Picture This: Hope

Exhibition Competition

PICTURE THIS: HOPE

A National Justice Museum Photography Competition
Submissions open until Wednesday 25 September

‘Picture This: Hope,’ a new free to enter, black and white photography exhibition and competition.

We invite photographers from across the UK, whether professional or aspiring, to submit their black and white photographs that capture the essence of Hope.

What symbolises hope to you? Are you inspired by nature's resilience, acts of kindness, or the enduring human spirit? Maybe you want to explore what personal hope means to you, or what it means to society as a whole.

Whether it's the small, everyday moments or grand visions of the future, we want to see your interpretation of Hope. Grab your camera or phone and get creative to capture the essence of Hope in a way that resonates with you.

All ideas welcome and all entrants will be displayed within the museum in an exhibition in November 2024.

Submission Guidelines - please read before entering

Submit your entry

Prizes

The Creative Residency Prize with a £1000 budget is open to all professional and aspiring photographers at any stage of their career. The first prize recipient will be given time, support and space at the National Justice Museum to develop their creative practice and will have access to all the museum has to offer to shape the direction and output of their residency. This will be an exciting opportunity to connect with and be inspired by this amazing historical space, our enduring themes of social justice and our wider creative community. Further cash prizes of £200 and £100 will be given for second and third place. Winners will be selected by a professional judging panel.
The Young Persons Award is open to people aged 10 to 18 years old at the point of entry. First prize of £100, second prize of £50 to celebrate young photographers and help inspire and nurture creativity. Winners will be selected by a professional judging panel.
The People’s Choice Award is open to everyone. The winner will receive a Family ticket to The National Justice Museum and City of Caves. Open to everyone. Winner will be selected by public vote.

Winning entrants of the Creative Residency and Young Persons Award will also be featured in our gallery guide and receive further exposure through our social media channels.

The Creative Residency and Young Persons Awards will be decided by our panel of judges Anthony Luvera, Francesca Hummler, and Vanley Burke.

The Judges

Anthony Luvera

Anthony Luvera is a socially engaged artist, writer and educator based in London. The long-term collaborative work he creates with individuals and communities has been exhibited widely in galleries, public spaces, and festivals, including Tate Liverpool, The Gallery at Foyles, British Museum, London Underground’s Art on the Underground, National Portrait Gallery London, Four Corners, and Landskrona Foto Festival.

Winner of last year’s Creative Residency Prize, Francesca Hummler is a German-American visual artist, writer, researcher, and curator working with photography currently based in London, England. She received her B.A. in Media Arts and B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California at San Diego in 2019. She earned a Master's in Photography with distinction for her dissertation, "American Identity and Photographic Healing", from The Royal College of Art in London, England, in 2022.

Vanley Burke has lived and worked in Birmingham since 1965, when he moved as a child to the UK from St. Thomas, Jamaica. Often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British photography,’ Burke is one of Britain’s foremost photographers, renowned for creating powerful imagery that exhibits great empathy for his subjects and challenges negative stereotypes toward British Black communities.

Submission Guidelines and Terms & Conditions

Please read the Submission Guidelines and Terms & Conditions in full before submitting your entry.

Submissions are open until Sunday 15^th September 2024 11.59pm

Please let us know if we can help you with any accessibility needs when completing your submission, contact: Sarah.Gotheridge@nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk

Submission Guidelines
- Only one entry per person.Your image can be submitted for all qualifying prize categories.
- All images must be black and white, any images in colour will be disqualified.
- All capture and process methods of photography are welcome. However, we will not accept images created by AI technology. AI may be used only for the purpose of editing images.
- Submissions from National Justice Museum employees are welcome but are not eligible for any prize categories.
- Name your image file in this format: Firstname_Surname_ImageTitle
- Minimum file size 1MB. Maximum file size 10MB.
- Image file format: JPEG or Tiff files only. PDF’s and other file formats will not be accepted.
- The submission form asks for you to write up to 50 words on what ‘Hope means to you’. This may be included in the exhibition gallery guide and exhibition alongside your submission.
- Entrants to the Creative Residency Prize will be asked to submit an artist’s statement, further details of this are highlighted below.
- The submission form needs to be completed in one go, it is not possible to save and return back to an entry. Entrants are advised to prepare Artist Statements, words on ‘Hope’, and image files in advance.
- Please ensure all your details are correct before submitting your entry. Once submitted they cannot be changed.
- Submissions are open until Sunday 15^th September 2024 11.59pm
Please let us know if we can help you with any accessibility needs when completing your submission, contact: Sarah.Gotheridge@nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk
Entering the Creative Residency Prize
In addition to submitted images, the judges will be considering the creative practice of entrants to select a winner. Entrants to the Creative Residency Prize category will be asked to upload an Artist Statement.

