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Cover by © Tomaso Clavarino

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We are excited to announce the four authors selected as winners of the Open Call New Visions, organized in collaboration with LensCulture!

Catherine Panebianco with the project “No Memory is Ever Alone” and Federico Estol with “Shine Heroes” are the two artists who will be presented with individual exhibitions in Cortona at Cortona On The Move 2021.

Alexey Pavlov with “Time to be Together” and Cristiano Volk with “Laissez-faire” will see their works published on the LensCulture website in the course of 2021.

To all of them go our warmest congratulations!

Together with them, the works of the other six finalists – Gabriele Cecconi, Ingmar Björn Nolting, Giles Price, Max Sturgeon, Nicolò Panzeri & Mattia Micheli, Rubén Salgado Escudero – will be screened during the opening days of Cortona On The Move 2021.

NEW VISIONS

This free Open Call to submit extraordinary projects is promoted by the international visual narrative festival Cortona On The Move and LensCulture, in search of original and impactful projects from around the world.

We are looking for stories of striking humanity.

“We Are Humans” is the central theme of the 2021 edition of Cortona On The Move, a broad vision in which we are all protagonists, a collective story of us being human: between intimacy and public dimension, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

For this choral tale, a single alphabet is not enough, we are interested in new languages, new grammars, original narratives that can surprise, provoke, inform and excite. We are looking for stories that challenge the viewer’s eyes, innovative in form and content, providing a different view of contemporary humanity and its facets.

We seek projects that narrate the curiosity of human beings and their ability, our ability, to look at the world with different eyes, with new perspectives and new visions.

Humans Are New Visions.

in short

Start date for submissions: February 9 2021
Deadline: March 15 2021
Finalists announced: May 3 2021
Winners announced: May 14 2021
Category: Series (project)
Participation fee: free of charge
Number of images: min 8 – max 15

in short

Start date for submissions: February 9 2021
Deadline: March 15 2021
Finalists announced: May 3 2021
Winners announced: May 14 2021
Category: Series (project)
Participation fee: free of charge
Number of images: min 8 – max 15

NEW VISIONS

This free Open Call to submit extraordinary projects is promoted by the international visual narrative festival Cortona On The Move and LensCulture, in search of original and impactful projects from around the world.

We are looking for stories of striking humanity.

“We Are Humans” is the central theme of the 2021 edition of Cortona On The Move, a broad vision in which we are all protagonists, a collective story of us being human: between intimacy and public dimension, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

For this choral tale, a single alphabet is not enough, we are interested in new languages, new grammars, original narratives that can surprise, provoke, inform and excite. We are looking for stories that challenge the viewer’s eyes, innovative in form and content, providing a different view of contemporary humanity and its facets.

We seek projects that narrate the curiosity of human beings and their ability, our ability, to look at the world with different eyes, with new perspectives and new visions.

Humans Are New Visions.

Application process

Applications can be submitted from 9 February to 15 March 2021 according to the following criteria. The 10 finalists will be screened at Cortona On The Move 2021. Among them, two winners will have a solo exhibition at the festival and two will be published on the LensCulture website, thus becoming visible to the platform’s network of contacts.

We look forward to receiving your proposals!

Entries should include:

● 15 images maximum. Images should be in .JPEG or .PNG file format, with a minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side (but up to 2000 pixels is fine) and should not exceed 10 MB. Each image submitted must be matched by a high-resolution file of at least 10Mbps. These files will be required if your work is selected.

● A title

● A brief introduction to your proposal in English (a short introductory text about your work not exceeding 4000 characters, including spaces)

● A short biography in english (a brief description, not a Curriculum Vitae)

● “We Are Humans”, the central theme of Cortona On The Move 2021. The New Vision call does not have a specific theme, but it will be included in the context of the festival. In terms of the project you presented, what meaning do you attach to the term “Humans”? How would you complete this sentence with just one word: ‘Humans are…’?

You are invited to submit your proposals through the LensCulture platform, using the following link:

 

Selected Projects

The finalist projects will be announced and published on the COTM and LensCulture websites on 3 May 2021. These projects will be screened in Cortona during the awards evening event.

Among them:

● 2 projects will be presented as individual exhibitions at this forthcoming Cortona On The Move festival, from 15 July to 26 September 2021.
● 2 projects will be published on the LensCulture website during 2021.

The 4 selected works will be announced and published on the websites and social channels of COTM and LensCulture on 14 May 2021.

Selection Committee

A panel of industry experts will select the projects.

