Why the hell not?!
Open Calls are always worth entering...
Over the past couple of years, I have entered a wide range of photographic Open Calls with my B&W photography, all of which were more or less free to enter, and I wanted to briefly share my thoughts and some of my experiences.
Whether you are a photographer, or artist of any kind, and you are active on social media platforms such as Instagram, you will no doubt have seen various calls for submission to things like zines, online galleries, public exhibitions etc. Some of them out there do have a high entry fee attached and possible prize money, and that’s cool if that’s what you’re after, but there is a huge range of them that don’t have an entry fee (or cost very little), and those are the ones that I’m really talking about here. The ones that have more of a community ethos behind them.
I’ve come to realise over time that they are always worth a shot, even if you are unsuccessful. It’s easy for some of us to pass them by because we might feel like its not worth it, or that our work isn’t necessarily good enough to make the grade, but if you don’t try, make the leap and put yourself out there, you will never know.
Believe me, I have spent a lot of time feeling like that, overthinking what would happen, and feeling like the images that I make might not be chosen, but it really doesn’t matter in the end. Especially it’s one with no cost to enter, you have nothing to lose!
Being successful or not isn’t what’s important here, but the process of reviewing your work, choosing your best image(s) for different themes and then having the confidence to submit them for various things is. Its an invaluable exercise. It’s also a great motivator to go back through previous work that might otherwise have never been used, find some time to organise your portfolio or online gallery and also to get a website sorted (something which I have only recently got done).
In a lot of cases, even if you don’t make the final group of artists, you often still get a mention on a website or a post online, so you can still get some bonus engagement in that way just for taking a little of your time to be involved. When you are successful, and you will be with some of them trust me, you will see your work shared or printed or exhibited alongside some amazing people, and ultimately, meet or chat to some people that you haven’t come across before.
I’m not going to crudely list all of the Open Calls that I have submitted to and which ones have been successful or not because I’ve tried quite a lot and they won’t be relevant to everyone. The ones where my photos have not been chosen, they have been and gone and I’ve made sure not to dwell on the outcome and just waited patiently for another one to come along. Also, if I’m honest, my memory isn’t amazing, so some of them I've entered I’ve actually forgotten now.
What follows are some instances where I have been lucky enough to be chosen, specifically for a couple of different printed zines and public exhibitions.
Find Rangers - Magazine Issue 29
Find Rangers Camera Club is an online community of film photographers that publish a printed magazine (shown above). As it features photography from allover the world with no specific theme this is a super example of where an Open Call can be so useful in bringing photographers together and getting image submissions on a regular basis to create such a zine.
Each of their magazines is then available for sale when it’s ready, to anyone, so if you get chosen you can buy one, you could buy one anyway, or you could just leave it, it’s entirely up to you and there’s no pressure or obligation.
I entered the open call for Issue 29 back in February 2024, and I was successful with the image of the arches shown on the left above, and for me it was amazing to see my photo printed physically alongside some incredible photographers, some I already followed on Instagram but a lot that I hadn’t seen before I flicked through that magazine for the first time.
The Photocopy Club - Coast Exhibition and Zine
The Photocopy Club, based in London, is an open submission exhibition project that produces exhibitions with various themes where all the work is photocopied or printed with laser printers at very low cost, and also zines made in the same way.
Rather than submitting digital images, they just ask for a cheap A4/A3 laser print or photocopy of an image, signed and dated and sent by post, which can then be used, as is, in an exhibition or used in the production of a zine. It all has a very punk/DIY ethos and I’ve always been a massive fan of this project. Its also worth noting that every submission is usually used!
Back in summer 2024 they ran an open call for an exhibition with the theme Coast: Exploring the edge of the land. As the majority of my photography is coastal this was right up my street. I submitted the stormy image (bottom left below) for this.
There was an exhibition in Penryn, Cornwall using all of the submissions that were received, with no cost to entrants besides cheaply printing and posting the images in, and a bit later on an A4 zine with all the work included, shown above, which was available to purchase if you wanted to. Again no pressure!
The Photocopy Club on Instagram
Dark Peak - Photo Festival 2025
Dark Peak Photo is a community organisation with a focus on showcasing contemporary photography, community engagement and supporting local talent. The festival that they put on each year stages a vibrant takeover of a number of spaces across the market town of Glossop in the Peak District.
