01. CONTEST

The cultural association dotART, based in Trieste, Italy, is organising the 11^th edition of URBAN Photo Awards contest.

02. THEMES AND SECTIONS

The contest is open to everybody and organised into three sections [see guidelines]:

• Single Photos
• Projects & Portfolios
• URBAN Book Award (new!)

Contestants can participate in more than one section at the same time. The general theme of the contest is Urban Life: Urban Photography. The theme delves into modernity through all kinds of photography set in the fabric of the city. At the heart of the contest is the City, the urban environment and the humanity living there: the everyday life of big cities and small towns, the contrasts and the contradictions between the city and the countryside, the aesthetic views, the architectural geometries, fragments of colour breaking up the greyness of the city. Real, immediate images, able to recount the City and its stories.

» SECTION #1 » SINGLE PHOTOS

This section is dedicated to single photos, which have to fall within one of the following thematic areas:

• Each contestant can submit as many photos as they please, with no number limits per thematic area.
• While uploading the photos, contestants will have to assign each photo to one of the four thematic areas , in order to classify their work more clearly.
• Contestants can compete in more than one thematic area with the same photo (see Article 3 for inscription fees).
• Both colour and black-and-white photos are allowed.
• Post-production and slight photo-editing are allowed.
• Heavy post-production and photo-editing are only allowed when explicitly specified.
• Photos with signatures, filigrees, frames or visible marks will not be accepted.
• Photos deemed offensive according to the sensibility and the unappealable decision of the jury will not be accepted.
• The winner will be selected and awarded by the President of the jury Alex Webb.

» New Buildings – Matrix4design Prize
Photos representing some of the symbols of architecture that have helped change the look of the city over the past ten years. If you wish to enter the competition, you will only have to add the tag New Buildings (Matrix4design prize) to the Single Photos running in the category SPACES. Pictures will be judged by Matrix4design editor Andrea Boni  and by the photographer Federica Nardese, who will select a short list of the best photos and the absolute winner. Please add in the title the building’s name, the architect (if you know him/her) and the city.

» SECTION #2 » PROJECTS & PORTFOLIOS

Contestants can submit sets of photos, linked to each other by a common trait. The sets can be in the form of photographic projects, thematic portfolios, reportages and storyboards (sequences of images telling a story).

Guidelines for Projects & Portfolios:

• Projects will have to contain from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 12 photos. Post-production and photo-editing are allowed.
• Authors will have to write a brief description of their projects in English (Google Translate can be used as a support), to be uploaded with the photos.
• Each contestant can submit as many portfolios as they please.
• Both colour and black-and-white photos are allowed.
• Post-production and photo-editing are allowed at the discretion of the author.
• Photos with signatures, filigrees, frames or visible marks will not be accepted.
• Photos deemed offensive according to the sensibility and the unappealable decision of the jury will not be accepted.
• The winner will be selected and awarded by Rebecca Norris Webb.

» SECTION #3 » URBAN BOOK AWARD

URBAN Book Award is a new section, dedicated to extended projects, inspired by the theme Urban Life: Urban Photography. Authors can here compete with drafts of their own photographic books, in pdf format. The goal is to give the winning photographer the possibility to produce and promote their own authorial project internationally. It will be published as a paper book by dotART / URBAN and officially presented during the festival Trieste Photo Days 2020.
The new section URBAN Book Award is designed for photographers that feel the limit of 12 photos set for the Projects & Portfolio section as a restraint, and would like to submit extended projects (or larger versions of the same projects already competing in the Projects & Portfolio section).

Guidelines for URBAN Book Award:

• Contestants will have to upload a so-called dummy, a draft of the book in pdf format, with a clear structure, even if not well-finished or ready to be printed yet.
• If a pdf format cannot be provided, single photos can be submitted, as far as they are renamed in sequence and gathered in a single zip folder.
• Maximum of 128 pages.
• Contestants can submit up to 3 books each.
• Maximum size of the pdf or zip folder: 100 MB.
• The suggested paper sizes are: A4 (21 x 29.7 cm, vertical or horizontal) or square (22 x 22 cm). If the winning book is of a different size, dotART reserves the right to adapt it to the ones mentioned before.
• Authors are free to create the layout of the book as they please, to employ text and to choose the photographic style they prefer.
• The winner will receive a publishing offer, with a regular publishing contract.
• The staff of the contest will ask the selected author to provide high-resolution versions of the photos composing the book.
• The book will be realized and published by the end of September 2020, in limited deluxe edition. It will also be promoted through dotART networks (Urban Photo Awards and Trieste Photo Days).
  
