For the second year running, Exposure 2012: Banff Canmore Calgary Photography Festival, which takes place throughout February, is seeking photographs for what proved to be a highlight of last year’s festival.
The Canmore outdoor projection event, sponsored by the Town of Canmore and Glacier Holdings, is scheduled for the evening of Feb. 10 and this year submissions are open only to Bow Valley residents from Lake Louise through to Morley.
The theme for the 2012 festival theme is ‘Insight’ and photographs can be of the local community, environment or places beyond the Bow Valley.
Each photographer is invited to submit up to five photographs and all entries will be projected onto the bare wall facing the vacant lot on Main Street next to the Bow Valley Credit Union.
As part of this event, three photographs that best fit the theme will be featured as 3 x 4-foot murals mounted in the windows of 710 Main Street (the old SAAN store).
Exposure board member Sarah Fuller said Wednesday (Dec. 14), organizers decided to narrow in on the Bow Valley for submissions as the theme is much broader than last year’s theme.
“This year it’s such a wide open topic, we don’t have the same direction, we decided to base it more regionally,” Fuller said.
Last year, 75 photographers – both amateur and professional – submitted over 400 photographs.
Submission deadline for the Canmore outdoor projection is Jan. 5.
For full submission guidelines, go to exposurephotofestival.blogspot.com/ or exposurephotofestival.com
“It was great. I was amazed. We were really happy with the response,” Fuller said.
The evening itself proved to be a hit as photography buffs came and went from the downtown site to see the projected images.
“I think it was such a nice atmosphere, a lot of people who submitted came and there was a festival atmosphere and people were having hot chocolate and looking at photos, visiting with one another, networking with people they hadn’t met before and other photographers, it was just a really fun event,” Fuller said.
“We were lucky it wasn’t too cold. It was doable.”
And Fuller expects equally great things for the 2012 festival, which is offering a broader selection of exhibitions, presentations and events.
“It has grown each year and I feel like we have gotten bigger and better every year. We have more exhibitions this year than we have ever had,” she said.
“It’s really great to see. People are starting to look for it and see it coming and get excited about it.”
One of the new events for the 2012 festival is the inaugural Exposure fundraiser f100, that will take place at Lougheed House in Calgary on Jan. 13.
Greg Gerla, f100 co-organizer, said VIP tickets are $100, but that includes live music with Calgary singer-songwriters Anita Athavale and Russ Broom, door prizes, a silent auction and a blind draw where everyone with a VIP ticket gets to take home a print.
“We approached photographers right across the country and asked them to donate a print that then go into a sealed envelope and people who have purchased $100 tickets get to draw one of those out and take it home with them,” he said.
The prints, donated by Canadian photographers such as Dianne Bos, Michael Levin, Diana Thorneycroft and George Webber, are sealed in envelopes for the VIP draw.
Tickets to f100 are also available for $15, but do not include the blind photograph draw.
Tickets are the f100 fundraiser are available at f100.eventbrite.com