Jim Casper

Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder of LensCulture

Jim Casper is the editor-in-chief of LensCulture, one of the leading online destinations to discover contemporary photography from around the world. As an active member in the contemporary photography world, Casper travels around the world to meet with photographers and review their portfolios, curates art exhibitions, writes about photography and culture, lectures, conducts workshops, serves as an international juror and nominator for key awards, and is an advisor to arts and education organizations.

Arianna Rinaldo

Artistic Director of Cortona On The Move

Arianna Rinaldo is a freelance professional working with photography at a wide range. She is the artistic director of Cortona On The Move. For almost 10 years she was also the director of OjodePez magazine, the only documentary photography quarterly published in Spain. Arianna’s relationship with photography started in 1998 in New York, as Archive Director at Magnum Photos, and then as photo editor of Colors magazine In Italy. Based in Milan from 2004 to 2011, Arianna has been a freelance curator for exhibits and a photo consultant for various publications, among which 4 years at D, the weekend supplement of one of Italy’s main daily, La Repubblica. She is a regular participant in portfolio reviews and jury panels worldwide, as well as speaker and teacher.

Laura Sackett

Creative Director of LensCulture

Laura Sackett is Creative Director and co-founder of LensCulture, one of the leading online sites committed to discovering and promoting the best in global photography. She leads all aspects of design at LensCulture including brand, website, print, communications, exhibition design and video screenings. Besides leading the creative direction for LensCulture, she also co-curates the online galleries, the LensCulture exhibitions and is a frequent reviewer at Portfolio Reviews.

Antonio Carloni

Director of Cortona On The Move

Antonio Carloni, a proud native of Cortona, was born in the celebrated Tuscan hilltown in 1981. Based on a flash of inspiration at age 30, he ingenuously set out to develop an ambitious plan for creating an international photography festival in his home town, to be known as Cortona On The Move.
In 2011, together with a few friends, he founded Associazione Culturale ONTHEMOVE for the purpose of developing a festival focused on contemporary photography.

Eligibility criteria

Each project submitted must consist of a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 15 photos and a short introduction in English. Otherwise the work will be excluded from participation.
The author must have exclusive copyright ownership of the work.
Any project resulting from the work of more than one author must be submitted by agreement between each of the parties involved and it must be accompanied by a declaration signed by each party.

By participating in the open call all photographers grant Cortona On The Move the legal rights to publish their work online, offline and on social media for the festival’s promotional purposes.
The winning photographers grant Cortona On The Move the legal rights to exhibit their work and publish it in print for promotional purposes. Photographic prints of the winning projects will be made at the expense of ONTHEMOVE Cultural Association and will become part of the Association’s archives. ONTHEMOVE may use them within other events, upon agreement with the author. The winning photographers also authorize ONTHEMOVE cultural association to use the images for press, offline and online media, social media and for all promotional purposes of the festival. The images will always be accompanied by the photographer’s credit.

Partnership with LensCulture

LensCulture is a global collective of photographers and industry professionals. Established as one of the world’s largest online communities for the discovery of contemporary photography, LensCulture also provides some of the best opportunities for global exposure, international recognition, lifelong learning and creative development. LensCulture is committed to inspiring and empowering its thriving community of over 2.5 million participants, in 145 countries and across 15 languages worldwide.
Cortona On The Move has partnered with LensCulture to facilitate access to this organization, which develops and promotes broad opportunities for creative and professional photographic career development. Thanks to this partnership, photographers, in addition to being able to submit their projects for exhibition at the Cortona On The Move international photography festival, can access many other opportunities to gain visibility, and gain recognition for their work through LensCulture.

Edition 2021: Incoming Projects

Edition 2020

Participants: 723

Winners: Tomaso Clavarino – Padanistan, Tony Fouhse – After the Fact, Tim Franco – Unperson | North Korean Defectors, Natela Grigalashvili – The Final Days of Georgian Nomads

Edition 2019

Participants: 501

Winners: Nanna Heitmann – Hiding from Baba Yaga, Hashem Shakeri – An Elegy for the Death of Hamun, Diambra Mariani and Maria Teresa Salvati – This is the only way of love I know, Gabriele Cecconi – The Wretched and the Earth

Edition 2018

Participants: 734

Winners: Ernst Coppejans “Sold”, Claudia Gori “The Sentinels: Electrosensitivity in Italy”, Marylise Vigneau “Article 19”

2017 Edition

Participants: 938

Winners: Terje Abusdal “Slash & Burn”, Antoine Bruy “Outback Mythologies: The White Man’s Hole”, Farshid Tighehsaz “From Labyrinth”