Composition: Photography Now

Theme: Composition

Black Box Gallery is excited to announce a juried group photo show on composition. Composition is how a photographer arranges the visual elements within the frame. This is important for setting a strong visual foundation and creating creative and artistic images. Composition techniques are important to practice and focus on, such as: Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines, Selective Focus and Depth of Field, Point of View (Subject and Background), Cropping (In Camera and Post-Production), Shape and Form, Patterns and Textures, Balance and Movement, Filling the Frame (Abstraction), Low Perspective or High Perspective, Frame within a Frame, Negative Space, Juxtaposition of Subject, Foreground and Middle Ground and Background (Using Space/Depth and Subject), Lines (Horizontal and Vertical and Diagional). Composition is the path to great photography.

Juror: Todd Johnson

Todd Johnson is the founder and director of Black Box Gallery. Todd received his MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. He has been a photography portfolio reviewer for Photolucida (PDX OR), Critical Mass (PDX OR), Dodho Magazine (Barcelona, Spain) and Blue Sky Gallery (PDX OR). Todd has worked as an independent curator for exhibitions at Linfield College (McMinnville, OR), Gallery Homeland (PDX OR), Mile Post 5 (PDX OR), The Waiting Room Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), 4X Gallery (PDX OR) and The Gorilla Art Gallery (San Francisco, CA). He has worked in arts education and arts administration for 25 years.

Johnson has exhibited his photographic work in Portland OR, at The University of Oregon (White Box Gallery), Marylhurst University (The Art Gym), Pacific Northwest College of Art, Reed College, Linfield College, FalseFront Gallery and Augen Gallery. National exhibitions include Bushwick Open Studios (Brooklyn, NY), Carroll Square Gallery (Washington, DC), Hi Lo Gallery (Olympia, Washington), Davis and Cline Gallery (Ashland, Oregon), Midway Gallery (Bloomington, Illinois) and The Diego Rivera Gallery (San Francisco, California).

Deadline: December 9

Exhibition Dates: January 1-20, 2023

Each exhibition will have 24 photographs selected by the juror for exhibiton at the gallery.

An additional 30 photographs will be selected by the juror for exhibition in our on-line gallery annex.

All 54 photographs from the show will be included in a catalog available for purchase on Blurb Books.

Rules/Guidelines: Black Box will provide Free printing, Free matting and Free framing for all of our exhibitions. The photographers who are selected into the exhibition by the juror will provide a high resolution Tiff or JPEG file for our gallery to print.

We have 18” x 24” black frames. Our white mats are pre cut for 12” x 18”, 12” x 12” and 12” x 16” prints (we also have a few other odd sized matts). We print on an Epson Stylus Pro archival ink jet printer, on Epson Premium Luster Photo paper, in a color-calibrated environment. This is a very accurate custom print, just like a custom lab would print, we have over 25 years of custom printing experience.

All exhibition prints will be kept in a flat file after the show for future sale and promotion for the photographer. This will allow the gallery to further promote our photographers and exhibitions to collectors, curators, critics and to the general public. Black Box will shred all gallery prints after 5 years of exhibition in the flat files.

File agreement for accepted photographers: Black Box will only print one exhibition print. If there is a sale inquiry, the photographer will be notified before a sale is confirmed, edition information will be discussed with photographer, the photographer will be sent a authentication document to be signed and go with the print to the collector. No sale or printing of file will happen without prior consent and agreement of photographer. All rights remain to the file and print with the photographer, to be used only with their prior consent. Exhibition print will not be sold, but used in our flatfile at Black Box Gallery only to promote the photographers work.

Black Box Gallery takes a 50% commission on all sales, 50% goes to the photographer. If artist prefers the print does not have to be for sale. Print will be for exhibition and promotion only.

Notification: All photographers will be notified 7-10 days after the deadline about juror selections.

Entry Fee: $40 per entry (an entry includes up to 5 photos). Use Pay Pal to pay the entry fee.

How to apply: Send in the entry fee and then send an email to: info.blackboxgallery@gmail.com

Title the email: Composition: Photography Now

In the body of the email please include the following info:

Your Name
Exhibition Name
Titles of Included Photos with corresponding file name
Attach up to 5 photos, as instructed below

File Set Up: Jpeg files, 1024 pixels on the longest side at 72 DPI, 3MB or less each (saved).

Name Files: firstname_lastname1.jpg, firstname_lastname2.jpg, firstname_lastname3.jpg, etc…

Eligibility: The exhibition is open to all photographers world wide, both amateur and professional.