Exhibition opportunity for 14-18 year olds living in Portsmouth to show for Photo Fringe 2024

Would you like to see your photos in an exhibition?

OPEN24 Young Photographers is an opportunity for young people (14 to 18 years old) living in the Portsmouth area to exhibit their photographs as part of the Photo Fringe photography festival.

Submissions are open now!

The group exhibition responding to this year's theme, will be shown at Aspex Portsmouth, a leading contemporary art gallery and vibrant creative space located in the heart of Gunwharf Quays.

Our theme this year is Common Ground

Finding common ground is a starting point for positive change. Like photography, common ground can bridge divides, challenge stereotypes and create space for collaboration and connection.

We want this year's Photo Fringe festival to disrupt traditional hierarchies and encourage a mutually beneficial exchange of perspectives, skills and ideas.

You are free to interpret the theme however you wish.

What is Photo Fringe?

Photo Fringe is a well established photography charity. Every two years in October we present an open platform photography festival that everyone is invited to take part in and enjoy. Internationally recognised photographers show alongside first time exhibitors and their exhibitions and events happen in galleries, cafés, outdoor displays and pop-ups in all sorts of unusual spaces, plus online through our festival website. Originally based in Brighton, our festival now reaches along the South East coast and this year we're bringing our festival to Portsmouth too.

How do I enter?

Use the link below to submit your entry via a Google form.

- Submit up to three photographs you’ve taken that reflect the theme, Common Ground.

- You can choose from your existing photographs, or create new work.

- Images must be saved as follows: 300 dpi JPG or TIFF file in RGB and measure 464mm on the longest edge. If you are using a camera phone, please select it's highest quality image settings.

[Follow this link for further information on what the terms above mean]

- Please title your images in this format: Yourfullname_Titleofimage_Yearofimage
- You will be asked to give us the following information:

• Your full name
• Your age
• The name of your school/college if still in education (optional)
• Your home postcode
• Contact email address and if you're under 18, contact details for a parent or guardian
• A few sentences about why you think your photographs respond to the theme ‘Common Ground’
• Where you heard about this opportunity

Who can enter?

Anyone aged 14 to 18, living in a Portsmouth PO postcode area can enter.
It is free to enter.
Please note, we are unable to cover travel costs for visiting the exhibition

Submission Support

Come along to Aspex Portsmouth on Sunday 28 July between 12 & 3pm to ask us for some help. Claire from Photo Fringe and Karl from Pompey Darkroom will be on hand to answer questions or help you with your camera. Just drop-in, it’s free.

Otherwise, if you have any questions, email us at: info@photofringe.org and mark your subject line as: OPEN24 Young Photographers question

What happens next?

Up to twenty shortlisted winners will be selected for exhibition at Aspex Portsmouth’s Communal Gallery and on the Photo Fringe 2024 festival website, alongside our other festival exhibitions.

The selection will be made by Femi Olaiya (Artist and trustee of Pompey Darkroom), Ricardo Reverón Blanco (Curator at Aspex Portsmouth) and Claire Wearn (Photo Fringe Festival Director). Up to twenty photographs will be selected for print in The Communal Gallery. All submissions will be screened and one overall winner will receive a portfolio review with a professional photographer and an interview about their work published on the Photo Fringe website.

Past examples of selected photographs..

You can see past examples of selected photographs here.

The OPEN24 Young Photographers is brought to you in partnership with Aspex Portsmouth. Aspex is a registered charity bringing new art and ideas to the heart of Portsmouth. Its mission is to cultivate art and creativity rooted in community. Aspex believes that art brings joy, broadens minds, facilitates learning, connects and nurtures our communities, and stimulates radical imagining.

Key dates 2024:

Sunday 28 July, 12 - 3pm: drop-in for submission support at Aspex.

Monday 23 Sept, 5pm: deadline to send us your entries.

Tuesday 24 Sept: notification if you have been shortlisted

Friday 27 Sept: deadline for selected entrants to send us high resolution image

Thursday 10 - Sunday 27 October: exhibition at Aspex Portsmouth

Sunday 13 October, 2-4pm: celebration event, all welcome

[Image Above] © Mimi Wade, 2024