camera, so that we can print in large format. RGB, high-res JPEG or TIFF, print ready. The file name contains the name of the creator, a title and/or caption.
In addition
– short explanation of the image, around 50 words
– name and year of birth
– nationality
– the course you are following, and where
– links to your social media channels
– URL of your website (if applicable)
Send your contribution by Monday 17th May 2021 to openstudentcall@noorderlicht.com. Please use a file service such as WeTransfer if the file is too large to send as an email attachment.
Open Student Call as pdf.
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Noorderlicht International Photo Festival 2021
The Makeable Mind
7 August – 3 October 2021
Various locations in Groningen and Friesland, NL