Entrants can also provide details of their website/ relevant social media or any online platform that showcases their creative practice to support their submitted image.

Completing your Artist Statement

In no more than 500 words please tell us more about your creative practice, by answering the following questions.
- What stage of your career would you define yourself? Professional, student or aspiring creative practitioner?
- How would you describe your creative practice?
- What motivates you as a creative practitioner?
- If applicable, where and what did you study? (Please note that studying a creative course is not a prerequisite for the Creative Residency Prize and the National Justice Museum welcomes artists from all backgrounds, whether self-taught or having followed a formal route into the creative industries.)
- If applicable, where have you exhibited your work?
- What are your aspirations as a creative practitioner?
- How would winning the Creative Residency Prize category help your creative practice?
- If you won the Creative Residency Prize, do you have any initial ideas about how the National Justice Museum and its themes on social justice might inspire your work?
Please save your artist statement as a word or PDF document and title the file: Firstname_Surname_ ImageTitle_Artist_Statement
Terms and Conditions
1. By submitting an image, the photographer confirms that they are the creator of the image and have obtained any necessary permissions. The photographer also confirms that AI has not been used in any part of the creation of their image and that they have not infringed on the copyright of any third parties.
2. Copyright on submitted images remains with the photographer. However, by submitting their work, the photographer gives permission for the National Justice Museum and co-production partners to use their work for the duration of the Picture This: Hope, open call and exhibition, for (but not limited to) the following:
3. Marketing campaigns, social media, press releases, newsletters and in any other medium for promotional purposes. Images may also be used to inspire the National Justice Museum’s, Make it Yours workshop program.
4. Images may also feature in a VR version of the Picture This: Hope exhibition indefinitely. All images will be appropriately accredited to the photographer who has submitted the work in question.
5. By submitting an image, the photographer agrees that the National Justice Museum may contact them, with news and updates on the Picture This: Hope competition and exhibition. The National Justice Museum will also request feedback to help us learn about our audience and ensure that we give you the best possible experience to those that engage with the Museum.
6. By submitting an image, the photographer understands that the National Justice Museum will be collecting their data for monitoring purposes, which may be shared anonymously with our main funder for this project, Arts Council England.
7. The Picture This: Hope, open call is open to UK residents only. Images received from anyone not resident in the UK at point of entry will not be considered by the judges for the prize categories.
8. Names and image titles will be used in the gallery guides, the Picture This: Hope exhibition, printed materials and in social media and it is the photographer’s responsibility to ensure that the details they provide are correct. In addition, the National Justice Museum will not be held responsible for any errors that may occur due to technical malfunctions or human error on the part of the submitter.
9. The National Justice Museum pledge to display every image* submitted in the Picture This: Hope open call, in some form within exhibition. As we anticipate receiving more submissions than we can display within our gallery space, some images will appear on rolling screens. Images that are displayed on the walls within the gallery will differ in scale and presentation. These will be curatorial choices and no reflection on the quality of the work submitted.
10. *The National Justice Museum reserves the right not to display any lewd or offensive images.
11. Judging takes place prior to the exhibition installation, and all will be judged on their own artistic merit. The decision of the professional judges vote and public vote is final. However, if at any time a winning photographer is found to be in breach of the terms and conditions, or not eligible for their selected winning category, the relevant prize will be forfeited and awarded to another entrant.
12. We will not be able to provide individual feedback on submitted images.