Open call / “Seeking the Latest in Photography!” Award 2025
Until October 6, 2024, young artists from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are invited to submit their work for the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 Award “Seeking the Latest in Photography!”. The award winner will be offered a solo exhibition at the ISSP Gallery in Riga in April 2025. The gallery will also host the RPB award ceremony.
RPB – NEXT 2025 will take place on the 10th anniversary of the Riga Photography Biennial – RPB was first held in 2016. The biennial’s programme – NEXT focuses on young and promising artists from the Baltics, Nordic countries and Europe who are still in the early stages of their careers. The goal of the award ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!” is to discover and appraise the creative efforts of young artists who demonstrate the power of the image in their works, offering an original point of view and conceptual depth reflecting our current times. The curators of RPB – NEXT are seeking portfolios of artists who stimulate discussion and offer diverse ideas. At the same time, the organizers wish to provide a public platform for young artists at the beginning of their creative journey in photography or a medium associated with it, so that they can present themselves to a wider audience.The competition is open to emerging artists and photographers from the Baltic states provided that the work they are entering in the competition was created within the last three years. More information about applying for the award is available on the Riga Photography Biennial website.
The winner of the prize will be determined by an international jury comprised of the art critic, historian and curator Adam Mazur (PL), the Artistic Director of Tallinn Photomonth Kulla Laas (EE), artist and curator Paulius Petraitis (LT), art historian and critic Santa Hirša (LV) and artist and curator of the ISSP Gallery Iveta Gabaliņa (LV).
Besides the main prize – an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the ISSP Gallery in Riga, the jury members will nominate five finalists (including the winner) who will present their work at the exhibition launch. The foundation ‘VV Foundation’ will choose a laureate for a 1000-euro monetary prize and an opportunity to spend a month working at their residency ‘PAiR’ (Pāvilosta Artist in Residency) in Pāvilosta, Latvia. The founders of the independent publishing initiative ‘NoRoutine Books’, Gytis Skudžinskas and Vilma Samulionyte (LT), will select one of the participants for their award – the opportunity to publish a photo book.
The winners of the RPB 2016 award ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!’ were Vika Eksta (LV), Andrejs Strokins (LV) and Alissa Nirgi (EE). The 2018 winners were Diāna Tamane (LV), Taavi Suisalu (EE) and Kristīne Madjare (LV). In 2019, the award was received by Annija Muižule (LV). In 2021, Visvaldas Markevičius (LT) became the winner, and he also received the first award presented by the ‘VV Foundation’. The 2023 winner was Ieva Baltaduonytė, LT), but ‘VV Foundation’ award received Anna Dzērve (LV). The winners of the ‘NoRoutine Books’ award were Ieva Balode (LV) in 2016, Madara Gritāne (LV) in 2018, Reinis Lismanis (LV) in 2019, Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (LV) in 2021 and Armands Andže (LV) in 2023.
Title image: Solo exhibition by the winner of the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2021 Award ‘Seeking the Latest in Photography!’ Visvaldas Morkevičius ‘Looking Forward to Meet Me’ at ISSP Gallery. Photo: Madara Gritāne
