Encontros da Imagem 2011 – Braga Photo Festival 21st edition

16 September – 30 October 2011

Braga – Portugal

“New Visions on Social Documentary Photography”

The “Encontros da Imagem” (Image Meetings), the oldest photo festival of the Iberian

Peninsula is back in 2011 under the theme “New Visions on Social Documentary

Photography”.

From September 16th until the end of October 13 exhibitions will be shown at historical,

cultural and modern spaces of Braga, Portugal, in an event that also includes a 7500 Euros

prize for the best portfolio presented to an international jury.

The current crisis in Portugal and the transformations of Eastern Europe after the fall of the

communism are two of the main attractions of this year edition.

The current situation of Portugal is portrayed in the exhibition of the KameraPhoto

collective that will be shown at the D. Diogo de Sousa Museum. “It’s a portrait of the social

and political moment that Portugal is living, shown through the lenses of the 13

photographers that form this collective, born in 2003” explains Rui Prata, the festival

director.

“New life | New Document”, commissioned by Vladimir Birgus, director of the Opava

University, Czech Republic, presents a “comprehensive view of the eastern countries and

the changes suffered after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We feel in this exhibition the advent of

democracy and the pulse of freedom in Eastern Europe”, says Rui Prata. The show, with

about 80 images of 21 authors, will occupy a division of the Monastery of Tibães.

A note also to "Things here and things to come," a work made in Tel Aviv by José Pedro

Cortes, "with four young Jewish American who, as adults, fulfil the desire to return to Israel

to perform military service" refers the festival director.

Mark Curan brings to Tibães Monastery his doctoral thesis. According to the Commissioner

of the show, we’ll see "a confrontation between the new technologies factories and

bankruptcy of other production sectors in Germany."

"Nomads", a work on Irish nomads by Dragan Thomas, and three projects "on the

underground side of society" which will be made available at the Museum of the Image, are

the other major highlights of this year, according to Director of event.

The central theme of the 21st edition of the Meetings is "New Visions on social

documentary photography" and results "of consciousness that the organization took in the

analysis of landscape photography. We noted a growing of events that show a photography

that is more decorative and, in our view, has a negative influence on young photographers

looking for a quick success. "

"At a time of great euphoria around the image that is very manipulated by the emergence

of new technologies, we feel the need to prioritize the territory of the documentary

photography as a memory of the present time. Given this situation, the Encontros da

Imagem consider important the approach to new projects which register the present

moment of society”, explains Rui Prata.

“As far as photography is a privileged support to register the collective memory, the

program was designed with the aim to lead the public to make a reflection about the

everyday life through the attention that is given to the behaviours of societies from

different geographic areas."

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"We do not want to show only poverty or war, that we see every day in the news, but the

experiences of everyday life and some happiness", he concluded.

The Encontros da Imagem were born in 1987. In the 20 previous editions more than 1000

Portuguese and foreign authors passed through Braga, including several references of the

history of photography as W. Eugene Smith, Nadar, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Antoine

d'Agata, William Klein, Andrew Kertsz, Diane Arbus, Lewis Hine and Martin Parr.

International Photography Award Emergentes | DST

Deadline for applications: august 15th

Rules and info at: www.encontrosdaimagem.com or at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=224096564289378

Contact: emergentes@encontrosdaimagem.com

For the second year in a row, a prize of 7500 Euros will be given to the best portfolio

presented to the international jury that will come to the Encontros da Imagem at Braga,

Portugal.

The Photography Prize EMERGENTES DST, will be awarded after the Portfolio Review

which shall give photographers the opportunity to show their work to commissioners,

gallery owners and expert editors, thus establishing solid foundations for the promotion of

their work.

Each applicant must submit no more than 20 digital images (b&w or colour). It must be an

original and recent Portfolio (images with no more than three years).

Applications are open between July 15 and August 15, 2011 at the site

www.encontrosdaimagem.com or for the mail emergentes@encontrosdaimagem.com.

Every creator who uses photography as main expression may apply regardless of

nationality, gender or age.

A pre-selection from a committee of experts will select 70 authors who shall be invited to

submit their portfolio to further review from specialists and photography and visual arts

analysts.

The winner of the Photography award EMERGENTES DST receives 7.500 Euros and will

have an individual exhibition at the Festival Encontros da Imagem – 2012.

The lecture of the portfolios will take place the 1st and 2nd of October.

The International Photography Award EMERGENTES DST is an initiative and a production

of Encontros da Imagem, sponsored by Domingos da Silva Teixeira company, with a prize

money that will be granted to the best 2011 Contemporary Photography Portfolio.

Confirmed jury list:

Beate Cegielska – Curator at Galleri Image, Ârhus, Denmark

Bill Kouwenhoven –Hot Shoe Magazine International Editor | New York, USA

Jim Casper – Lens Culture director | Paris, France

Lisa Fetisova – Gallery Russian TeaRoom | Paris, France

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Mário Teixeira da Silva – Gallery Módulo | Lisbon, Portugal

Nathalie Herschdorfer – Independent Curator | Lausanne, Switzerland

Paço Salinas –Encuentros Fotográficos director | Múrcia, Spain

Paul de Felice – Senior Lecturer (Visual Arts) at University of Luxembourg | Luxembourg

Peggy Sue Amison – Sirius Arts Centre artistic director | Cork, Ireland

Krzysztof Candrowicz – Lodz Fotofestival director | Lodz, Poland

Sandra Vieira Jurgens – Artecapital magazine director and editor | Lisbon, Portugal

Simone Rodrigues – FotoRio Festival curator| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Xavier Canone – Charleroi Photo Museum director | BÉLGICA