Into Your Eyes: Photographic Portraiture in the Digital Era
1st Place winner will receive $1,000
- Deadline: 7 October 2025
- Entry fee: $25 for 1 image
- Website: https://losangelescenterofphotography.submittable.com/submit/335121/into-your-eyes-photographic-portraiture-in-the-digital-era
This juried open call invites submissions of photographic portraits, to be shown in a virtual exhibition organized by LACP.
The term portrait is used here broadly, referencing images of groups, single humans and non-human beings. The image could be an expression of an emotion, a conceptual meditation on loved experience, or a documentarian effort.
As we collectively experience the alienation, isolation and loneliness brought about by our current digital era, portraits seem more pressing and relevant than ever. To look at one’s eyes in an image feels like an immediate invitation to connect, to explore, to be curious about others, to wonder about what the image reveals and what it could never disclose. It’s an ongoing call for empathy, for a relationship with those we will probably never meet, whose lives we, the viewers, will never experience.
Emanuel Levinas wrote about the ethical values we reveal in the world by encountering one’s face. Roland Barthes was fascinated by portraits from the past, and the idea that he is looking at eyes that looked at the world’s greats, or that he is looking at a person no longer living. Photographic portraits shorten the distance between the past and present, between us and those around us, and might help us see beyond ourselves, beyond our time, beyond our experience in the world.
Prizes:
1st Place winner will receive $1,000; 2nd Place winner will receive a $500 LACP gift card; 3rd Place winner will receive $250 LACP gift card. Honorable Mentions: Other artists will receive honorable mentions and have their work shown with the winners in a in-person exhibition at LACP Headquarters opening on August 21st, 2025.
Eligibility:
The exhibition is open internationally to all levels. The juror will select works based on creativity, originality, and quality. LACP invites artists working in all mediums and styles with a relationship to photography to take part in the exhibition. If AI was used to generate any components of the submitted image(s) that should be indicated in the description of the concept and/or the format. The deadline to send digital files for consideration is Tuesday, October 7, 12:00 midnight, 2025.
Copyrights & Usage Rights:
Each photographer retains all copyrights to his or her images. Photographers whose submissions are chosen for the exhibition grant the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) the right to use their images for display on LACP’s website and for the purpose of promoting exhibitions, promoting LACP’s programs, and promoting the artist. Promotions and images may also be placed on social networks for LACP with artist credit. Artists grant the use of their image(s) as stated without further contact from LACP. The artist understands that LACP will not be held responsible for loss, theft or other damage, whether caused by the negligence of its officers, members, or others. Photographers are welcome to sell their photos during the online exhibit, with 50 percent commission to LACP. Submission of application will constitute an agreement to all these terms and conditions.