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Open Call: A Celebration of Contemporary Photography
Gallery Statement
Open Call offers a snapshot of contemporary photography, bringing together artists from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and photographic practices. Rather than focusing on a single theme, this exhibition celebrates the diversity of ways photographers use the medium to observe, interpret, and engage with the world around them.
The selected works reflect a balance of personal narratives, quiet observations, documentary perspectives, conceptual approaches, and formal explorations. Together, they demonstrate photography's remarkable ability to communicate across cultures and experiences while revealing both the extraordinary and the everyday.
Attention was given to photographs that combined strong visual craftsmanship with a distinct point of view. Whether expansive landscapes, intimate portraits, experimental processes, or moments of everyday life, each image contributes its own voice to a broader conversation about contemporary photography.
We are deeply grateful to every artist who submitted work. We appreciate the creativity, dedication, and generosity of everyone who chose to share their work with PhotoPlace Gallery.
We invite viewers to spend time with these photographs, allowing them to reveal themselves slowly, to discover unexpected connections, and to experience the many ways photography continues to inspire curiosity, reflection, and dialogue.
Please join us for the Opening Reception on Friday, August 7, from 4–7 PM, celebrate World Photography Day on Wednesday, August 19, and visit us again during a special reception held in conjunction with the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival on Friday, August 28. We look forward to welcoming you throughout the exhibition and celebrating the artists whose work makes this collection possible.
Call for Entries
PhotoPlace Gallery invites photographers worldwide to submit work for Open Call: A Celebration of Contemporary Photography, a juried exhibition honoring the creativity, diversity, and evolving practice of photography today.
Presented in celebration of World Photography Day (August 19th), this exhibition is one of PhotoPlace Gallery’s most open and inclusive calls of the year, welcoming all photographic subjects, styles, and processes. From landscape, portraiture, and documentary to conceptual, experimental, and alternative practices, photographers are encouraged to submit their strongest work.
Whether your work is traditional or experimental, personal or universal, this exhibition is an opportunity to showcase where your photography is today.
We are honored to have Paula Tognarelli and Gallery Director Zach Hoffman as jurors for OPEN CALL: A Celebration of Contemporary Photography. They will select up to 35 images for exhibition in our Middlebury, Vermont gallery and another 40 images for our Online Gallery. All 75 images will be reproduced in the exhibition catalog and remain permanently on our website and are promoted on social media with links to photographers' URLs.
Submission Fee: $39 for 5 images, $6 for each additional image
About the Jurors
Paula recently retired after a long run as Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA. As the executive director she produced approximately 54 exhibitions per year having started as an intern in 2001. She graduated from Boston University’s Masters in Art Administration program in 2003. Prior to a museum career, she spent 25 years in the printing industry contributing greatly to the graphic arts industry’s efforts of moving analog processes to completely digital workflows.
Paula frequently reviewed at national and local portfolio events and jumpstarted hundreds of photographers’ careers. She has also juried and curated well over 100 exhibitions for other institutions nationally and internationally.
Zach Hoffman, Gallery Owner/Director
Zach Hoffman is a photographer, educator, and advocate for the arts, deeply committed to fostering Vermont’s creative community—a place he proudly calls home.
He graduated from Montana State University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Photography, followed by a Master’s degree in Photographic Arts from Lesley University in 2014. Since then, Zach has devoted his career to practicing and teaching analog photography, bridging artistic expression with education.
In 2015, he served as an adjunct professor at Montana State University, where he mentored aspiring photographers. He also founded and operated a thriving community darkroom in Bozeman, Montana, creating a space for collaboration and hands-on learning until his move to Vermont in 2020.
That same year, Zach joined PhotoPlace Gallery, quickly becoming an integral part of its mission to elevate photographic arts. In 2025, he took on a leadership role by purchasing the gallery, ensuring its continued dedication to showcasing exceptional photography and supporting artists at all stages of their careers.
For Zach, Vermont is more than just a place to live—it is a creative home and an extended family. Through his work at PhotoPlace Gallery, he remains deeply committed to strengthening the local arts scene, fostering meaningful connections, and championing photographers both regionally and globally.
*Special Note on AI and photography:
PhotoPlace Gallery welcomes a wide range of photographic processes and post-production techniques. However, fully AI-generated images are not eligible for submission. While we recognize that AI-assisted tools are increasingly integrated into photographic editing software, submitted work must originate through the use of a camera, light, and the photographer’s own observation and creative vision. We trust that photographers submitting work to the gallery share this commitment to photography as an artist-driven image-making process.