Expand and Contract 2025: AI and Alternative Processes – Call for Entries

About

Winners and up to three select honorable mentions’ work will be invited to show via an in-person curated exhibition at LACP’s Downtown LA home, in addition to being featured online on the LACP website.

This call invites submissions that consider AI technologies as the most recent addition to the world of alternative processes, and works that explore the connections between AI, camerawork, analogue technologies and visual storytelling, whether while capturing images or printing them. The selected works will be featured in a virtual exhibition on LACP’s website, and selected works will be featured in an in-person exhibition that will open at our DTLA gallery on June 11, 2025.

Technological developments hasten pronouncements regarding the death of photography every few decades, with the most recent trigger being digital innovations, such as digital cameras and image editing software. And yet, photography persists. In fact, it continues to re-define how we engage with one another, imagine ourselves and our position in the world. Most recently, AI caused an uproar among visual practitioners, as machines have been trained to create images using images produced by humans who were not paid for services unknowingly provided. Moreover, AI seems to pose a threat to human agency.

From a creative standpoint, this exhibition considers such conflicts and wonders whether AI is another tool that will expand alternative means to create images, or another step toward the end of photographic creativity as we know it.

The Juror

Rotem Rozental, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Center of Photography. Between 2016-2022, she served as Chief Curator at American Jewish University, where she was also Assistant Dean of the Whizin Center for Continuing Education and Senior Director of Arts and Creative Programming. Her book, Pre-State Photographic Archives and the Zionist Movement (Routledge, 2023) was named recipient of the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Award by the Association for Jewish Studies.

Rotem is a lecturer at USC Roski School of Art and Design Critical Studies Department. She mentors artists worldwide and contributes regularly to exhibition catalogues, magazines, journals and. Her writings about contemporary art, visual culture, technology and image-based media were published in Artforum, Artillery, Photographies, Jewish Currents, Tablet and Forward, among other outlets.

Eligibility and Guidelines

The exhibition is open internationally to all levels. The juror will select works based on creativity, originality, and quality. LACP invites artists working in all mediums and styles with a relationship to photography to take part in the exhibition.

When you submit, please remember this call is meant for both virtual and in-person exhibitions. The in-person exhibition at LACP will include works by the top prize winners and up to three select honorable mentions, in addition to artists curated by the juror. We highly encourage to consider the size of the work you choose to submit and its logistical needs, including shipping and handling.

The deadline to send digital files for consideration is Thursday, April 17, 12:00 midnight, 2025.

Acceptance Notice

The selection process will be blind. Once the juror has made selections, all entrants will receive an email from LACP with a list of images and artists selected for the show. The selected images and artists’ names will be posted on LACP’s website.

LACP is not responsible for connecting the selected artists with the juror. In addition, LACP reserves the right not to use a particular selected image(s) for promotional purposes if the image(s) is deemed inappropriate for use on LACP’s social media, newsletter feed, and/or on in any other marketing material.

Entry Fee

$25 for 1 image ($12.50 for LACP Members)
$50 for 2-5 images ($25.00 for LACP Members)
$75 for 6-10 images ($37.50 for LACP Members)
$100 for 11-15 images ($50.00 for LACP Members)
$125 for 16-20 images ($62.50 for LACP Members)
$150 for 21-25 images ($75.00 for LACP Members)
$175 for 26-30 images ($87.50 for LACP Members)
$200 for 31-35 images ($100.00 for LACP Members)

Click HERE to enter and pay. You will be taken to Submittable to create your submission.

NOTE: Please DO NOT watermark your images when submitting. Thank you.

Not an LACP Member? To become a Member, click HERE

All works accepted for exhibition must be presentation ready, if a print: printed and framed professionally, wired on the back with eyelets, and labeled on the back of the frame with your name, image title, and contact information (email and phone). Please mount wire and eyelets a third of the way down the from the top of the frame. There are no specifications on printing and/or framing. Similar requirements for sculptural pieces. Further, there are no size restrictions (but keep shipping in mind). Artists will be required to submit an artist statement, materials/techniques used, and size/dimensions of each artwork when entering. Exhibiting artists will be expected to either drop off their work or pay for round-trip shipping of their work. You will be required to send us a prepaid express mail label for the return of your artwork. We take no responsibility for damage during shipping, so we suggest that your insure the work during mailing.

Each photographer retains all copyrights to their images & works. Photographers whose submissions are chosen for the exhibition grant the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) the right to use their images for display on LACP’s website and for the purpose of promoting exhibitions, promoting LACP’s programs, and promoting the artist. Promotions and images may also be placed on social networks for LACP with artist credit. Artists grant the use of their image(s) as stated without further contact from LACP. The artist understands that LACP will not be held responsible for loss, theft or other damage, whether caused by the negligence of its officers, members, or others. Photographers are welcome to sell their photos during the online exhibit, with 50 percent commission to LACP. Submission of application will constitute an agreement to all these terms and conditions.

For questions please email info@lacphoto.org