Photography Now

This Open Call invites submissions for an exhibition exploring how women and non-binary artists use photography to engage with the pressing issues of our time. The exhibition seeks to highlight how the photographic medium—whether central or complementary to an artist’s practice—can be used to confront, question, and navigate contemporary socio-political challenges, innovative processes, and evolving technologies. Artists are encouraged to reflect on the critical dynamics of this moment, exploring photography’s role in shaping and responding to urgent global and personal narratives. Photography Now is open to artists who incorporate photography into their work, even if it is not their primary medium. All submitted works must have been created within the last two years to ensure they reflect the timeliness of these conversations.

Calendar:
Exhibition Dates: May 24 - June 21, 2025
First Entry Due Date: March 21 | 11:59 PM CST (entry fee: $30)
Final Entry Due Date (fee increases to $35): March 28 | 11:59 PM CST
Notification: April 11, 2025

About the Juror: Whitney Bradshaw is an artist, activist, educator, curator, and former social worker living in Chicago. Her work has been shown widely across the United States including solo shows at Atlanta Contemporary, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), and more. The Museum of Contemporary Photography, the DePaul Art Museum, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Agnes Scott College, the Hall Art and Technology Foundation and Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell collect her work which has been published in Ms. Magazine, GIRLS Magazine, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the BRIDGE Journal and Vogue. In the Fall of 2023, Bradshaw was named one of NewCity Magazine’s top 50 Chicago Artists’ Artists. Both she and OUTCRY are the subject of a documentary film titled OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage directed by Clare Major which premiered at the Frameline Film Festival in June 2024 and was shortlisted for Best Short Film by the International Documentary Association in 2024. Now curator at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, she was previously the chair of the visual art conservatory at ChiArts, an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago, and curator of the renowned LaSalle Bank Photography Collection, later Bank of America.

Requirements

Woman Made Gallery is a space for women and nonbinary artists, including trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists. We welcome art from women and non-binary artists from our local community, regionally based, and around the world.

Due to wall size restrictions, artworks must be no larger than 6’ horizontally and under 75 pounds in weight, unless delivered to and picked up from our gallery by the artist. Artists may be additionally responsible for the installation of oversized works.

Application Instructions