At the end of 2024 they put out an open call for submission of images on the theme Lost and Found. The chosen images would be printed and displayed in various shop windows up and down Glossop High Street in late February 2025.
The theme immediately reminded me of a film photograph (above) I had taken quite a few years before, of a battered and discarded harbour sign, propped up in a passageway near Folkestone Harbour, with an ice cream wrapper next to it.
Having submitted that image, I found out in early February that it had been chosen, and I was really excited about this! This open call had allowed me the opportunity to have one of my photos displayed not just in public, but in a shop window in a town that geographically is a long way from where we live in Kent.
They created a paper map of all of the images in the festival, showing the various shop locations and a walking route, and also an online gallery of all of the chosen submissions. Check it out - https://www.darkpeakphoto.co.uk/gallery6/no-jetskis
I always loved that harbour sign, and that image. I used it on the back cover of the first zine I made, and it is also where the title of my second zine came from. Both are now available to buy as PDFs on my website - https://lukewayman.com/zines
Illuminate - Exposure Exhibition 2025
Illuminate is based in the Suffolk countryside, providing a creative community space (including darkroom and studio space for hire) and offering various workshops for photographers to learn new techniques and enhance their artistic skills.
For the third year now, they have put on their annual exhibition, Exposure.
EXPOSURE sets out to showcase the amazing work of photographic artists from across Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and beyond by bringing everyone together in a one-off, limited-edition Zine and Exhibition.
(above quote taken from https://www.illuminatestudio.co.uk/exposure)
On 16th February this year, they launched an open call for this years exhibition and zine. This one has small fees to enter. I know I’ve been talking about Open Calls that are mostly free but let me explain a bit more, as it’s a great setup for photographers this one with a strong community feel, and nothing like the ones where you are paying a fee just to enter, and if you don’t get in it is lost.
To submit to the zine was £10, and every submission would be included in that. Then for £20 you could submit to the zine and the exhibition, and their judges selected the work of 20 photographers for display. So you’re guaranteed to be in the zine entering either, and if you want to have a chance at the exhibition too then you can. If you get in, at that point, you provide the framed prints ready for display. The way I look at it, if you’re unsuccessful for the exhibition the money goes towards supporting a fantastic community photographic space and the cost of putting on the actual exhibition, and so I excitedly entered for both.
At the end of March I got an email to say that I had been selected, and I was absolutely over the moon! During April I sorted prints of my images and framed them at home and then posted them up to Suffolk a few days before the opening on the evening of 1st May. They arrived safe and sound and all of the work was installed ready for the exhibition.
It’s about 3 hours drive for me up from Folkestone to Felixstowe where the public gallery that was used (142 Gallery) is located, so I took the afternoon off work and got up there for about 5.30pm ready for the launch event.
I was admittedly a little anxious at the thought of meeting a lot of new people in person, but my experience of the launch evening very quickly made me realise that I had no need to be, not in the slightest. Everyone was super friendly and relaxed, and I received a lot of kind words about the work I had on the wall.
There were a couple of photographers there who I have chatted to on Instagram before but not met so it was really cool to meet them finally and put a face to a name. I also had some great chats with some of the other photographers about their work and their processes. I absolutely loved it!
During the exhibition, they also put up an online gallery of all of the work that had been submitted.
Online Gallery: https://www.illuminatestudio.co.uk/exposure-gallery-2025
I had such an amazing evening and experience with this exhibition and the whole process, so I would completely recommend trying to do something like this if you haven’t before and you get a chance.
Illuminate Studios on Instagram
Hope you enjoyed reading this one and hopefully it might inspire some of you to just go for it next time you see an Open Call like these ones. Why the hell not?!
Also apologies for the delay, it’s been a lot longer since my previous post than I had wanted, but hopefully now will be back to fortnightly on Wednesdays.
If you have any thoughts on this please get in touch, I’d love to hear about your experiences with any Open Calls that you have entered, or those you might have thought about entering.
Thanks,
Luke
Prints of some of the images of mine in this post are available to order from my Front Photography page - https://lukewayman.front.photography/
This was the reminder I needed. Thank you!
This is good encouragement. It is worth a shot, thanks!