DIFFERENT WORLDS 2025

13th International Competition for young photographers from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

 The Photon Competition for young and emerging artists in the field of contemporary original photography is now in its 13th edition. We are inviting entries from photographers aged 35 and under (including birth year 1990) from Central and Eastern European countries (CEE region), including Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia.

The competition promotes original photography and encourages original and innovative approaches in creation – both in concept and formal execution. The theme is not predetermined; we accept projects that cover a wide range of photographic practices and related media.

The main prize allows for a solo exhibition at Photon Gallery in 2026 with production support. The work of the ten selected artists will be presented in a group exhibition at Photon in Ljubljana at the end of June 2025.

JURY

The selection of artists and works will be decided by a four-member international jury composed of:

Gábor Pfisztner is a full-time instructor at Budapest Metropolitan University (METU), teaching at the Media Art Institute. He also lectures at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, ELTE’s Faculty of Humanities, Budapest University of Technology, and the University of Fine Arts. His courses cover photography history, theory, contemporary art, architecture, and social issues. He has taught at MÚOSZ György Bálint Academy and lectured at the Capa Center, Mai Manó House, Dunaújváros Photo Biennale, and Ludwig Museum. His writings on photography, media, and contemporary art appear in Fotóművészet, Balkon, Disegno, Új Művészet, Műértő, Oktogon, and Atrium.

David Pujado is originally from Barcelona has been based in Belgrade since 2013, where he runs Bartcelona Koncept, a photography platform that has hosted over 80 exhibitions. In 2015, he founded Belgrade Photo Month, an annual festival dedicated to showcasing and promoting photography in Belgrade, which became a biennial event in 2022. That same year, he launched Belgrade Photo Book Week, with its inaugural edition in May 2022 and two editions held to date. He is currently organizing the 7th edition of Belgrade Photo Month, set to open on May 7, 2025. In addition to his work as an independent curator, he has served as the curator and coordinator of the Catalan Film Festival in Serbia since 2021, a festival dedicated to promoting Catalan cinema in Belgrade and Sarajevo.

Olja Simčič Jerele is a young photographer, artist, curator and coordinator at DobraVaga Gallery. She graduated in photography at VIST – Faculty of Applied Sciences, and is currently in the second year of the Master’s programme in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In recent years, she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, including the Peti Štuk Gallery, DobraVaga, Kino Šiška, Layer House, Kula Cetinjska and the Fringe Arts Bath Festival. In 2025 she was one of the recipients of the student Prešeren Prize for her project Ponjava 4, which deals with support in creative processes.

Sonia Voss is a curator and researcher specializing in photography. Her exploration of East German photography led to the acclaimed exhibition Restless Bodies at the Rencontres d’Arles 2019, along with several related publications by Editions Xavier Barral/Atelier EXB, Koenig Books, and Hatje Cantz. Expanding her focus to Eastern Europe, she curated the Louis Roederer Discovery Award at the Rencontres d’Arles 2021. She also collaborates closely with artists such as Isabelle Le Minh and Tarrah Krajnak. Her work occasionally extends to archival research, including her recent introduction of Uraguchi Kusukazu’s work to the public in Ama (Rencontres d’Arles 2024). Based in Paris and Berlin, she continues to develop exhibitions and projects at the intersection of history and contemporary artistic practice.

THE APPLICATION SHOULD INCLUDE:

• One or two completed projects or projects in progress. Each project must contain a maximum of 20 and a minimum of 4 photos with a resolution of at least 1800 pixels per long side, in PDF or JPG format. Projects must not be older than three years.
  • Each project description and its coceptual basis (mandatory in English) of up to 1500 characters.
  • A short biography of the applicant.
  • Additional technical information: the photographic techniques used to create the photograph (analogue or digital photography, photo collage, photo montage, photo installation, appropriation of found photographs, etc.), the dimensions of the works and the optimal way of presenting them in an exhibition format.

Please adhere strictly to the entry criteria and submit all materials listed.

SUBMISSION OF THE APPLICATION

The complete application should be packed in one zip file and have the following title:
Name_Surname_ProjectTitle.zip.

Please send the zip file along with the application form at https://shorturl.at/ExDC5.
If you have any problems submitting your application, please contact us at spela@photon.si.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION

Applicants are requested to submit their applications no later than midnight on Sunday, 18th May 2025. Applicants will be notified of the results of the selection process no later than 10 days after the deadline.

EXHIBITION

The selected artists will be presented in a group exhibition at the Photon Gallery, which opens its doors on Thursday, 19 May 2025. The exhibition will be accompanied by a small exhibition catalogue. After Ljubljana, the exhibition will travel to other European cities of the project partners.

OUR CONTACT

For more information, please contact spela@photon.si and +386 59 977907 (weekdays, 12-6 pm); contact person: Špela Pipan.