Deadline: February 13,
2015
The National Arts Festival has announced that the fence
around the Fiddlers’ Green precinct in Grahamstown will become a temporary
outdoor art gallery early in the New Year when the Foto Fence exhibition,
featuring photographs of life in and around the city, opens to the public. At
the same time as the opening, winners of a city-wide photography competition will
be named.
The Foto Fence project is the brainchild of Rhodes
University lecturer and photographer Brent Meistre, who hopes to identify up
and coming photographers deserving of further training and mentorship through
the project.
The National Arts Festival is championing the events as part
of its Creative City project, which is funded in part by the European Union.
“The reason we’re embarking on the competition is to find some talented young
photographers, people with a passion for photography and a good eye. We’ll then
draw them in to our Makana Arts Academy training programme and help them get
their professional careers started,” said Festival CEO, Tony Lankester.
Meistre said that the judges were looking for photographs
taken by ordinary Grahamstonians “reflecting their life in and attitude toward
their city” in four categories: City/landscapes; Afro-futurists & selfies;
Life up-close; and Live–action.
Meistre, who will head the judging panel and lead the
process said that he was hoping: "to discover hidden creative photographers
in Grahamstown who see their immediate world around them with a fresh, unique
and different eye"
The judges will select the finalists whose work, together
with the work of established Grahamstown photographers, will make up the Foto
Fence exhibition in March. Anyone may enter the competition, but the
stipulation is that photographs must be taken in the Grahamstown/Makana area.
The closing date for entries is February 13, 2015, and full
details and entry forms are available for download at www.creativecity.co.za