CONTEST INFO

GENERAL

The objectives of this contest are the strengthening of photography as an inquisitive instrument for architecture, searching for new talents and awareness towards photography and architecture both in Portugal and abroad, and moreover to raise a wider appreciation of our architectural, cultural and intellectual inheritance and promote the photography platform scopio Network.

Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries is the main theme of the current cycle of scopio Magazine.

The published issue of VIEWFINDER Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries: City is the title of the second of the 3 different but interrelated categories that integrate the cycle, Architecture, City and Territory. Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries focuses on diverse countries and on how architecture is transformed, how it reflects different hybrid cultural identities in many countries and how all of this interacts with and affects our cities and the landscape, always bearing in mind the mentioned categories: Architecture, City and Territory. Thus, we are interested in photography and in projects that may reveal the multiple layers of history embedded in the architecture of cities from different parts of the world, showing how these cities are in constant evolution and how they define new forms of occupation of the available territory.

We are also interested in understanding how social, economic and political systems and values affect the territory and its cities, as well as the way people live and work on those places. Some questions of interest that can be taken on board are:

Differences and affinities between country of origin and the new country of emigration, exploring diverse perspectives and deconstructing biased ideas;

Issues related with the relocation of people from one place to another within each country and at an inter-regional level, along with the consequences of it all;

The achievements, aims and hopes of numerous people and how they are reflected in the lives and architecture of many cities;

How immigrants or minorities and their dreams are symbolised and perceived in several countries with different values and how the former are assimilated;

To question our cultures’ values and desires and the particular features of place and cities in several countries;

Explore the crossing boarders and shifting boundaries of several dimensions in life – social, psychological, economical, and others alike – and how they are symbolised in the architecture and urban space of different cities.

This site and VIEWFINDER are used to publish the projects within the contest and, in doing so, they are offering more autonomy and publication space for the editorial content of Viewfinder that reveals new talents and awareness towards photography and architecture, city and territory universes both in Portugal and abroad, recognizing that past published photography projects have significantly captured the interest of both specialised and general public and also building new collaborations giving more freedom and responsibility to their Editors with the objective of creating increased synergies with them.

Thus, scopio Magazine International Photography Contests will be linked to scopio Magazines global theme crossing borders, shifting boundaries, which is a subject that allows to understand how different disciplines or fields of practice use photography as an instrument of evidence, expression and inquiry, between documentation and art, as also how photography can establish a bridge between these different areas of interest and study. This means exploring the concept of crossing and erecting borders over different fields of study and practices with the intent of presenting a broad understanding about these issues linking them to photography image, art and architecture in order to question our cultures’ values and desires and the specific characteristics of places, buildings and how people appropriate and live in these built spaces.

next edition, scopio Magazine International Contest: Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries – Territory

In the next edition Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries – Territory, the primarily focus is on the subject of residential spaces, public spaces, urban scattered communities and city life in general. It will try to show works that characterise the rich multifaceted world of contemporary cities and / or non traditional urban communities regarding immigrants or minorities’ different types of blocks, neighbourhoods, cultural diversity and values expressed in various types of residential and public spaces. Among other things, it is about looking at architectural spaces and their many signs, which reveal the values, customs and culture of the people who live there. In fact, the aim is to show a varied set of works capable of providing a creative and significant body of evidence as regards to the diversity and richness of our cities’ architecture and life. In addition, it will focus on how the cities contribute to structure and characterise the territory and are responsible for order and disorder applied to urban and territorial issues.

Moreover, there will be an interest in work that explores how cities and other natural systems as rivers, seas, forests and other alike have been in interaction and characterize the territory in terms of spatial morphology and geographical features. All this will contribute to understand how social, economic and political systems and values affect the way territories evolve and are categorized.

We will be announcing our two different but related photography contests in each issue of scopio Magazine Viewfinder and through its internet platform scopio International Photography and Photobook Contest.

SCOPIO International Photography Contest is designed to encourage the creation of an interesting photography series of no more than 10 images, with a descriptive memory not exceeding 2000 characters.

This means working with a concept and defining it visually through the photographic process, thus creating a series of images related to one another. However, the relatedness is best achieved by a cumulative effect rather than the order in which the images are presented.

SCOPIO International Photobook Contest, as the name implies, is directed towards the creation of an Artist Photobook, which also involves the visual definition of a concept. Nevertheless, the focus is now on creating a narrative, of no less than 20 images with a descriptive memory of 1500 words, assuming that by presenting a story the reader will be pulled in and “entertained”.

In this case, an image is linked with the next one at a fundamental, conceptual and emotional level, increasing the reader’s attention to the work in order to figure out what those connections are. Our aim is to reveal the potential of the photobook as a mature medium capable of communicating different perspectives and of combining diverse art expressions to convey in a unique way the rich multi-layered contemporary issues related to architecture, city spaces and the territory where people live and work. In this sense, we are accepting entries of small limited editions of Artist Photobooks or Dummies, as long as they follow the regulations and the publishing disclosure rights of the contest. Both contests will follow scopio’s major theme but they are different, autonomous and with different deadlines. In each issue, we shall announce the theme for both contests, thus giving new authors better opportunities to present projects that may add richness to the contents of that theme. It will also be possible for authors to participate and register projects before the deadline of the contest. Accordingly, the forthcoming scopio International Photography Contest and scopio International Photobook Contest will both have as theme “Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries: Territory”.