The award Emergentes 2021 - International Photography Award Encontros da Imagem is organised by Encontros da Imagem - International Photography and Visual Arts Festival aims to award the Best Portfolios in Contemporary Photography. This year because of the pandemic that we are going through, due to COVID-19, to keep compliant with the government guidelines - DGS and DGartes, and to make sure that everyone participating in the festival will be safe, the Board of Directors as decided that this year the Portfolio Reviews that give photographers the opportunity to show their work to curators, gallery owners, publishers and museum and festival directors will take place online. The online reviews will take place on the week of the 20th to the 24th of September 2021 during this edition of the festival.

What winners receive

The Board of Directors taking into account the difficult situation that we are all going through, especially within the arts community has decided to give three monetary awards.

• First Prize: 2.000€ award and a solo exhibition in the next edition of the festival in 2022.
• Second Prize: 1500€ award and part of collective exhibition in the next edition of the festival in 2022.
• Third Prize: 1500€ award and part of collective exhibition in the next edition of the festival in 2022.
• 7 Finalists: Will have their work presented at a collective exhibition in the next edition of the festival in 2022.

About Encontros da Imagem

Encontros da Imagem, with more than thirty years of existence, is a non-profit cultural association that promotes annually an International Photography and Visual Arts Festival in the city of Braga, Portugal. The festival celebrates classic and contemporary photography and visual arts in general by showcasing emerging and established artists. Every year Encontros da Imagem promotes an open call for the Discovery Awards, where the winners have the opportunity to exhibit their work during the festival. Encontros da Imagem also organizes an International Photography Prize - Emergentes, this prize is awarded after the Portfolio Review, which gives photographers the opportunity to show their work to an international jury, composed by commissioners, gallery owners and expert editors, thus establishing solid foundations for the promotion of their work. The festival has developed an eclectic programme. This year the theme is “Genesis 2.1”, where numerous artists emerging and established, national and international will be shown in several public and private spaces (historical and monumental buildings, museums, galleries and others). Encontros da Imagem is a cultural photographic reference in Portugal, and has reached a prominent position in the international panorama, being currently one of the oldest photography festivals in Europe.

How to enter

The selection process will be in two stages:

• 1st stage: Applications through Picter until the 25th of July. In this stage, maximum of 75 portfolios will be selected. The criteria for the selection will be originality, coherence and conceptual quality of the projects. The select artist that will do the reviews in September, will be announced on the 9th of August, 2021
• 2nd stage: In the second stage, the finalist will have to enrol and pay a 80€ fee until the 16th of August, to have access by order of registration to the 4 individual portfolio reviews with the critics they choose, each review will be 30 minutes. The portfolio reviews will be held in the week of 20th to the 24th of September by appointment.
• Selection of the Winners: The jury will select a total of 10 portfolios. The first, second and third prize and seven finalist with the best portfolios in contemporary photography. The winner and finalists will be announced on the 30th of September 2021.

Ángel Luis González Fernández

Ángel Luis González Fernández is a designer, artist, and curator supporting engaging visual arts practices, winner of Business to Arts David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards 2011.

His work manifests through PhotoIreland, which he founded in 2010 to stimulate a critical dialogue on Photography. He devises curatorial projects placing conversations in the public realm around visual culture, critical thinking. These include events PhotoIreland Festival, Halftone Print Fair, arts residency How to Flatten a Mountain, and New Irish Works, a cultural hub (The Library Project: Ireland's specialised art bookshop, host to a unique resource library of photobooks and a productive arts programme), publishing projects that distribute inexpensive access to local practices, research projects (Critical Academy: examining contemporary art practices). I work collaboratively with a growing network of organisations, noticeably through ambitious Creative Europe partnerships.

