HomeURBAN Photo Awards’ Philosophy

URBAN Photo Awards’ Philosophy

A photographic contest that becomes the heart of a Festival

URBAN Photo Awards is a photo contest that sees every year thousand of partecipating pictures and hundreds of participants from all over the world. It is an always growing international photography competition, one of the very few that goes “over the boundaries” of Internet offering to photographers real visibility through dozens of international photo exhibitions. URBAN’s exhibitions culminate during Trieste Photo Days festival, which hosts the awards ceremony, the winners’ collective exhibition of winners and several exhibits of the best ranked photos.

An international photography competition now in its 13th edition.
A world wide platform on which to get noticed for photographers.
A tour of exhibits and an international photo festival.

URBAN International Photo Awards is a world wide photo contest that has come to its 13th edition. URBAN looks for talent and quality both among professional and amateur photographers, offering them an international platform from which to get noticed.

Promoted by dotART, a Trieste (Italy) based cultural association with years of experience working in the field of artistic photography and the visual arts, URBAN sees every year thousand of partecipating pictures and hundreds of participants from all over the world. It is an always growing international contest, one of the very few that goes “over the boundaries” of Internet offering to photographers real visibility through dozens of international photo exhibitions. Behind it all, there is always the pursue of enhancement of photographic talent and quality.

URBAN is divided into two sections: one is dedicated to “Themed Photos”, with its main theme about Street Photography, which has formerly given the name to the contest since its first edition. Real, instant images capable of telling stories woven into the urban fabric. URBAN unveils the city and its secrets. The other section is “Projects & Portfolios” where each participant can submit a series of images oriented to show his or her idea through photographs. The third section is the URBAN Book Award, dedicated to “dummies”, sketches of photographic books and extended projects to be transformed into volumes.

Other than regular prizes, URBAN gives the chance to the best ranked photographers to enter its tour of travelling photo exhibitions, the real and tangible value of this contest. Since 2011 URBAN has setup exhibitions in Austria (Klagenfurt), Poland (Krakow, Lodz, Raciborz, Gliwice and Warsaw), Hungary (Budapest, Pécs and Miskolc), Serbia (Beograd), Cyprus (limassol, Paphos and Nicosia), Latvia (Riga), Slovenia (Koper), Germany (Berlin and Hamburg), Croatia (Poreč and Rijeka), Ukraine (Sumy), Colombia (Bucaramanga) and naturally, in Italy (Milan, Venice, Trieste and Rome).

URBAN exhibitions will summit in October during Trieste Photo Days, the international photo festival promoted by dotART. This growing festival that will get to its 8th edition, has URBAN as its “main contributor” during the opening days. There will be the Award Ceremony and the Winners’ Exhibition other than a series of personal and group exhibits around the city.

URBAN gives to the winners even more visibility through its network of media partners, whose will publish the best ranked photographs on their paper and online magazine and social pages. Within the media partners of URBAN: Ojos Rojos, Prism, Vieworld, Revista Old and Street Photography Magazine.

Throughout the years URBAN has succeded in creating a network of partners, media partners and international contacts from whom it has shaped its well renowned jury with members like: Bruce Gilden, Alex Webb, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Maurizio Galimberti, Francesco Cito, Nick Turpin, Tatsuo Suzuki, Denis Curti, Monika Bulaj, Tadashi Onishi, Alexandra Sophie, Julie de Waroquier, Gulzar Sethi, Michael Samuel, Alain Laboile, Massimo Giacon, Adrian Sommeling and many others.

URBAN’s exhibits around the world


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Promoted by dotART / Exhibit Around APS | F.C. 90125960329 / 90167170324 / VAT 01377560329
Works exhibited in the gallery are owned by the named photographer and international copyright law prohibits the use of this copyrighted material.
To contact any photographer in the Winners Gallery, email dotART and your message will be forwarded to the photographer.