Call for Entries: Third Jerwood/Photoworks Awards

The third national Jerwood/Photoworks Awards seek proposals from outstanding artists using new approaches to photography.

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The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards support photographers, or artists using photography, to make new work and significantly develop their practice. The Awards are a collaboration between Jerwood Arts and Photoworks, supported by Official Print Partner Spectrum Photographic. The Awards particularly seek to encourage artists and photographers exploring new approaches to photography, and/or whose practice is experimental.

Presented every two years, the Awards are open to arts practitioners using photography who are within 10 years of establishing their practice. There is no age limitation and no requirement for formal education or qualifications. In recognition of the financial pressures faced by many artists, this edition will not require an application fee. Applicants have the alternative of submitting a video or audio proposal and funding to help those facing additional barriers to take up the opportunity is also available. Two Awardees will each receive:

• £10,000 to support the making of new work
• Access to an additional production fund of £5,000
• High-profile mentoring support from an international panel of experts for at least 12 months
• A two-person exhibition in London as part of the Jerwood Arts programme at Jerwood Space (from January 2020)
• A subsequent UK joint exhibition tour

The call for entries is open now and will close at 5pm on Monday 5 November 2018.

Alongside the extensive mentoring programme offered to the two Awardees, shortlisted artists will be invited to undertake mentoring with the Photoworks team of expert curators and arts professionals.

Who is eligible to apply?

We welcome your application:

• If you are an art practitioner using photography and are within 10 years of establishing your practice.

Please use your discretion to determine if this description fits you. Some applicants might be within ten years of graduating from an educational course, whilst others might have changed direction or career and mark their entering into their professional photographic practice differently. There is no age limit to apply. If your situation is not immediately clear, please explain your position in your application. You are welcome to apply:

• If you have the legal right to work in the UK, are currently resident in the UK and will continue to be for the duration of the development and production period, through to the close of the exhibition tour. You don’t have to be a British National.
• Whether or not you have formal education or qualifications.
• Whether or not you have applied before.

We particularly welcome your application if you are from a BAME background; if you identify as LGBTQ+; if you live with a disability; if you have caring responsibilities; and/or if you are facing economic disadvantage.

We will do our very best to help you to make an application and, if selected, support your participation in the opportunity. Please contact Zoltan Borovics (zoltan@photoworks.org.uk) if you require support with your application.

Please don’t apply if you:

• are undertaking full- or part-time higher education at any point between September 2018 and February 2020
• are not based in the UK
• primarily practise another artform (for example, filmmaking practice, which may not be eligible for the Awards in its primary format). If you are unsure whether your practice is eligible for the award please contact Zoltan Borovics (zoltan@photoworks.org.uk)

How to apply

Please submit your application either in writing (no more than 600 words) or as a video or audio recording (no more than five minutes). Please choose the format which you think will convey your ideas clearly, according to the submission criteria. Please note that production values will not be taken into account.

Submissions are limited to one application per applicant.

Selectors

The selection panel will include:

Lilli Geissendorfer, Director, Jerwood Arts

Shoair Mavlian, Director, Photoworks

Aaron Schuman, Artist, Writer, Editor and Curator

Marta Weiss, Curator of Photographs V&A Museum

Shama Khanna, Curator, Educator & Writer

Mentoring

The Photoworks and Jerwood  Arts teams will work with and support both awardees throughout 2019. A pool of high-profile mentors will support the selected artists for 12 months after selection. Previous mentors have included Rut Blees Luxemburg, Tim Clark, Mark Durden, Mitch Epstein, Fariba Farshad, Anna Fox, Ori Gersht, Francis Hodgson, Michael Mack, Maureen Paley and Mark Power.

Previous Awardees

Previous Jerwood/Photoworks Awardees are Joanna Piotrowska, Matthew Finn, Tereza Zelenkova, Alejandra Carles Tolra, Sam Laughlin and Lua Ribeira.

Joanna Piotrowska and Alejandra Carles-Tolra have both had works acquired for the Arts Council Collection and two of Joanna’s works now also reside in MOMA’s collection. Lua Ribeira was recently announced as a Magnum Nominee – a precursor to becoming an Associate Artist – and was a runner-up for the Bar Tur Photobook Award.

