Organizer Information
Gráficas LAR (legally Initium LAR, S.L.) is a small printing house based in Viveiro, a town on the northern coast of Galicia, Spain. Operating since 1980, the company has produced printed work and books for clients across Spain. Each Christmas, Gráficas LAR prints a run of high-quality wall and desktop calendars — known as the "Calendario PHOTOLAR" — which it distributes to its clients, friends, and neighbors. The PHOTOLAR photography contest, now in its 18th edition, is how the company selects the twelve images that will illustrate that year's calendar, making the contest a recurring extension of its printing business rather than a standalone cultural institution.
Title & Description
18thPHOTOLAR Calendar Photography Contest — Theme: "Navegar" ("Sail")
The 18thPHOTOLAR contest invites photographers to submit a gallery of images built around this edition's theme, "Navegar" (Sail). Twelve photographs from a single winning photographer will be selected to illustrate each month of Gráficas LAR's 2027 print calendar. The organizers state their goal plainly: to produce a beautiful, high-quality calendar that brightens the homes, workshops, and offices of their clients, and the calendar itself functions as the company's signature print product. AI-generated images are explicitly barred from participation, and any such submission results in immediate disqualification.
Theme
"Navegar" (Sail) — the organizer notes it will judge submissions by how well they fit this theme as well as by minimum technical quality standards.
Categories
- Photography
Eligibility
- Open to all interested adults
- Minors may also participate, but if their gallery (12 photos) is preselected for final jury evaluation, a signed statement of permission from a parent or guardian will be required
- Participation implies full acceptance of the contest terms
- No AI-generated images are permitted; submission of one results in immediate disqualification
Program Benefits & Awards
- Cash prize of €400 for the single overall winner
- Special recognition of the winning photographer's authorship printed throughout the entire 18thPHOTOLAR Calendar
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Submit by email to calendario@graficaslar.es, or via file-sharing/download links (e.g. Dropbox, WeTransfer).
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 15 September 2026
- Winner Announcement: before November 2026, via the organizer's Facebook and website
Location
Viveiro, Galicia, Spain
Additional Details
- The jury is composed of the winners of the previous seven editions, who evaluate five galleries preselected by Gráficas LAR; a past winner who re-enters the current edition forfeits their judge status for that year, with their vote passing to the winning photographer from eight editions earlier
- A judge who does not cast a vote within seven days of receiving the galleries loses that right for the current edition, and the vote is not reassigned to another past judge
- In case of a technical tie, Gráficas LAR resolves it at its own discretion
- Moral rights to submitted photographs remain non-transferable and belong to the photographer; Gráficas LAR will contact the author for permission before using any photo on its website, Facebook, or other social media, and will credit the photographer (via watermark or byline) in any such use
- If a recognizable person appears in a submitted photo, the participant guarantees they hold that person's express authorization (or a parent/guardian's consent if the person is a minor), and assumes full responsibility for any related third-party claims
- Photographs not awarded a prize are deleted once the contest concludes; the organizer acquires no rights to submitted images beyond participation in the contest
- Participation implies consent to be added to a contest-specific mailing list, from which participants may unsubscribe at any time; personal data is processed under Spain's Organic Law 15/1999 on Data Protection
- Gráficas LAR reserves the right to suspend or end the contest, with no right of claim by participants; unaddressed matters are resolved at the organizer's discretion
- Source discrepancy to flag: Section 6 of the rules refers to the prize being announced for the "Calendario 17thPHOTOLAR," while the rest of the document (title, header) refers throughout to the "18thPHOTOLAR" edition — this may be a leftover from a previous year's template rather than a fresh error, but it isn't resolved in the source. Separately, the data-protection clause names two different file years — "participantes calendario LAR 2026" in the Spanish text versus "participants calendar LAR 2025" in the English text — and the document is dated "08/07/2026" in the Spanish version but "07/08/2026" in the English version (which may simply reflect day/month order differing by language, but could also indicate two different dates).