• The winner will be selected and awarded by Nick Turpin.

03. ENTERING

The contest will start on March 1, 2020, and will end at midnight on May 31, 2020 June 14th, 2020 CET (NEW DEADLINE!).

NEW! Starting from Friday, May 1st it will be possible to submit 1 photo for FREE to URBAN 2020. The promotion is valid for everyone: photographers who are already participating can add 1 photo without additional registration fees, while others photographer can submit their first photo for free. Just flag “Free photo” next to the image in the User Area. The promotion expires on May 31st, 2020.

To enter the contest, you will just have to fill in the online form in the User Area, to upload files and pay the submission fee. Users already registered in 2019 can log in with the same data.
In the User Area you can upload, check, add or delete your photos and/or Projects & Portfolios / Books, modify the titles and descriptions and manage the payment.

04. JURY

Entries will be selected by dotART and presented anonymously to a prestigious jury, chaired by an illustrious committee featuring:

• Alex Webb (President of the jury, who will personally select the winner for the section Single Photos)
• Rebecca Norris Webb (who will select the winner for the section Projects & Portfolios);
• Nick Turpin (who will select the winner for the section URBAN Book Award).

The other members of the jury will be soon defined.
The jury and dotART have the right to award more than one photo realised by the same author and to assign it to a different section if necessary. The decisions made by the jury are final.

05. TIMELINE

1 March – 14 June 2020
Registration open for Single Photos, Projects & Portfolios, Books

By the end of June 2020
The names of the Selected Photographers will be published on the website in alphabetical order (not ranked). The photographers will have the chance to participate in summer exhibitions and previews as well.

By the middle of July 2020
The names of the Semi-finalist Photographers will be published on the website in alphabetical order (not ranked): around 100 single photos, 50 projects & portfolios and 20 Book Award volumes will be selected.

By the end of July 2020
The names of the Finalist Photographers will be published on the website in alphabetical order (not ranked): around 40 single photos, 20 projects & portfolios and 5 Book Award volumes will be selected.

By the middle of September 2020
The names of the Winner Photographs will be published on the website in alphabetical order (not ranked): around 12 single photos, 3 projects & portfolios and 1 Book Award volume (in this case, the winner).

Saturday 24 October 2020
The final ranking will be announced during Trieste Photo Days festival. The final ranking will then be published on URBAN website and Facebook page.

06. PRIZES AND RANKING

The total prize value is € 16.000. Prizes are divided as follows:

» SECTION #1 » SINGLE PHOTOS

Remarkable Rewards

Remarkable Rewards are requested by the jury. The prizes include:

• Collective exhibition at Trieste Photo Day 2020 displaying the works of all the winners
• 1 Stroppa strap (€ 33 value)
• Medal

» SECTION #2 » PROJECTS & PORTFOLIOS

» SECTION #3 » URBAN Book Award

• Production and publication of the book;
• An invitation as guest of honour to Trieste Photo Days 2020, including a 3-nights stay for two, in order to attend the award ceremony (€ 270 value *)
• 1 Stroppa strap (€ 33 value)
• 1 Think Tank Photo PhotoCross™ 13 backpack (€ 130 value)
• 1 Think Tank Photo Secure Pixel Pocket Rocket™ memory card wallet (€ 22 value)
• Medal

» URBAN 2020 BEST AUTHOR

The photographer who will rank among the best in several sections, thematic areas and/or categories, giving proof of its clear, definite style, will be declared URBAN 2020 Best Author. The prizes include:

• Amazon Gift Card: € 500
• An invitation as guest of honour to Trieste Photo Days 2020, including a two-night stay for two, in order to attend the award ceremony (€ 180 value *)
• An invitation to a gala dinner with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb
• Collective exhibition at Trieste Photo Day 2020 displaying the works of all the winners
• Publication, both online and in a photographic book
• 1 Think Tank Photo PhotoCross™ 13 backpack (€ 130 value)
• 1 Stroppa strap (€ 33 value)
• Medal

* the invitation is valid only on October 23 and 24, 2020, for those who attend the prize-giving ceremony during the festival. Prize cannot be combined or redeemed otherwiseis.

