Contest and Open Gallery Call to Bring Focused Attention to Mobile Photography & Art

TORONTO, ON – September 19, 2011 — The Mobile Photo Awards inc. today announced a competition designed to celebrate the explosive growth of cell-phone photography and art. The photo contest is also an open call for a traveling gallery exhibit featuring the winners of 25 categories.

The exhibit will visit a minimum of three prominent galleries in North America including a month long engagement at San Francisco’s prestigious ArtHaus gallery in April of 2012. Submissions will be accepted from September 24 through November 30, 2011. To enter, photographers must first shoot and process their images on any mobile phone and upload their photos at www.mobilephotoawards.com.  Submission fees are $20 for 3 images and $30 for 5. The first 100 entrants will be able to choose a free iPhone photo app from a list of a dozen of the most popular photo apps used today including MacPhun’s FX Photo Studio. One lucky winner will receive a grand prize of a $500 Apple Store gift card while winners in all 25 categories will receive pro memberships and an online portfolio courtesy of the popular photo sharing site 500px.com. In addition, MacPhun will be giving away versions of their desktop photo editing software to 20 winners and all category winners will receive a $50 iTunes gift card, a 12×16 archival fine art print via Fotomoto, and inclusion on the gallery tour.

“Thanks to the advancements in lenses and image sensors for mobile phones, and the eco-system of developers who have created photo processing applications, the creativity of mobile photography knows no bounds,” said Daniel Berman, founder of the Mobile Photo Awards and a noted mobile photographer known as Reservoir_Dan. “With this competition and open gallery call we now give mobile photographers and artists the chance to take that creativity even further and show the art world and public just how inspiring these images can be. We’re excited to share the unique opportunity and exposure that this contest will give to the participants.”

Entries will be judged based on originality, creativity, and adherence to the contest theme. The jury is comprised of 15 of today’s most celebrated mobile photographers.  Says Berman, “…I’ve seen other mobile photo contests where the judges are listed heroically as “real” photographers.  The truth is that the most creative and honored mobile photographers understand that the medium is somewhat different than traditional photography.  One must work within the limitations of the tool to achieve images that transcend the medium.  Those who understand those limitations are the ones whose work is consistently celebrated, put on exhibit and published in newspapers and magazines.  Our jury is comprised of folks who work the medium everyday, who participate in the beta-testing of apps, who promote the art-form tirelessly with lectures, presentations, books and articles. These are some of the real mobile photographers and they are the ones best suited to judge the images.” The jury includes such widely published and award winning mobile photographers as Sion Fullana, Aik Beng Chia, Robert-Paul Jansen, Jennifer Bracewell and Carlein van der Beek. For a complete list of the jury please visit www.mobilephotoawards.com

Each photo entered may be tagged in up to three categories. The categories for the competition include such traditional photographic genres as Landscapes, Self-Portraits, and Street Photography as well as uniquely modern areas such as Digital Art and software enhanced Abstractions.

A shortlist of category winners will be announced in Mid-November and the grand prize winner the first week of December.

For more information please contact Daniel Berman at dan@mobilephotoawards.com or Jennifer Bracewell at jen@mobilephotoawards.com

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UPDATED 10.10.11 @ 11:00 PDT: Updated to reflect submission dates change.