APA Chicago - 2025 Artist’s Perspective - Call for Entries

APA Chicago is holding our 11th Annual Artist’s Perspective Personal Work Exhibition, culminating with a one-night gallery exhibition. We are excited and proud to announce that Sam Landers and Tom Maday from Trope Publishing and photographer Marina Makropoulos will curate this year’s exhibition. These creatives are strong advocates for original photography and photographers throughout their accomplished careers.

Submission deadline: February 26, 2025 at 1:00 p.m.

This is a personal work exhibition and is open to all photographers—professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs. And, APA members and non-members.

Personal Work Makes a Statement

Our numerous interviews with agency creatives, we've learned the most effective way to break through and get noticed is with a well-conceived and executed personal assignment. Personal projects give photographers the chance to art direct their vision—taking a blank sheet of paper and making it their own. Agency creatives rely on a photographer’s personal work as insight into their world view. At APA Chicago, our annual competition celebrates the best in personal photographic work.

Meet the Curators

Sam Landers
Sam Landers is the Publisher and Editor at Trope Publishing Co. and believes strongly that beautiful and thoughtful books have a place in the world today. After working in advertising and design for over two decades, Sam launched Trope as an integrated publishing platform for books, periodicals, and films. Previously, he held various management positions with WPP, one of the world’s leading global marketing communication companies. During his time there, Sam worked in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco ~ and traveled frequently throughout Europe, Asia and Africa (always taking his notebook & camera).

Tom Maday
Tom Maday is a photographer whose assignments take him to every corner of the globe including Africa, the Middle East, the India subcontinent, Latin America, Europe and throughout Asia for clients such as ESPN, Abbott, Sappi Paper, Motorola, and TD Ameritrade. His Tri-X and T-Max film pictures appear in the books Great Chicago Stories and After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis. Over the years, his shooting gear has become lighter and lighter which helps him focus on the most important matter — the subject.

Marina Makropoulos
Marina Makropoulos is a portrait artist and documentary photographer who is passionate about creating meaningful work. She studied fine art at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia before moving to California to study photojournalism at Brooks Institute of Photography. She worked as a photojournalist for a daily newspaper in Illinois for half a decade before venturing out into the freelance market. She currently creates photographic portraiture and photographic essays in her Chicago studio and on location.

Top Reasons to Enter

• Superb opportunity to advance your career, display your own photographic style.
• Our 11th annual personal work photo exhibition.
• APA members receive a 40% discount on every image entered.
• Online Gallery of the exhibit will be up for all of 2025 and beyond.
• Top placed images proactively promoted to agency creatives via email.
• Simple, reliable, secure online entry procedure, through the APA National website.
• No limit to the number of images you can enter.
• No date-created limitations.

Entry Fees

• $15: APA members(members save $10 per entry)
• $25: Non-members

Submission deadline: February 25a, 2025 at 12:00 noon

Not an APA member? Now is a great time to join APA and receive a 40% discount on each image you enter. Current APA member looking to upgrade your membership contact: membershiprep@apanational.org.

Contest Rules

• Only digital images and payments are accepted, through our online entry process.
• A single entry is one image.
• There is no limit on the number of single entries submitted.
• You may not win for an image that has been a **winning selection** in a previous Artist's Perspective competition.
• There is no restriction on when the entry images were created.

By entering the 2025 Artist’s Perspective Annual Photo Competition, Entrants:

1. Warrant to APA Chicago that they have created and own the work submitted (including all elements of the work) and that nothing within any work has been copied or added from another person's work.
2. Warrant that the whole copyright and any other form of intellectual property right in the work is vested in them.
3. Warrant that they have not in any way assigned, licensed, disposed of, or otherwise encumbered any of their rights, which allow them to deal freely with the work and the copyright therein.
4. Warrant that they have obtained model or property releases from any persons and/or property owners requiring such, featured in their submitted photographs allowing publication in any and all media forms.
5. Agree that their work may be exhibited or shown during APA sponsored events, as well as on the APA website and APA promotional materials, allowing for the photographer to retain complete control over the licensing and sale of their work.
6. Agree that APA may reproduce and may allow reproduction of winning images in APA approved publications. Credit will be given to the photographer for any image(s) used.
7. Acknowledge that APA Chicago relies fully upon the warranties and license given by Entrants when submitting their entries for consideration to the 2025 Artist’s Perspective Annual Photo Competition. Entrants indemnify and hold APA Chicago harmless from any claims, actions, proceedings, costs, and expenses arising as a result of any allegation that the relevant Entrant did not own or is not wholly entitled and authorized to allow publication and reproduction of the work by APA.
8. APA Chicago reserves the right to disqualify any winner not providing the required personal information, headshot, and/or winning image in the requested file format and size within one week of APA Chicago’s request via the contact information supplied by the entrant. Replacement winners will be selected at the judge's discretion.
9. Judging is a blind process. Photographer's names will only be disclosed to the jurors after the judging process has been completed. The decision of the judges of the competition shall be final and binding.
10. Entrants retain full copyright to their images and grant no usage to APA Chicago other than those granted herein. APA Chicago, the Sponsors, or Venues showing an exhibition of winners shall not be liable for any loss or damage of any entry. Submission of an entry to the competition automatically constitutes the contestant's acceptance of all conditions set forth in the above rules. It also acknowledges the right of APA Chicago to use the photographer's likeness and information, as well as the winning images, in exhibitions and promotions, in any and all forms of print, electronic and digital media, related to the APA Chicago Annual Photo Competitions for up to 24 months following the 2025 Competition winners' announcement.
11. Entry fees cannot be refunded once submitted.
12. Winners will be announced on or about March 12, 2025.

Submission Guidelines

Please read contest terms and then follow these guidelines carefully to ensure proper submission of your entries.

1. APA member's can login using their APA credentials. Non-members can enter images into the contest by creating a guest account with business name, email address and password.
2. A single image entry is one image.
3. Please note, this year there is no "series" category - only single images.
4. You can upload as many images as you would like during the process.
5. All files must be jpgs, no smaller than 1200 pixels on the longest side, and at most 1800 pixels, 72 ppi, sRGB color profile, with no visible identifying text/symbols.
6. Image files need no unique title by the entrant; they are assigned an arbitrary ID for "blind" judging.
7. You'll see a preview of your images.
8. We have only one (1) category "Personal Work."
9. Preview your submission.
10. Pay fees, receive confirmation
11. Once you have paid, your submission is final and you will not be able to edit your images.
12. You can return to your account to enter more images.

Exhibitor Prints

All images selected for the one-night gallery exhibition will be inkjet printed at 16" x 20". Lamin-8 service bureau has offered us a non-profit volume discount, so Print Fees (including sales tax) will be $65. There is no APA markup and no hanging fees. This year we are again accepting entries from all photographers, no matter where you live. If you or someone you trust are unable to attend the Exhibition and take your print(s) home at the end of the event and would like it shipped to you, please note that you will need to provide, in advance: a FedEx Air or Ground account number and a $40 check for the packaging and handling fee for each print.

Exhibition Night

Exhibition Night is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Wildman BT, 3020 West Carroll Avenue, Chicago, IL 60612 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM. The exhibition is free to attend and open to everyone.

Categories

• Personal Work