Organizer Information
SOLAS / SHADOW Gallery is an international virtual contemporary arts platform dedicated to building cross-border communities for fine-art lens-based practitioners. The gallery hosts thematic online exhibitions, publishes specialized exhibition catalogs, and maintains high-visibility multi-media networks on streaming and social platforms to advance the professional trajectories of emerging and established photographers globally.
Title & Description
Flora / Fauna International Photography Exhibition.
Submissions are officially open for this international curated open call. The project explores the biological polarity, differences, and deep ecological interconnectedness between botanical and zoological life within nature. Exploring critical topics such as growth, adaptation, environmental survival, and habitat transformation, the exhibition investigates how these two realms shape and sustain one another. Additionally, the call invites visual investigations into how flora and fauna interact with the contemporary modern world and the specific footprint humans leave on natural ecosystems. Photographers are encouraged to explore this theme with absolute creative freedom, focusing tightly on one dimension or weaving both into a single cohesive narrative.
Category
Photography (Digital Photography / Analogue / Film Photography / Fine-Art Photography / Nature & Documentary Photography
Eligibility
Open to fine-art photographers and image-makers worldwide across all technical backgrounds. Applicants must be strictly 18 years of age or older at the time of entry submission.
Program Benefits & Awards
Selected final exhibitors secure an itemized suite of international marketing, archival publication, and digital certification advantages:
- Virtual Exhibition: Custom curation and publication of selected works within an online group exhibition gallery hosted on the official website.
- Catalog Publication: Inclusion of selected imagery inside the formal Flora / Fauna Exhibition Catalogue, distributed globally in both physical print and digital PDF formats.
- Video Streaming Features: Dedicated broadcasting profiles featuring the artist's work on the gallery's verified YouTube channel.
- Social Amplification: Targeted audience outreach and promotional features across all centralized gallery social media networks.
- Institutional Certification: A formal digital certificate of participation recognizing selection into the international cohort.
Application Fee
- None (Completely free to submit up to 5 images for initial curatorial assessment).
- Participation Fee: Selected final exhibitors must clear a localized administrative participation fee based directly on the final volume of chosen works:
- Vetting Tier 1: £16 GBP flat rate if exactly one (1) image is chosen for the show.
- Vetting Tier 2: £22 GBP flat rate if two (2) or more images are selected for the show.
Application Requirements
Submission emails must be compiled in a concise format and accompanied by your digital photography files. Ensure your portfolio dossier fulfills the following criteria:
- Portfolio Allocation: Up to a maximum of five (5) images total per applicant.
- Technical Image Format: Files must be submitted strictly in JPG format only.
- File Naming Convention: To ensure precise identification, images must be explicitly labeled with your full name and sequence number (e.g., Ann-Smith1.jpg, Ann-Smith2.jpg).
- Biographical Metadata: Your full legal first name and surname, physical location or country of origin, national identity, and active links to your professional website or social media handles.
- Text Components: An optional artwork title list for your submitted imagery, accompanied by a short artist biography restricted to no more than a couple of sentences.
How to Apply?
Compile your 5 correctly named JPG files into a single batch directory. Upload the files using an encrypted file transfer utility like Smash, Swiss Transfer, or WeTransfer, and dispatch the generated link along with your biographical metadata text directly to the selection panel.
Key Dates
- Application Submission Deadline: July 15, 2026
- * Note: Due to the high volume of incoming assets, the gallery operates a conditional notification policy: only shortlisted, selected artists will be contacted.*
- Official Virtual Exhibition Opening: September 2026
Location
Online / Virtual Exhibition Hub open to global submissions.
Additional Details
Artists retain 100% full copyright ownership of their individual submitted works. By entering this open call, participants grant the organizing gallery a non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, and broadcast their images on web domains, social channels, streaming networks, and print or digital catalog publications for the express purpose of promoting and displaying the Flora / Fauna exhibition cycle.