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Photolucida, Fotofestiwal Lodz Partner On 'Top 50' Contest
15 July 2015
The photographic biennial Photolucida has announced it will partner with Poland's Fotofestiwal Lodz to present Critical Mass 2016: Top 50, a competition for emerging photographic talent. Work by the top 50 finalists will be selected and organized for exhibition by Alison Nordström, Fotofestiwal's artistic director.
Critical Mass is "a program about exposure and community," said Photolucida Director Laura Moya. "We are delighted to bring this work to Central Europe and this most exciting festival."
The 15th Annual FotoFestiwal Lodz 2016 will be held from June 9 to 19, 2016. It is one of the most important photographic events in Central Europe featuring exhibitions, programs, projections and portfolio review under the direction of two key members of the event, Festival Director Krzysztof Candrowicz and Nordström.
"Lodz is unique among photographic festivals for its emphasis on bringing people together to share their love of photography. Our public response is growing in positive numbers each year. People are more and more interested in the world of photography and with such a universal subject we expect to break another audience-record in 2016," said Candrowicz.
"The festival set a high bar for artistic quality and the fun and excitement of an international gathering, but we are confident that 2016 will take us to yet another level," Nordström added.
For more information see the news release below.
Photographic Institutions Announce International Collaboration
PORTLAND, Ore. and LODZ, Poland -- Photolucida, the Portland-based photographic biennial, has announced it will partner with Poland's Fotofestiwal Lodz to present Critical Mass 2016: Top 50, a competition for emerging photographic talent. Work by the top 50 finalists will be selected and organized for exhibition by Alison Nordström, Fotofestiwal's artistic director. "Top 50" artists will take part in a roundtable discussion during the event.
Critical Mass is an annual opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists to connect with curators, gallerists and collectors through a process of jurying that puts the work in front of the top people in the field. "It's a program about exposure and community," said Photolucida Director Laura Moya. "We are delighted to bring this work to Central Europe and this most exciting festival."
The 15th Annual FotoFestiwal Lodz 2016 will run from June 9 to 19, 2016. It is one of the most important photographic events in Central Europe featuring exhibitions, programs, projections and portfolio review under the direction of two key members of the event, Festival Director Krzysztof Candrowicz and Nordström.
"Lodz is unique among photographic festivals for its emphasis on bringing people together to share their love of photography. Our public response is growing in positive numbers each year. People are more and more interested in the world of photography and with such a universal subject we expect to break another audience-record in 2016," said Candrowicz.
The 2016 program will include an exhibition of "Soviet-American Array" by Robert Rauschenberg curated by Nordström "Hit the Road" an exhibition related to the theme "Photographers Travel," and the annual Grand Prix exhibition of work submitted directly to the festival's competition. It will also feature public programs, portfolio review, nighttime projections and informal gatherings that fill the historic streets of Lodz.
Photolucida
Photolucida is an arts nonprofit based in Portland, Ore. whose mission is to provide platforms that expand, inspire, educate and connect the regional, national and international photography community. Critical Mass is an annual online program that makes connections within the photography community.
Photographers at any level, from anywhere in the world, submit a portfolio of 10 images. Through a pre-screening process, the field is narrowed to a group of 200 finalists who go on to have their work viewed and voted on by over 200 esteemed international photography professionals. From the finalist group, the Top 50 are named and a series of awards are given, including at least one monograph each year. Photolucida publishes and distributes the award winner's publication, giving copies of the books to all participating photographers and jurors.
Fotofestiwal Lodz
This year's Lodz International Festival of Photography, Fotofestiwal Lodz, ran from May 28 to June 27 and came to its most successful end to date this year with talks by world-renowned artists Christopher Rauschenberg, Simon Norfolk and Carl de Keyzer and curators W.M. Hunt, Christina Capetillo and Alison Nordström, as well as portfolio reviews and exhibitions at the festival's center and Lodz-based galleries.
A special feature was the showing of works from the 10 finalists from the annual Grand Prix competition, selected from a wide field by a distinguished international jury. The Grand Prix was awarded to Patrick Willocq, a French national who grew up in DR Congo and is now based between Paris, Hong Kong and Kinshasha.
"The festival set a high bar for artistic quality and the fun and excitement of an international gathering, but we are confident that 2016 will take us to yet another level," Nordström said.
Lodz is the third largest city in Poland and is known for its vibrant cultural life, its festivals and the creative re-use of its massive complexes of industrial architecture. The Fotofestiwal, an annual event since 2001, attracts over 20,000 international visitors annually to dozens of exhibitions held in the old factories, tenement buildings and villas of Lodz. The main exhibitions are developed for the Lodz Art Center, also known as the Arts Inkubator and feature world renowned artists in photography and video, as well as lectures, discussions, portfolio reviews and informal meals and parties where artists, curators, collectors and casual fans can meet and mingle.
Candrowicz, Nordström
Krzysztof Candrowicz is a widely recognized arts administrator, based in Lodz Poland and Hamburg, Germany, He was the founder of the Lodz Arts Center and the Founding Director (2001 to the present) of Fotofestiwal Lodz, one of the largest visual arts events in Central Europe. He holds a B.S in Sociology of Art from the University of Lodz and studied Economics at Macedonian University in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2008 he was recognized as Lodz Citizen of the Year and in 2011 he was identified as the one of 40 young European Leaders by the 40 UNDER 40 Project run by EuropaNova and Friends of Europe with the cooperation of the European Commission. In he served as Director of the Hamburg Photographic Triennial.
Alison Nordström is an independent writer and curator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Formerly Founding Director and Senior Curator of the Southeast Museum of Photography and Senior Curator of Photographs/Director of Exhibitions at George Eastman House, she has worked extensively in both 20th century documentary photography and contemporary photographic art as well as historical photography of all kinds. She is the author of over 100 published essays on photographic topics and has curated over 100 photographic exhibitions in nine countries. She holds the PhD in Cultural and Visual Studies.