May 4th, 2008 Silversalts08 Call for Submissions

We are pleased to announce the call for submissions to the 2008 edition of Silversalts.

* UPDATE: We have moved the deadline forward to August 15, 2008, to give more photographers the chance to submit work done during the summer! We have also added cash prizes. See this announcement for more details.

What is Silversalts08? We are publishing a 9″ x 12″ coffee-table book of the 100 best college-student black-and-white photographs submitted to us. This annual book is designed to preserve and promote traditional wet-process photography as the digital age begins to dominate the landscape.

We invite you to submit your best five prints — the ones that you loved, that were most liked in critiques or student shows, or the work you did outside of class that beats everything else in your portfolio. Subject matter is completely open, as is technique, processing, and presentation. You can send any size print up to 11×14 (8×10 is our preferred size), mounted or unmounted (unmounted is easiest for us). The only stipulations are:

1. The piece must have been made completely with traditional techniques, with no digital or mechanical manipulations
2. You must be a college-level student (or 2008 graduate)

You do not have to be in a photography class to participate, although we expect most of the submissions will come from art departments.

From all entries received, we will select the best 100 photographs for publication (and if response is overwhelming, we may go higher than 100). High-quality prints of all subject matter and genres will, hopefully, be represented. Naturally, well-printed work is important, but in selecting the best images we will consider work that might demonstrate a less-than-expert level of darkroom technique if it has other sufficiently intriguing merits.

If you submit your work for consideration, you will receive a copy of the finished book whether you are selected or not. We hope to include an index of all participants in the back of the book and on this Web site, so your participation will generate some free promotion. We are also finalizing ideas for providing Web space on the site for all participants to post their work.

The deadline is June 14, so don’t wait to prepare your photos for publication. Download the submission form (150K PDF, opens in a new window).

If you have questions after reading this post and the full text of the entry form, please post a comment below so all can benefit from the answer. Thanks!

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