The contest

Rome Photo Lab is a themed photography contest open to professional and amateur photographers worldwide above the age of 18. It focuses on the themes: “Streets of the world” (Single Shot and Series) and “Street Photography in Rome“. For each theme there will be 3 prizes: first, second and third. All the photographs submitted will have to fall into one of each themes, and it will not be possible to partecipate to the two themes with one only photo. All photographs will have to shot after the 1st of January 2023.

All the photographs proposed by those who enroll in the contest, the jury will chose those to show in the final exhibition, which will be held inside Villa Altieri, a prestigious historical site in Rome. Between those chosen for the final exhibition, the international jury will award the prizes. The organization, at its unquestionable judgment, can disqualify any participant who does not comply with the rules and conditions laid out for the contest.

For the Series contest, you can submit a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 7 of your best street photos. This open call is all about the strength of the photos as a whole. In other words, the photos will not be judged based on their individual quality. During the judging, the sequence of your submitted images will also be evaluated.

Each photo submitted must contain the complete, unaltered EXIF data. This applies to digital photographs only and therefore does not apply to digitized film images.

Indeed, by enrolling, participants accept all said rules and conditions.

Categories

• Streets of the World – Single Photo
  A category dedicated to international street photography. Participants may submit a single photograph.
  Images must capture the essence of urban life, portraying authentic and spontaneous moments. The photograph should convey a story, emotion, or narrative tension, highlighting everyday moments, relationships between individuals and their environment, or the contradictions of urban space.
  Particular attention will be given to works that transform an ordinary moment into a meaningful image through composition, light, and timing.
• Series (Street Photographic Series)
  A category dedicated to projects composed of a series of street photographs that are coherent in theme, style, or narrative.
  Series should tell a visual story in an authentic and spontaneous way, avoiding overly staged solutions. Works that maintain narrative continuity and a balance between the author’s vision and observed reality will be favored, conveying emotion and connections between the images.
  Number of photographs per series: each participant may submit from 5 to 7 images.
  Time limit: there is no restriction on the date the photographs were taken for this category.
• Street Photography Roma
  A category dedicated to street photography created in the city of Rome.
  Images must be taken in Rome and must include clearly recognizable visual elements that unmistakably identify the city (such as architecture, monuments, urban context, or distinctive details).
  Images in which the connection to the city of Rome is not evident from the photograph itself will not be considered eligible.
• Special Mention
  This category will be evaluated after the pre-selection phase and applies exclusively to photographs that were not selected among the top 80 finalists in the other categories.
  Works deemed worthy by the jury will be recognized as Special Mentions for originality, visual impact, or narrative quality, regardless of their original category.

Submission Requirements

• Photographs must have been taken starting from January 1, 2023, with the exception of the Series category, which has no time restrictions.
• Both color and black-and-white digital images are accepted.
• Images must not contain offensive, defamatory, or unlawful content.

Rights and Responsibilities

• The author declares that they hold the rights to the submitted images.
• The author grants the organization permission to use the photographs for cultural, promotional, and dissemination purposes, always crediting the author.
• The organization is not responsible for any rights violations committed by participants.

Jury and Selection

The selection of works will take place through a two-level process, depending on the category:

• Streets of the World – Single Photo
  Initial evaluation by a preselection committee composed of Gwen Julia, Alonso Diaz de Anda, Citlali Medal, Catherine Auzuret and Serkan Teki̇n.

The preselection committee will choose a first shortlist of photographs to be submitted to the final committee, chaired by Mark Fearnley and also composed of Hersley Ven Casero and Nina Welch Kling, who will determine the finalists and the top three winners.

• Series (Street Photographic Series)
  Evaluation by a dedicated committee composed of Ximena Echegue, Jonathan Jasberg and Ana Cichowicz.
  The committee will select the finalists and the most outstanding works in the category, assessing narrative coherence, spontaneity, and visual quality of the series.
• Street Photography Roma
  Evaluation by a dedicated committee composed of Vanessa Pallotta and Pia Parolin.

The committee will select the finalists and the photographs that best represent the city of Rome, verifying the presence of visual elements clearly identifiable as Roman.

• Special Mention
  Evaluated after the preselection phase, exclusively among photographs not selected among the top 80 finalists in the other categories.
  Works deemed worthy will be recognized by the jury for originality, visual impact, or narrative quality

Participation fee and enrollment

To participate in the contest you will follow this link or the one present in the home page, which will lead you to a form containing the necessary instructions for your registration, creation of your account, and payment of the enrollment fee. Enrollment is only possible through this link and form.

Enrollment and participation fees are as follow:

• 1 photo: € 15
• 2 photos: € 25
• 3 photos: € 35
• 4 photos: € 45
• from 5 photos: € 10 each

The price for the Series contest is € 60.

The fee will not be refunded, even in the event that your photograph or photographs should not be selected for the final exhibition.

Submission of the photographs

All photo will be submitted online. As already said, each image can only participate one of the two themes, but it will be possibile to participate in both themes if you decide to submit at least two photographs.

All photos will be submitted in JPEG/JPG format with a file dimension not over 2Mb. The longest side of the photos must be at least 2000 pixels in size.

If selected, the organizer will ask to provide a higher resolution file.

All files shall be renamed with Name, Surname, Theme chosen and progressive number. if you submit more than one file in a given theme. E.g.: Name_Surname_Theme_progressive number.jpg. Note, an incorrect naming might result into the impossibility of evaluating the photograph.

Copyright of the author

Each participant maintains the copyright for all the photographs submitted.

By enrolling in the contest and submitting the photographs, the author declares that photographs are hers or his.

By filling in the form and enrolling in the contest the participants grant to the organizers the right to use free of charge all images submitted for promotional purpose related to the contest itself, hereby included their publication on catalogs, videos, calendars, social media e and the web site of the contest.

Publication of the images

All participants are entrely responsabile for the images they submitted fo ursahes related to the contest and the exhibition. The organizers will might use the images for cultural and academic ends, so long as they are of a pro-bono, non profit activities.

Photographs compliance

• Post production is allowed for images optimization purposes, like but exclusively: modification of contrast, texture, exposure, shadows or lights optimization, adjust color temperature and color grading, converting to black and white, removal of dust spots. Photographs should not look excessively modified or fake, lest the exclusion from the contest.
• Cropping is allowed when not too excessive, removal of unwanted objects or people is not allowed.
• Use of generative AI is not allowed to modify any part of the photograph and even less so to create a picture from scratch, through any type and brand of software included but not restricted to Photoshop.
• Photographs should not contain signatures or watermark.
• Photographs shall not be framed or contoured in any way.
• Photographs with overt sexual content of abusive and defamatory content will not be accepted.
• Photographs must have been shot after the 1st of January 2023.

Choice of the finalist to be displayed

Photographs will be evaluated anonymously by the appointed internal jury who will not be aware of the names and of any detail about the submitting participant. The finalist photographs and their authors for each theme will be chosen solely based on the jury’s judgement, and then printed and displayed in the final exhibition.
Finalists will be advised through an email to the address supplied during the enrollment.

The international jury will chose between the finalist photographs the winner for each of the themes, whose actors will be awarded during the official opening cerimony.

Prizes

There will be three prizes for the category “Streets of the world” Single Shot, three prizes for “Streets of the world” Series and three prices for for “Street Photography in Rome”. The decision of the international jury will be final.

Display

The finalist photographs will be published on the contest site and displayed in the collective exhibition in Villa Altieri, Rome. At the unquestionable judgement of the jury and of the organization, also some of the non finalist photographs might be published on the web site of the exhibition.

Acceptance of the Rules

Participation in the competition implies full acceptance of these regulations.