APA New York: 5th Annual Exhibition & Competition - Call for Entries

Photo by Tal Shpantzer

Show Your Finest Work

APA New York invites all photographers to participate in our 5th Annual Photography Competition

• This one-week, open-gallery event, to be held February 2-7, 2027, will give each photographic artist a chance to exhibit their work at the Soho Photo Gallery located in the Chelsea district of NYC.
• What type of photos should you submit? All kinds! You can submit personal work or assignment work; commercial or fine art; reportage, fashion, street photography, still life, landscape, macro or portraits; fantasy or reality; digital or old-school alternative processes; color or black & white; animal, vegetable or mineral; you name it (including any photographic genre we forgot to mention). If you think it's a great photo, we want to see it!
• Photos will be featured on the gallery walls at this special event.
• The promotional effort for this event will include: Features on the APA website, social media exposure, a fully illustrated show catalogue, and an Opening Reception at the gallery to bring the industry professionals who buy photographs and hire photographers to see the exhibition.

Contact us if you have any questions

Meet the Curator: Elizabeth Renstrom

Elizabeth Renstrom is a New York–based photo editor, curator and photographer whose work explores nostalgia, femininity, consumer culture, and the ways images shape identity. She previously served as Senior Photo Editor at The New Yorker and has held editorial positions at VICE, Marie Claire, and TIME.

Renstrom has served as a juror and portfolio reviewer for LensCulture, the Lucie Photo Book Awards, APA-Los Angeles, Red Hook Labs New Talent, Photoville, Belfast Photo Festival, and the Daylight Photo Book Awards. She has taught at Parsons School of Design and the International Center of Photography.

About APA

APA’s mission is to educate and elevate, and advocate for the professional photographic community. American Photographic Artists (APA) is an organization dedicated to the success of professional photographers working in stills and motion. Our organization’s foundation is built upon creating a diverse and inclusive photographic community that supports photographers at every level in their careers.

To achieve our mission, our goals are to establish, endorse, and promote professional practices, standards, and ethics in the photographic community; to mentor, motivate, educate and inspire in the pursuit of excellence. APA strives to provide the tools and connections that photographers need to run a successful business.

APA New York is the Northeast regional chapter of American Photographic Artists (APA) which also includes Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

About the Gallery

Soho Photo Gallery was founded in 1971 by a group of New York Times photojournalists and avant-garde photographers, as a co-op gallery, which it remains to this day. It is New York City’s longest-running co-op gallery. Now located in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

Submission Guidelines

1. Only digital images are accepted through our online submission process. The original image does not need to be digital in origin, it must only be submitted in digital form for judging purposes.
2. Each entry is one photograph
3. There is no date restriction on when the entry image was created.
4. A series is defined by photos that are part of the same story or body of work.
5. If the photo was selected in a previous APA NY annual exhibition, it will not be considered this year
6. Submissions created using AI generated prompts are not considered "photography" for this contest and will not be included.
7. If you have trouble uploading, your file sizes may be too large

Juror Selection

• A total of 80 photos will be selected.
• Image files names are not seen by the juror. Once submitted they are assigned an arbitrary ID for the “blind” judging.
• The juror/curator for this competition may select all or any part of Series Entries
• One photographer can not have more than five images selected in the show.

Upload Guidelines

1. All files must be jpegs with a file size limit of 2MB.
2. Image size 1800 pixels on the long side.
3. No watermarks on your photos
4. Name your image files with your name (the juror does not see the file names but your name helps us locate your photos)
5. Do not use special characters in your file name ©, @, #, é, ü
6. Example file name: jones-jane-red-window.jpg

Important: File Naming Conventions

For Single Image Entries: Your Last Name-Your First Name-Image Title.
Example Fie Name: jones-jane-red-window.jpg

For Series Entries: Your Last Name-Your First Name-Image
Title-Series-XofY.
Example File Name: Jones-Jane-Ballerina-Series-1of4

Do not include special symbols ©, @, #, ü in your file name. The juror does not see the file names but it helps us locate your photos if needed.

Entry Fees

Single Image Entry:

• APA Members: $25 per image
• Non-Members: $50 per image

Series Entry (a series of 2 to 4 images):

• APA Members: $25 for each image
• Non-Members: $50 for each image

The competition is open to all members of APA nationwide. If you are not a member of APA and would like to join, please visit our Join page for more information. There are five membership levels (starting at just $50), so there is bound to be one just right for your needs.

Exhibiting Your Winning Image(s)

• Your work will be juried from the digital files you submit.
• You may enter as many single images, or as many series, as you like.
• No AI generated images permitted.
• By submitting your work for jurying, you commit to exhibiting whichever image(s) the Juror chooses. The decision of the Juror, as to which photographs go in the show, is final.
• APA New York reserves the right to publish the winning photographs on our website and social media to publicize the show, and in a printed catalogue. The Copyright is always retained by the photographer.
• If your work is juried in to the show, you will need to provide us with a high resolution version for printing in the catalogue.

Important Dates

• Deadline for submissions: December 3, 2026
• Winners will be notified no later than December 21, 2026
• Winners to supply a high resolution digital file for book and exhibition print by December 30, 2026
• Exhibition: February 2 - 7, 2027
• Gallery Reception: February 4, 2027

Categories

• Single Image
• Series