During the Summer 2020 lockdown he launched the critical publication OVER Journal, now distributed globally, and run the 11th PhotoIreland Festival. He also received the Arts Council of Ireland's Visual Arts Bursary to deepen research on the broad historical and specific artistic context of Photography in Ireland, to curate an ambitious survey exhibition in PhotoIreland Festival 2022.

Bindi Vora

Bindi Vora is a photographic artist, curator and Curatorial Project Manager at Autograph, London. Since joining Autograph, Vora has co-curated solo exhibitions including Lola Flash: surpassing and Maxine Walker: Untitled. She has written for publications including British Journal of Photography and Foam Magazine; most recently contributing to a series of artist conversations for Autograph which have included multidisciplinary artists such as Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, Maryam Wahid and Tobi Alexandra Falade amongst others. Vora has contributed to public programmes at London Art Fair and The Photographers' Gallery. In 2020 she curated Poulomi Basu: Centralia for the prestigious Rencontres d'Arles - Louis Roederer Discovery Award.

Bridget Coaker

Bridget is a senior picture editor based in London, where she has worked for national and international newspapers and magazines. She is Head of Media at FORMAT International Photography Festival, a founding director of the photography agency Troika Photos and works as a mentor with graduate photographers.

In addition to her editorial and PR experience, Bridget has curated a number of exhibitions, including Residual Traces, a photographic response to the 2012 Olympics at Photofusion in Brixton and in 2009 was Director of the Hereford Photography Festival where she presented the photography of European photographers working with the image of the child in "Seen But Not Heard" and curated the retrospective show of photojournalist and filmmaker John Bulmer.

Bridget has been a guest reviewer at international photography festivals including, Photoespania, Spain; Daegu Photography Biennale, South Korea; Contact International Photography Festival, Canada; Fotofest, US and Format International Photography Festival, UK. In 2015 Bridget was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Photography, UK.

Erik Vroons

Erik Vroons (1976, The Netherlands) is Editor-at-large for GUP, the international platform for creative contemporary photography, and as Chief editor for the print edition of GUP Magazine.

He is furthermore active as a freelancer, contributes texts to several other international print magazines and online blogs, and he writes essays for artists' books. He also collaborates with photographers, supporting them in their ongoing projects by way of research and curatorial conceptualizations. Occasionally, he mentors workshops in the field of creative authorship and the development of (art- and documentary) projects. 

Erik is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and holds an MA in Photographic Studies (University Leiden) and an MA in Media Studies (University of Amsterdam).

Besides that, I'd also support all kinds of smart and stimulating approaches to photojournalism and creative visual storytelling and might be able to give to-the-point feedback on how to elevate such projects to towards various forms of presentation (book/exhibition) and potential venues/festivals in Europe and Asia.

Marina Paulenka

Marina Paulenka is an artist, curator, art consultant, and educator in photography. She was Artistic Director of UNSEEN Foundation and UNSEEN, an Amsterdam based platform for contemporary photography that presents the latest developments in the field of photography and amplifies the careers of boundary-pushing artists.

Prior to her role at Unseen, she worked as a curator and Artistic Director of the Organ Vida International Photography Festival, the leading institution for contemporary photography in Croatia.

Paulenka is a member of the Creative Committee at the Bristol Photo festival, a guest curator at FUTURES Photography, and a keynote curator for FORMAT21 International Photography Festival. She is the recipient of the Lucie Awards 2018 for a best curator/exhibition of the year for the exhibition "Engaged, Active, Aware: Women Perspectives Now".

So far she has curated numerous exhibitions and work with artists such as Tabita Rezaire, Juliana Huxtable, Martine Gutierrez, Dana Lixenberg, Zanele Muholi, Hannah Starkey, Nina Berman, Amalia Ulman, Laia Abril, Katrin Koenning and many others.

Paulenka nominates photographers for The Joop Swart Masterclass, the Prix Pictet, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and she is an international juror and portfolio reviewer at many institutions, awards and festivals worldwide including the Les Rencontres d'Arles, Hamburg Triennial, Parallel Photo Platform, Robert Capa Prize, FORMAT.

