About

Information in Italian

GFI | Premio Luigi Ghirri (Young Italian Photography | Luigi Ghirri Award) is a free-of-charge call for artists under the age of 35, promoting the discovery and showcase of emerging photography talents in Italy. An international commission selects the works that, receiving a financial reward, are produced and shown in a collective exhibition in the European Photography program in Reggio Emilia.

Artists are invited to submit a project fitting the main theme and including a series of images with a description and a setup proposal. The selection jury reserves its right to prefer recent or unpublished projects.

The exhibition layout will be defined together by artists and curators. To be considered for the contest, candidates must be Italian - even if living abroad - or foreigners resident in Italy.

Each artist or collective can only submit one project. Artists who have already been selected in one of the last three editions of the call (ed. 2021, 2022, 2023) cannot apply.

For further information on the call https://gfi.comune.re.it/en

THE THEME: “CONTAMINATIONS”

The climate emergency is increasingly pushing contemporary thoughts towards questioning the anthropocentric paradigm that has characterized recent centuries. We are moving away from the belief that nature is a space of otherness made for mankind, at our service, a pristine place of goodness and beauty, a refuge to escape to, or a resource to exploit and adapt. What is emerging though is the idea that nature does not exist as a biologically-determined primordial condition, and that the entire planet is the result of a transformative process carried out by a multitude of subjects, each of whom should be recognized as having configurative ability and will. If "the planet is an enormous and collective garden where we cultivate each other" (Emanuele Coccia), is then the contemporary image able to show new possible interactions between humans (as individuals, communities, species) and the rest of the living beings, based on relations that are not founded on superiority and domination, but rather exploring intermediate areas, zones of contamination, of mutual transformation? Are there images that can help us go beyond the binary reductionism of city and nature, control and anarchy, normal and different, useful and useless, taking us to the intermediate space where things are ambiguous, uncertain, shifting and differing?

What winners receive

Fee of 1500 euros to the 7 selected finalists covering the expenses for:

• production and transport of the works;
• artists’ travel and stay in Reggio Emilia during the show’s preparation and inauguration;
• potential insurance covering the transport of works.

Luigi Ghirri Award, worth 4,000 to be awarded to one of the finalists by an international jury. The jury will take place during the opening days of Fotografia Europea (April 26-28, 2024). The winner will also have the opportunity to exhibit a larger and more complete version of the project in a solo exhibition scheduled in Triennale Milan for winter 2025.

Nuove traiettorie. GFI a Stoccolma
Artist residency in Stockholm that will consist of a study and research period, during which the selected artist will produce an art project to be displayed in an exhibition curated by the Italian Culture Institute in Stockholm. The director of the Stockholm IIC will choose the winner of the artist residency.

Photo-Match Scholarship
Three artists shortlisted for the Giovane Fotografia Italiana | Luigi Ghirri Award will receive a scholarship to cover their travel and accommodation expenses to participate in the Photo-Match portfolio reading programme as part of Fotofestiwal Łódź in June 2024

Dalby Forest Artist Residency
As a partner of the Luigi Ghirri Award, Photoworks together with Dalby Forest, Forestry England are offering two photographers the opportunity of an ecologically focussed immersive one-week- long artists residency in the heart of Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire UK, together with mentoring, introductions to the forest team and ecosystems, plus networking opportunities.

About Giovane Fotografia Italiana

Giovane Fotografia Italiana (Young Italian Photography) is a project born in 2012 and promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia.

Since 2018, Giovane Fotografia Italiana provides for the awarding of a prize, which, starting from the 2022 and in collaboration with Luigi Ghirri's heirs, takes the name of Premio Luigi Ghirri. Thus enhancing the recognition of emerging talents of contemporary photography in Italy.

The project, curated by Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi, is in partnership with the Italian Culture Institute of Stockholm and Triennale Milan. In collaboration with GAI - Association for the Circuit of Young Italian Artists, Fotografia Europea (European Photography), Fotodok, Utrecht; Fotofestiwal Łódź in Poland. With the support of Reire srl and Gruppo Giovani Imprenditori Unindustria Reggio Emilia.

Through the network of partners, GFI aims at creating further opportunities of visibility for artists. The artists who apply for the call accept to exhibit their works in initiatives promoted in collaboration with project’s partners and sponsors and at their venues (cultural institutions, companies, banks, etc.).

How to Enter

• Create your personal Picter account.
• On Picter, register for the “Open call GFI | Premio Luigi Ghirri 2024” contest and start entering your data and information.
• Upload all the required material, including:
• selection of images (minimum 5 - maximum 15, 1500 px on the long edge);
• project description, in Italian and English (up to 1800 characters each language), including any links to videos;
• CV with up to 2000 characters;
• biography with up to 1500 characters;
• consent forms (in Italian or English) undersigned by the portrayed subjects if recognizable;
• sketch-work and/or description of a set-up proposal, assumed on a wall not exceeding 9 meters in length.

Judging Criteria

GFI supports the work of artists who use the medium of photography as a reflection on its role in today's visual culture and on contemporary issues. Projects accepted are photographic series or ones in which, while sitting next to other medias, photography maintains a prominent role. The jury will assess the overall quality of the works, considering the role of images in their relation to the concept of the project , as well as the presentation of a proposal for an exhibition display.