FOTODOC Center for Documentary Photography at Sakharov center is pleased to announce our fourth annual international Direct Look photo contest.​

Contest theme: problems pertaining to relations between individuals, society and state, as well as ways of addressing these problems.

The goal of the contest:
• Facilitate growth and promotion of independent journalism.
• Support authors who research issues addressing the relationship between individuals and society and state.
• Support photo projects based on respect and advocacy for human dignity, fundamental principles of the Russian Constitution and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The contest is held in three distinct categories:

The Problem
Issues, friction, disagreements or discord that arise within society between individuals, communities, civic institutions, and states.

The Conflict
The most heated methods of solving issues: disagreements or discord within society between individuals, civic institutions and the state. It manifests itself in parties acting against each other and is often accompanied by negative emotions that extend beyond existing norms and rules.

The Compromise
Conflict resolution through dialogue, social change or reform.

The Jury 2018

Jury consists of leading photo editors and curators from different countries:

Svetlana Bachevanova, publisher of FotoEvidence and documentary photographer;
Peter Bitzer, the CEO of laif, member of various photojournalistic juries, also he is teaching Photo Edit and Branding at University of Dortmund;

Maria Mann, photojournalism consultant. She was a member of the jury of international contests, among them: World Press, Unicef, Bayeux War Correspondents, POY, World Master Master Class и CHIPP / China. She was the founding chair of the Best of Photojournalism Contest in the US;

Andrei Polikanov, photo editor, Photo department head of the Moscow bureau of the "Time" magazine  (1996-2007) and "Russian Reporter" magazine (2007-2015), now - visual director at «Takie Dela» project. He was a member of the jury of national and international contests, among them: "World Press Photo", "Visa d'Or" in Perpignan;

Horacio Villalobos, photographer, worked as stringer for global print medias in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Middle East. Now Horacio works as Corbis/Getty photographer contributor and stringer in Portugal.

Direct Look photo contest is held for the fourth year and in 2017 we received several hundred applications from photographers all over the world, this year we expect even more to expand the geography and see a host of new and interesting projects.

Each photographer may submit up to three photo series (reports) per category. Each entry shall comprise no less than 5 and not exceed 15 images. All entry descriptions and image captions must be in English.

Voting will be held in two periods. On the first period short-list will be defined. Projects included to short-list will be involved into photo contest printed catalog. On the second period the jury will choose three winners in each nomination, who will obtain honourable prizes of Direct Look photo contest. Thee winners who will take the first place in each nomination will get 30 000 rubles. Winners series will be exposed at the exhibition in October 2018.
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You can submit your digital images for preliminary consideration and Jury voting until 23:59 MSK, July 01, 2018. Applications will be accepted in English. There is no entry fee.

Bird photography is very challenging, no matter the setting, but you don't need to make life harder for yourself by travelling further afield than necessary. You can capture stunning images of birds in the confines of your back garden or local park. We want to see your best photos of birds, in flight or feeding.

Expert and Crowd winners will receive a licence to Affinity Photo professional editing software. The top 3 in the expert-judged category, and the crowd-vote winner will also be published in a future issue of Digital Photographer magazine.

Win a licence to Affinity Photo professional editing software. Award-winning Affinity Photo continues to push the boundaries for professional photo editing software. Available for a one-off £48.99 on Mac or Windows, and £19.99 for iPad, its huge toolset is engineered for modern photography professionals. Whether you’re editing and retouching images or creating full-blown multi-layered compositions, it has all the power and performance you’ll ever need.

Speed, power and accuracy are at the heart of Affinity Photo’s workflow, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing and end-to-end colour management as standard. Edits work in real time, so there’s no waiting to see results.

Whether you’re working on iOS, Windows or Mac, the back-end of Affinity Photo is the same. This means perfect file compatibility, including shared undo history.

Find out more go to affinity.serif.com/photo

Expert and Crowd winners will be able to pick between Mac, Windows or iPad versions.

The top 3 in the expert-judged category, and the crowd-vote winner will also be published in a future issue of Digital Photographer magazine.