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards have been an incredible opportunity for me to push myself creatively. The support, both financially and in terms of critical feedback, gave me the time and space to experiment and try new approaches. Overall it has had a direct and positive impact in the way I make my work.

– Alejandra Carles-Tolra, previous Jerwood/Photoworks Awardee

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards were a turning point in my practice. The funding, mentoring and exhibition tour allowed me to take my work to the next level. It felt like I was doing an MA, with a stellar line up of tutors, and all the costs covered.

– Sam Laughlin, previous Jerwood/Photoworks Awardee

Is this the right opportunity for you?

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards seek to support exceptional skill and ambition in photography, looking broadly at how contemporary artists and photographers are challenging and developing their practice.

We will provide significant production and mentoring support to selected artists, alongside support with the curatorial and logistical development of each project. Your idea should be achievable within the budget and within a 12-month production period. This is a high visibility opportunity with a series of exhibitions and a PR campaign to national and international arts media.

We aim for the 12-month mentoring and production period to be of significant benefit to those selected to experiment with new and ambitious ways of working in order to produce a step change in their careers.

We therefore encourage ambitious proposals from those who can make good use of the opportunity, time, mentoring, curatorial advice and logistical backup to develop their ideas and further their work. You might be looking for an opportunity to crystallise current or new research, focus your practice or realise a new idea which might not be possible without this specific opportunity, or something else not listed here.

In deciding whether Jerwood/Photoworks Awards is right for you at this time, think about your short and long-term goals for your practice and how this opportunity might help you get there.

What are the selectors looking for?

The selection panel will be looking for well thought-out proposals with clearly defined outcomes and strong ideas on how to achieve them. The Awards give national and international recognition to emerging talent and it’s important for the panel to see how they might contribute to Awardees’ ongoing success.

The panel will consider how the Award will be a genuine step change in developing the applicant’s practice.

Key dates

5 November 2018 (5pm): application portal closes

19 November 2018: longlisted candidates notified

26 November 2018: shortlist announced

28 November 2018: interviews held at Jerwood Space, London

December 2018: Awardees announced

January-March 2020: exhibition at Jerwood Space, London followed by national exhibition tour

Submission criteria

• A clear proposal of no more than 600 words, or a video or sound recording no more than five minutes in length, detailing:

1. the idea you would like to develop with this Award;
2. how this Award would help you to achieve that;
3. how the opportunity will benefit your practice and development.

• Up to 10 images in support of your application. They do not all have to be from a single project.
• A CV of no more than two pages, or a video or sound recording no more than three minutes in length setting out your skills and experience.
• An anonymous equal opportunities monitoring form (which will be kept separate from your submission)

Due to the volume of applications we cannot offer individual feedback on submissions.

FAQ

Q: Can I enter if I live abroad?

A: Unfortunately, this opportunity is for UK based artists.

Q: What do you mean by experimental work?

A: We want to encourage submissions of photography in the widest sense. We’d love all different kinds of responses and don’t want to limit any ideas.

Q: Do you have to have a finished idea to be able to submit?

A:No, we’re looking for your ideas and where you’d like to take them over the course of 12 months. It’s a rough idea of your intentions as we know things will start to change as you make the work.

Q:Can I apply if I’m studying for an MA or PHD?

A:Unfortunately, we aren’t offering the opportunity to students. We’re looking to encourage artists outside of education the chance for creative feedback and support.

Q: Can I apply as a collective?

A: The bursary is in place to encourage creative freedom and support your practice over this 12 month period. If you feel the money can achieve this for your collective, you’re welcome to apply.

Q: Is the bursary restricted in how I use it?

A: No, the bursary is an opportunity to free up your time to develop your practice and create new work.

Q: Can I use the bursary to make a book?

A: The work created will be exhibited in 2020, so as the project evolves the format of that could change. While the work should still center around an exhibition, a book could be a part of this.

For more from Jerwood/Photoworks Awards previous editions, click here.