As an educator, she gives guest teaching and workshops and working closely with emerging photographers and visual artists in developing their personal work/projects and professional practice.

Mirjam Kooiman

Mirjam Kooiman is curator at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, where she is responsible for a number of exhibitions among which Ai Weiwei - #SafePassage, Paul Mpagi Sepuya - Double Enclosure, Daisuke Yokota - Matter, Awoiska van der Molen - Blanco, and the traveling Foam Talent exhibitions of 2015, 2016 and 2020. In 2017 she initiated a series of collaborations with photography platforms in Mexico, Nigeria and Indonesia in Foam's project space Foam 3h, in order to create an exchange of cultural knowledge on photography discourses worldwide. She is currently researching how photography can relate to virtual realities, artificial intelligence, gaming and online experiences.

Mirjam holds a BA in Art History and a MA in Curating Arts and Culture from the University of Amsterdam, with a special interest in postcolonial approaches in the arts and museum studies. She previously served as a curator-in-training at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. She regularly participates in juries for festivals and awards among which the Hariban Award, Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography, Firecracker Photographic Grant, Getxophoto, PARALLEL Photo Platform and Organ Vida, amongst others. Mirjam has written for artist books and publications such as L'Internationale, Something We Africans Got, Migrant Journal, and she is a regular contributor to Foam Magazine.

Shoair Mavlian

Shoair Mavlian is Director of Photoworks. She is responsible for the strategic vision and artistic direction of the organisation including exhibitions, publishing, digital content and learning & engagement. Recent Photoworks projects include 'Photoworks Festival: Propositions for Alternative Narratives' (2020), 'Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Zone Grise/The Land In between' (MEP, Paris 2019) and 'Brighton Photo Biennial: A New Europe' (2018).

From 2011-2018 Mavlian was Assistant Curator, Photography and International Art at Tate Modern, London, where she curated the major exhibitions 'Don McCullin' (2019) 'Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art' (2018), 'The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection' (2016), 'Conflict, Time, Photography' (2014), 'A Chronicle of Interventions' (2014) and 'Harry Callahan' (2013). While at Tate Modern she helped build the photography collection and curated collection displays enjoyed by over 5 million visitors per year.

Mavlian has a background in fine art photography practice and the history of photography with a focus on conflict and memory, Central and Latin American photography and emerging contemporary practice. In 2018 she was named one of Apollo Magazine's 40 under 40 Europe - Thinkers.

Steven Evans

Steven Evans is a curator, writer, artist and executive director of the award-winning arts organization FotoFest, based in Houston, Texas. FotoFest created the first and longest running international Biennial of Photography and New Media Art in the U.S. He is responsible for exhibitions and the artistic direction of FotoFest and its Biennial.

Among many exhibitions organized for FotoFest and other venues, Evans co-curated the FotoFest 2018 Biennial central exhibition India: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art and the 2016 Biennial central exhibition Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet. He co-edited the related hardcover books INDIA and Changing Circumstances, as well as the most recent FotoFest publications Velvet Generation (2019) and African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other (2020). He represents FotoFest at photography events around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, India, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea.

Prior to FotoFest, Evans worked with a wide range of artists and collaborators as managing director of the Dia:Beacon Museum in New York State and as director of the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. His curatorial work incorporates a range of approaches with a focus on photography, moving image, and new media art.

Preferences

Steven is looking for bodies of work with well-defined purpose, fully formed or nearing completion, in still photographs, video and/or new media.

Sylvia Sachini

Sylvia Sachini, based in Athens, is the founder and director of Misc Gallery Art Space in Athens and was the co-founder of Void. Graduated in Business & Advertising, while experimenting on different fields such as photography, collage, writing and printing techniques. Since 2016 she has focused on exploring the expanded medium of photography through exhibitions, bookmaking and educational programs.

More names will be announced soon