Shutter time

"Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter." Can you relate to this Ansel Adams sentiment, to that astonishing feeling when an ordinary moment becomes eternal and there you are with a camera in your hands? If so you’re in luck, because it’s time for Metro Times’ 22nd annual photo contest, a fierce but congenial battle among our readers that last year garnered more than 400 entries. The only requirement to enter is that you are an amateur — meaning, in this case, that photography counts for less than 50 percent of your annual income.

Consider this a call for entries. First, second and third place winners and honorable mentions will be chosen in each category and published in our special contest edition July 21.

As in years past, all entrants will be exhibited at a Detroit gallery (soon to be announced), so that everybody can appreciate the energy, diversity and inventiveness of your photographic vision.

Since the photos remain with Metro Times, they often get used in editorial layouts. Of course, the photographers get full credit, and whatever goes into print also goes up on our Web site, www.metrotimes.com, to be appreciated by readers around the world. Bring on the exposure.

This year, there will be a special category for photos that are experimental or highly altered for artistic effect using digital technology. The idea is to separate these works from more traditional photos that are altered with computers only as much as they could be altered in a darkroom.

The contest is judged by photo experts from the Detroit area — teachers, curators, photographers — making the contest the most solicited and challenging of its kind in Michigan.

ENTRY FORM AVAILABLE HERE (Acrobat required)

Rules: Deadline for entries is Tuesday, July 6, 4 p.m.

1. Eligibility: All persons are eligible except professional photographers and employees of Metro Times and their immediate families. A professional photographer is someone who earns more than half of his or her annual income from the profession.
2. Entries: Prints must be 8" by 10" and mounted on white mat board no larger than 11" x 14" (no framed prints). Photos should not be dry mounted to board, for they may need to be removed for publication. The front of the mat board should be free of identifying marks.
3. There is no limit to the number of photographs an individual may submit. An entry fee of $5 per photo must accompany each submission.
4. Fill out the entry form for each entry and attach it with strong tape to the back of the mat board. Photos will not be returned unless a special request is made to [email protected].
5. Judging decisions are final.
6. Ethics: Entrants to the traditional photography categories may only alter their photos as much as could be done in a darkroom; in other words, to change lightness or darkness, but not to add color or to change the composition of the photograph. Photos with additional alteration now have a special category for experimental and artistically altered photography, such as works that are colored-in or are heavily Photoshopped. Metro Times takes the word of its entrants, but negatives may be requested for examination if questions arise.
7. Awards: Prizes will be awarded to first-, second- and third-place winners in each category. Honorable mentions and judges’ picks will also be named.
8. Winners will be honored at the Metro Times Photo Contest awards presentation and party at 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 21. A selection of winning photos will be published in the July 21 issue of Metro Times.
9. All entries become the property of Metro Times. Entrants grant permission for their photographs to be published in Metro Times and used on our Web site. Photographers retain the rights to original negatives. Metro Times and the exhibition gallery are not responsible for damage to or theft of photographs.

Categories:

Black and white

Color

Experimental/artistically altered

ENTRY FORM AVAILABLE HERE (Acrobat required)