Picfair is seeking a fresh generation of female photographers to share their perspectives on the world. The competition is open for entries from 26 October till 26 November 2017 and women of all nationalities and levels of experience are encouraged to enter. An esteemed panel of judges from across the industry will shortlist competition entries in four categories: Nature, Portrait, Architecture and Street Level.  All winners and shortlisted photographers will have their work shown as part of Women Behind the Lens exhibition at the Guardian Media and News Gallery from 11 December to January 2018. 

Picfair Press Release

Picfair: Women Behind the Lens Photography Competition

Entries open from 26 October to 26 November 2017

www.picfair.com
www.picfair.com/women-behind-the-lens

London, Thursday 26 October 2017:  Picfair, the revolutionary new image library, is seeking a fresh generation of female photographers to share their perspectives on the world.  

An international competition Picfair: Women Behind the Lens will celebrate the work of women photographers of all levels and promote their images to a worldwide audience of buyers.  Entries are welcomed across four categories: Nature, Portrait, Architecture and Street Level.

Picfair has created a new model for image licensing, where anyone can license an image from anyone, connecting buyers and sellers directly and rewarding creativity fairly.  Its library is a unique combination of award-winning professionals and talented amateurs where millions of images are uploaded by thousands of photographers from across the globe.

As part of its core purpose, Picfair wants to redress the current gender imbalance across the photographic industries, providing a platform for under-represented female viewpoints and providing more interesting, authentic and representative stock photography for use in publishing, marketing and advertising.

Women photographers are insufficiently represented within the photographic industries.  Whilst the gender balance within university courses and fine art photography is much more even, within the commercial & professional landscape, there is still a huge disparity between the practicing number of men and women. Just 2% of photographers on the books at major commercial agencies are women*. Only 5% of the images used by leading photography publishers are from the lenses of female photographers*.  For every woman ambassador working for the major camera brands, there are 6 men **.

Benji Lanyado, founder of Picfair comments:  “Picfair was formed to make stock photography fairer, and more representative. By opening our doors to every type of photographer, from every type of background, we believe we can give image buyers more authentic, lesser-seen perspectives of the world. But, frustratingly, we suffer from the same gender disparity. Among our 28,000 photographers from across the globe, women are a clear minority. It’s troubled us since we launched. In launching the Women Behind The Lens competition, we hope to start addressing this disparity, while showcasing the exceptional quality of female photography across the world.”

The competition is open for entries from 26 October till 26 November 2017 and women of all nationalities and levels of experience are encouraged to enter. Once digital submissions are uploaded at www.picfair.com entrants work will be available to licence via the Picfair platform.  As with every image uploaded to Picfair, full copyright will remain with the photographers, and entrants will be in full control of the fees they require should one of their customers wish to license their work. Unlike the large agencies who take 74% of royalties away from the photographers, Picfair allows photographer to choose their own license prices, and add only 20% on top.

An esteemed panel of judges from across the industry will shortlist competition entries in four categories: Nature, Portrait, Architecture and Street Level.  All winners and shortlisted photographers will have their work shown as part of Women Behind the Lens exhibition at the Guardian Media and News Gallery from 11 December to January 2018.

Picfair: Women Behind the Lens competition comprises of four categories:

Nature

The natural world is a place of inspiration. Whether it’s celebrating the majesty of wild landscapes, or focusing on the impact humans have had on the world around us, the relationship between nature and photography is more critical now than ever before.

Portrait

Capturing the essence of character is one of photography’s greatest challenges, but when you get it right, you can create some of the most arresting images in the genre. Share those shots where you meet someone’s eye and can’t look away.

Architecture

We know the statistics that the majority of the world’s population now live in cities, but for every negative consequence there’s a positive one too. Whether for good or ill, cities are here to stay and photographers are here to document them in all their complexity.

Street Level

There’s a special dynamic that happens at street level. It’s a place of unexpected encounters, serendipitous events and where the boundary between indoors and outdoors blurs. From high fashion to high drama, photography has always had a home on the street.  

Five photographers will be shortlisted for each category, with an overall winner for each category selected from these five. The shortlisted photographers will be announced on 4 December followed by the winners’ announcement on 11 December.

www.picfair.com www.picfair.com/women-behind-the-lens

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