Imprint: An Open Competition for Photographers

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The ‘Photography’ educational track of the HSE Art and Design School is launching an online magazine called Imprint. The magazine will focus on collecting, summarising, and making sense of information about modern photography in Russia. The school will support talented photographers and offer them a platform for creating, developing, and uniting.

Prior to the launch of the magazine, the school is holding an open competition for students of the Art and Design School and independent photographers. The best projects will receive information support, get published in the magazine, and have the opportunity to be printed and framed for subsequent sale at the HSE Art and Design Store.

Timeline

• February 19

  Submissions open

  March 18

  Submission deadline

  March 25

  Competition results

Diana Magomedova. Family Album

Requirements

The theme of the contest is ‘My Theme’—the organisers decided not to limit the creators to a narrow framework, but to give them freedom to talk about what they really care about. Projects and individual works alike are eligible for the competition, provided that they share a common theme. These can include personal stories, documentary projects that address external events, an extraordinary look at fashion photography, projects in which the authors work with their own or someone else's archive—a wide field of photography-related practices.

The optimal composition of the presentation includes the project title, a description of the idea and the concept, a series of pictures (10–12 works) or single works (up to 10 works) with a shared theme or the search for one. Participants can also attach links to their biography and portfolio.

Daria Kalnina. The Open World

Prizes

Each competition winner can have archive printing and frame design done for one work. The creators will be to sell their works at the ART AND DESIGN STORE.

• 1st place. Work size: 80×112 cm
• 2nd place. Work size: 70×98 cm
• 3rd place. Work size: 60×84 cm

The winner of the ‘Emerging Photographer’ special prize will be able to have posters printed and sell them at the HSE ART AND DESIGN STORE.

Works by shortlisted authors and interviews with the winners of four prizes will be published in Imprint magazine.

Jury

• Vladimir Levashov, curator of the Photography track, lecturer of the course on the history of photography at the HSE Art and Design School, art and photography critic, historian of photography, curator of Russian and international exhibitions of contemporary art, author of numerous publications on contemporary art and photography, member of the Moscow Union of Artists.
• Ksenia Plotnikova, supervisor of the Photography track at the HSE Art and Design School, photographer, author and presenter of educational photography programmes for teenagers at GES-2 and MMOMA.
• Evgenia Solomatina, coordinator of the Photography track at the HSE Art and Design School, photographer. Works with project photography. Graduated from the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia.
• Nadezhda Sheremetova, curator, researcher of photography, director of the ‘Photo Department’ and the online educational platform ‘Projection’, gallery owner of FotoDepartament.Gallery and curator of the festival of contemporary photography ‘Presence’. She has curated more than 120 group and personal exhibitions of Russian photographers, which were held as part of the Backlight 2011 festivals (Finland), ‘Fashion and Style in Photography’, ‘Photoparade in Uglich’, as well as at the Lumiere Brothers Photography Centre, Metenkov House, Krasnoyarsk Art Museum, Sevcable Port space and on other sites. As an expert, she participates in portfolio reviews of international festivals, including Photofestival in Łódź, Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Photobookfest Moscow, Plat(t)form. Organiser of international online portfolio reviews with curators from France and Switzerland in 2022–23.
• Larisa Grinberg is an independent curator and invited expert. She started as an invited co-curator of the Interfoto International Photo Festival and then opened of a photo gallery at Vinzavod. From 2007–2013, she worked as art director and gallery owner of the photo gallery ‘Greenberg’ / ‘Photographer.ru’, co-owner of the ‘Photographer.ru’ photoagency.
• Dmitry Lukyanov is a photographer, director, and photography teacher. Dmitry's works have been exhibited in Russia and Europe, and he has participated in national and international festivals and received prestigious awards at competitions. In 2015, he graduated from the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. In 2020, he graduated from the Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov School of Documentary Film and Theatre. Dmitry's debut documentary ‘Cells’ won the main prize of the Message to Man International Film Festival and the main prize of the Flahertiana International documentary film Festival in the Russian competition.
• Kristina Sergeeva is an artist, photographer, and curator from St Petersburg, Russia. In 2019, she graduated from the FOTOGRAFIKA Academy of Documentary and Art Photography. From 2020 to 2021, she worked as a photo editor at Grandmama’s Print. In 2022, she became one of the founders of the NIZINA project, which organises annual book festivals and educational programmes.

Participate in the competition

The HSE Art and Design School of Design has a Photography track, which enables students to get bachelor's, master's, and continuing education degrees. The project-based approach to learning, opportunity to create a professional digital portfolio, expert teachers, and involvement in real creative industries help graduates receive international awards, find work in successful companies and studios, and become high-class professionals in the fields of design, fashion, contemporary art, photography, theatre, programming, game design, media, advertising, cinema, animation, sound art and visual effects.