Expand and Contract 2025: AI and Alternative Processes
Open Call Virtual Exhibition
- Deadline: 17 April 2025
- Entry fee: $25 for 1 image ($18.75 for LACP Members)
- Website: https://lacphoto.org/exhibition/expand-and-contract-2025/
This call invites submissions that consider AI technologies as the most recent addition to the world of alternative processes, and works that explore the connections between AI, camerawork, analogue technologies and visual storytelling, whether while capturing images or printing them. The selected works will be featured in a virtual exhibition on LACP’s website, and selected works will be featured in an in-person exhibition that will open at our DTLA gallery on June 11, 2025.
Technological developments hasten pronouncements regarding the death of photography every few decades, with the most recent trigger being digital innovations, such as digital cameras and image editing software. And yet, photography persists. In fact, it continues to re-define how we engage with one another, imagine ourselves and our position in the world. Most recently, AI caused an uproar among visual practitioners, as machines have been trained to create images using images produced by humans who were not paid for services unknowingly provided. Moreover, AI seems to pose a threat to human agency.
From a creative standpoint, this exhibition considers such conflicts and wonders whether AI is another tool that will expand alternative means to create images, or another step toward the end of photographic creativity as we know it.
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. Top 3 Winners will also be invited to show their work in our in-person show!
Honorable Mentions: Other artists will receive honorable mentions and have their work shown in our online gallery + up to 3 will be invited to show their work in our in-person show!
Eligibility:
The exhibition is open internationally to photographers of all levels. The juror will select images based on creativity, originality, and quality. LACP invites photographers working in all mediums and styles to take part in the exhibition. We do not accept images and texts created by AI for this open call.
Copyrights & Usage Rights:
All works accepted for exhibition must be presentation ready, if a print: printed and framed professionally, wired on the back with eyelets, and labeled on the back of the frame with your name, image title, and contact information (email and phone). Please mount wire and eyelets a third of the way down the from the top of the frame. There are no specifications on printing and/or framing. Similar requirements for sculptural pieces. Further, there are no size restrictions (but keep shipping in mind). Exhibiting artists will be expected to either drop off their work or pay for round-trip shipping of their work. You will be required to send us a prepaid express mail label for the return of your artwork. We take no responsibility for damage during shipping, so we suggest that your insure the work during mailing.