07. PRIZES OFFERED BY OUR PARTNERS

» Exhibition in Poreč Museum, Croatia (€ 1.500 value)
3 ranked projects from the “Projects & Portfolios” section – selected directly by the curators of the museum – will be displayed in Zavičajni muzej Poreštine, in Porec, Istria (Croatia), from July 24 to August 30, 2020 (tourist peak averaging 120,000 people in the summer time). Moreover, the Museum will release an official certificate of exhibition. One selected author will also be awarded with a free 2 nights stay in Trieste to attend URBAN’s Award Ceremony at Trieste Photo Days 2020 festival.

» Exhibition in “Sartorio” Museum, Trieste, Italy (€ 2.000 value)
4 Semifinalists projects will be selected by a special jury and exhibited in October 2020 at the prestigious Civic Museum “Sartorio” of Trieste, during Trieste Photo Days festival. 1 Selected author will also be awarded with a free 2 nights stay in Trieste to attend URBAN’s Award Ceremony at Trieste Photo Days 2020 festival.

» Free scholarship in Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design (€ 1.500 value)
The Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design, Poland (Krakowskie Szkoły Artystyczne) will offer the URBAN 2020 winner a six-month scholarship to attend the Photography School in English during 2020/2021 school year. The Winner, if unable to attend the course, is free to transfer the scholarship to a third party. Whenever the Winner will renounce the prize, the scholarship will go to the best-ranked author after him/her.

» Stroppa Prize
Our technical partner Stroppa will offer 50 of its straps, one for each Finalist Photographer (€ 33 value each).

08. PRIZES: WINNERS EXHIBIT AND AWARD CEREMONY

The highest placing works with be published on the competition’s website and will be displayed in a collective exhibit on October 2020, in Trieste during Trieste Photo Days 2020 festival. The printing of the photos will be the responsibility of dotART. Some of the entered photos may in addition be selected for exhibits in Italy and abroad.

09. PRIZES: PUBLICATION

» URBAN website
A large selection of the ranked pictures will be published on the gallery page of this website.

» “URBAN unveils the City and its secrets – Vol. 06” photo book
The highest placing works will be admitted to the selection to realize the sixth edition of Urban unveils the City and its secrets. The photo book, edited in September, will be presented during Trieste Photo Days festival the last weekend of October, and distributed by Urban/dotART cultural association.

» Publication onmedia partner’s websites and magazines
TBA.

10. EXHIBIT / PREVIEWS

The best ranked pictures (usually, 30% of the Selected photos – see Art. 5) could be chosen for “travelling” exhibitions around the world in the context of dotART’s events (Trieste Photo Fringe / Photo Days Tour).

11. PAYMENT

You can pay in the User Area. We accept these payment methods:

• PayPal to paypal@dotart.it or www.paypal.me/dotart.
• Bank transfer to dotART – IBAN IT43F0306909606100000010209 / BIC/SWIFT Code: BCITITMM (please add text: “Urban 2020”. IMPORTANT: include the email used in the upload form);
• Payment by hand at dotART, Via S. Francesco 6 – 2nd floor, Trieste, by appointment (info@dotart.it or Tel. 040 3720617)

If you wish to pay by bank transfer you can make a single payment specifying “Contribution to Urban Photo Contest 2020 + section1 + Name + Email”.

12. COPYRIGHT

Each photographer maintains moral and intellectual property rights on their submitted works. Each author grants the dotART association the non-exclusive right to use the winning / selected images to promote / advertise the association’s non-profit activities, subject to official communication to the author (whose name will always be attributed to the work).

13. ACCEPTANCE OF THE RULES / MODEL RELEASE

By entering the competition, the Author accepts the present rules and declares that he/she is the owner of the intellectual property rights and of the rights of use of the submitted image and of any necessary release notes. Documentation of rights ownership must be presented to dotART upon request.

14. RIGHT TO CANCEL OR TO SUSPEND THE COMPETITION

If for any reason the Competition cannot be run as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, trojan horses, denial of service attacks, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other cause that corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Competition, dotART reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) seen to have tampered with the entry process and/or to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Competition. If dotART elects to cancel or terminate the Competition, it will not retain any rights to the submitted photographs and it will return all entry fees.
dotART is not responsible for the cancellation or modification of the prizes offered by the partners.