Passepartout Photo Prize in Rome

The first annual exhibition of Passepartout Photo Prize, an international photography contest organized by Il Varco, will be held at 28 Piazza di Pietra Fine Art Gallery in Rome this September. The exhibition highlights the best talents discovered among over 400 applications from all over the world in 2020. Winners of the first and second editions of the contest and featured works are "Apice" by Valeria Laureano and "Island Symmetries" by Laura Pannack. The winner of the third edition will be announced during the exhibition on September 11th (Saturday) which will be broadcasted live on social media.

11 international artists, mostly women, who have distinguished themselves for their approach to contemporary photography and their expressive capacity - able to create a strong and deep emotional connection between the viewer and the subjects of the pictures. At the exhibition, there will be a selection of 44 photographs, which was awarded by an international jury of professionals in fine art. The collective exhibition is curated by Roberta Fuorvia, who describes that “taking care of this prize is stimulating and allows me to discover the work of many young talents. I feel truly privileged to be able to look at all of this and to take inspiration from each of the participants to trace the artistic and curatorial lines of this edition.” In addition to the two first prize winners, the exhibition includes: “Me Before Me” by Cristina Cusani, “Liquid Landscapes” by Silvia De Giorgi, “Testae” by Oriana Majoli, “The persistence of family” by Diana Cheren Nygren, “Io sono noi” by Francesca e Alessandra Oro, “Body” by Clair Robins , “Sinecittà” by Zeroscena and works by Giorgia Bisanti and Sara Petraglia.

Passepartout Photo Prize is an open theme contest that aims to support the development of emerging artists. The biannual contest provides monetary awards every year, and winners receive various exposure through on-site exhibition, publication, online galleries, and more. The jury of the 2020 editions was led by American photographer Richard Tuschman.

What makes Passepartout Photo Prize unique from other thousands of photographic contests is that it focuses on fine art photography. The artistic director Olmo Amato described, “at a time in history when most photographic images created digitally remain in the virtual realm, we felt the need to create a contest that would give visibility to the authors with a real exhibition. A physical gallery where we could observe the photographs not as pixels but as printed images and art objects.”

The new call for Passepartout Photo Prize 4th edition is opening also in September, welcoming new media partner GUP Magazine, a contemporary photography magazine from the Netherlands. This young contest aspires to become more than just a contest - to create a hub for fine art photographers to be inspired and gain experiences in art business.