Regulations

Rules of PHODAR Biennial 13th Series Awards Competition

The present Rules describe the Terms and Conditions for entering the 13th international PHODAR Biennial Series Award Competition (hereinafter PHODAR Biennial).

PHODAR Biennial Series Award is promoted and managed by the PHODAR Foundation – a non-profit organization, registered under the laws of Republic of Bulgaria under No. 114134811 in the Bulgarian Commercial and Non-Profit Organizations Register. The official website of PHODAR Foundation is phodar.net

The 13th consecutive edition of the “Fodar” International Photo Festival Biennale is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the “Fodar” Foundation. Its theme is “Photographic Reality”. It was provoked by the increasingly rapid democratization and wide distribution of the photographic image. If 30 years ago photography was the most accessible technology for creating images and its fields of application expanded exponentially, becoming a leader in the field of visual arts, today practically everyone who has a mobile phone takes pictures. The development of social networks gives a new impetus to the creation and distribution of photographic images. It is no exaggeration to say that especially for the younger generations, the creation of digital images, online communication and life on the web is replacing the physical existence. The problem has many dimensions and ramifications, and the authors have a wealth of material for interpretations. Does virtual reality come into conflict with physical reality, or do they go together to new unsuspected horizons? And isn’t photographic reality a new language with its own rules, vocabulary, syntax? Where is and will be the place of artificial intelligence in this problem space? Of course, in addition to social, photographic reality also has its historical, informational and philosophical dimensions. This is the first topic that addresses so directly the problematic of the phenomenon of photography.

By submitting your entry on entry.phodar.net, you agree to all of the terms and conditions listed here.

General conditions

PHODAR Biennial Series Awards competition is open to both professional and amateur photographers over 18 years of age (or the age of majority in their respective country). There is no limitation regarding entrant’s country of origin and/or citizenship.

Prizes

Prize winners will be selected by a panel of independent judges and their decision is final.

The prizes shall be as specified on phodar.net. The prizes will be paid in USD. Any fees incurred by foreign currency transfers, if any, will be on the account of the entrant and will be deducted from the prize amount.

Each participant can participate with one series in one of the sections: ‘Grand prize’ or ‘Debut’. A ‘humanistic photography’ award will be presented to one author, regardless of the section in which he/she participated.

An author who is at the beginning of his creative journey and does not yet have serious achievements on the national and international scene can participate in ‘debut’.

Competition

To enter the competition, you must upload your Entry at entry.phodar.net following the on-screen instructions carefully. We need your full name, email address, country and the title of the uploaded series.

For the Entry, you can submit between 8 and 24 images with coherent overall look – photo essay, from an unfinished, ongoing or completed project. The photographs have to be created after 2023 when was the last edition of the PHODAR Biennial. No stock photography is allowed.

Please ensure that your entries are submitted as:

  • Online submission format: JPG or JPEG
  • Minimum 1000 pixels on the longest size (best 3000)
  • Maximum file size: 4MB
  • Number the files numerically in the order you want them presented.

Selected winners and participants can be asked to re-submit the originals in RAW, JPEG or TIFF format at 300 dpi. In case the artist is selected to participate and is included in the exhibition catalogue, we can request additional information about the series, year of capture, a portrait of the author and a professional CV.

The competition shall close for entries at the time and on the date specified on the website. The Promoter may extend the deadline without prior notification if needed.

Brief FAQ:

  1. Are multiple entries allowed? Each author can participate with only one collection.
  2. What type of work? Any genre if the series corresponds to the topic of the competition: Documentary, portraiture. conceptual etc.
  3. Can I submit less than 8 images? That wouldn’t be possible. Minimum images requirement is 8
  4. Do you accept collaborative collections? Yes, if you collaborate with another photographer/s you can submit jointly.

Judging conditions

Entries will be judged by competent jury. The members of the jury are selected for their experience and qualification in the field of contemporary arts and culture and are not permitted to enter and to submit their own entries in the competition.

Rights

We respect your intellectual property rights. Copyright of the images will remain at all times with the photographer. All entrants agree of the storage of their images in electronic form for the purpose of judging the competition and the private distribution of those images as required to complete the judging process. Finalist’s images as selected by the jury will be printed and mounted at the expense of the PHODAR Foundation, for display at the PHODAR Awards Exhibitions. Ownership of the prints remains with PHODAR Foundation. These may not be sold or published without the express written permission of the entrant but may be displayed in public to promote the competition and subsequent competitions.

The organizers have the right to reduce the number of photos in one series according to the conditions of the exhibition space.

Use of works

By entering the Award, you agree that any work you submit may be used by PHODAR Foundation (and our print and gallery partners) solely for purposes in connection with the Award or future Awards, and any successor website and no other purpose. These uses include:

  • Judging the competition
  • Displaying entries on our website and social media such as Facebook and Instagram, and those of our partners. While PHODAR Foundation guarantees that photographers will be fully credited when posting images on social media and through any of the other channels, PHODAR Foundation cannot guarantee that others who copy or re-post images will do the same;
  • Displaying the entries at gallery exhibitions
  • Using the entries on posters, postcards, adverts both online and offline to promote the Award
  • Cropping and re-sizing the work as necessary to fit pre-defined formats to promote the Award and any related exhibitions;
  • Sub-licensing the entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Award
  • Inclusion within any materials promoting the Award or any exhibition organized by PHODAR Foundation;
  • Displaying the entries in a book, magazine or exhibition catalogue, or similar;

By entering the competition, the photographer warrants that the work submitted is their own original work, that all personal details provided are accurate and complete and that the entrant has all necessary rights and authorities to grant the rights specified in these terms and conditions so that use of the images as described will not infringe the rights of any third party.

Personal data

All personal data is voluntary provided by a Participant and will be used by the Promotor solely for the purposes of administering the Competition or as otherwise set out/referred to in these Rules.

Any personal data provided by a Participant will remain confidential to the Promoter and will not be disclosed to any third party without the Participant’s prior consent, except that the Promoter reserves the right to use the information for the purposes of facilitating the Competition, as well as providing the Participant’s details to third parties (galleries, print houses and other relevant partners as mentioned in section Use of works) for the purposes of administering the Competition.

Liability

All Participants acknowledge and accept that the Promotor reserves the right to suspend, modify, cancel or terminate the Competition and/or revoke any Participant’s application upon noncompliance with the Rules at any time by giving notice to the particular Participant without incurring any liability.

The Promotor does not accept responsibility for Participant entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit, regardless of cause, including but not limited to, as a result of an equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind.

The Promotor reserves the right to amend these Rules at any time and will make the amended Rules available to the Participants.

The Promotor reserves the right to refuse participation, or refuse to award the prize, to anyone who is in breach of these Rules and its decision shall be absolute and final.

These Rules shall be governed by the laws of Republic of Bulgaria.