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The contest

Rome Photo Lab is a themed photography contest open to professional and amateur photographers worldwide above the age of 18. It focuses on the themes: “Rome between the lines” and “Streets of the world”. For each theme there will be four prizes: first, second, third, and best photo taken with a smartphone. All the photographs submitted will have to fall into one of each themes, and it will not be possible to partecipate to the two themes with one only photo. All photographs will have to shot after the 1st of January 2023. The themes in details are as follows:

“Rome between the lines” is dedicated to Rome, seen from a different viewpoint. In addition to the monuments that characterize the City,  we want to encourage a new and creative vision to narrate Rome. Part of the challenge for photographers will be that of characterizing Rome without showing necessarily its symbolic monuments and most famous views, but still capturing its “genius loci” (the “spirit of the place”). The idea is to promote care and love towards this beautiful city not only thoughts its most known beauty, but also through its less known aspects or even challenges.

“Streets of the world” is about street photography, wherever in the world the image may be shot. This of course is a very wide area, which gives room to different interpretations of the street as life’s stage. Representation will not be as important as the message and the emotions the photographs will convey. In the words of Eolo Perfido, member of our international jury and great street photographer, “reality is an ingredient, a mean to an end, not the reason for the photograph”.

All the photographs proposed by those who enroll in the contest, the jury will chose those to show in the final exhibition, which will be held inside a prestigious historical site in Rome which will be announced in the coming months. Between those chosen for the final exhibition, the international jury will award the prizes. The organization, at its unquestionable judgment, can disqualify any participant who does not comply with the rules and conditions laid out for the contest.

Indeed, by enrolling, participants accept all said rules and conditions.

Participation fee and enrollment

To participate in the contest you will follow this link or the one present in the home page, which will lead you to a form containing the necessary instructions for your registration, creation of your account, and payment of the enrollment fee. Enrollment is only possible through this link and form.

Enrollment and participation fees are as follow:

  • 1 photo: € 15,00
  • 2 photos: € 25,00
  • 3 photos: € 35,00
  • 4 photos: € 45,00
  • from 5 to 10 photo: € 10,00 each

The fee will not be refunded, even in the event that your photograph or photographs should not be selected for the final exhibition.

Submission of the photographs

All photo will be submitted online. As already said, each image can only participate one of the two themes, but it will be possibile to participate in both themes if you decide to submit at least two photographs.

All photos will be submitted in JPEG/JPG format with a file dimension not over 2Mb. The longest side of the photos must be at least 2000 pixels in size.

If selected, the organizer will ask to provide a higher resolution file.

All files shall be renamed with Name, Surname, Theme chosen and progressive number. if you submit more than one file in a given theme. E.g.: Name_Surname_Theme_progressive number.jpg. Note, an incorrect naming might result into the impossibility of evaluating the photograph.

Copyright of the author

Each participant maintains the copyright for all the photographs submitted:Ogni partecipante mantiene il copyright delle foto da lui inviate.

By enrolling in the contest and submitting the photographs, the author declares that photographs are hers or his.

By filling in the form and enrolling in the contest the participants grant to the organizers the right to use free of charge all images submitted for promotional purpose related to the contest itself, hereby included their publication on catalogs, videos, calendars, social media e and the web site of the contest.

Publication of the images

All participants are entrely responsabile for the images they submitted fo ursahes related to the contest and the exhibition. The organizers will might use the images for cultural and academic ends, so long as they are of a pro-bono, non profit activities.

Photographs compliance

  • Post production is allowed for images optimization purposes, like but exclusively: modification of contrast, texture, exposure, shadows or lights optimization, adjust color temperature and color grading, converting to black and white, removal of dust spots. Photographs should not look excessively modified or fake, lest the exclusion from the contest.
  • Cropping is allowed when not too excessive, removal of unwanted objects or people is not allowed.
  • Use of generative AI is not allowed to modify any part of the photograph and even less so to create a picture from scratch, through any type and brand of software included but not restricted to Photoshop.
  • Photographs should not contain signatures or watermark.
  • Photographs shall not be framed or contoured in any way.
  • Photographs with overt sexual content of abusive and defamatory content will not be accepted.
  • Photographs must have been shot after the 1st of January 2023.

Choice of the finalist to be displayed

Photographs will be evaluated anonymously by the appointed internal jury who will not be aware of the names and of any detail about the submitting participant. The finalist photographs and their authors for each theme will be chosen solely based on the jury’s judgement, and then printed and displayed in the final exhibition.
Finalists will be advised through an email to the address supplied during the enrollment.

The international jury will chose between the finalist photographs the four winner for each of the themes, whose actors will be awarded during the official opening cerimony.

Prizes

There will be three prizes plus one for the smartphone category for each of the two themes. Hence 8 prizes in total. The decision of the international jury will be final.

Display

The finalist photographs will be published on the contest site and displayed in the collective exhibition which will be inaugurated on Friday September 13  and will continue until Friday September 20 in the selected historical location in Rome. At the unquestionable judgement of the jury and of the organization, also some of the non finalist photographs might be published on the web site of the exhibition.