OPEN YOUR EYES - Open Call

Festival Exhibition

Location: TBC

Open: 3rd October - 31st October 2025.



OPEN YOUR EYES

A NEW OPEN CALL EXHIBITION FROM NORTHERN EYE PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

📅 Exhibition dates: 03–31 October 2025
📍 Colwyn Bay, North Wales
🕛 Submission deadline: Midnight, 31 August 2025
💷 Free to enter | £10 per selected image (to cover printing and production)

Northern Eye Photography Festival is thrilled to announce its first-ever open call for photographers — and we’d love you to be part of it.

Introducing OPEN YOUR EYES: a brand-new unmissable group exhibition celebrating photography in all its forms and the unique ways we each see the world.

An Open Call that puts you at the heart of the festival.

Whether your work is documentary, experimental, personal, political, joyful, or quietly reflective, whether you’re working with a digital or analogue camera, your phone, or a box of prints from the attic — if it means something to you, we want to see it.

There’s no theme, no rigid criteria, no pressure, and no expectations. Just an open door and a warm invitation to join a platform for creativity, honesty, and photographic voices of all kinds.

WHY NOW?

This new initiative marks an exciting step forward for the festival — and for our growing community. As we develop, we want the festival to reflect the creativity of the people who shape it — and that means you. This new exhibition is about making a space for fresh perspectives, untold stories, and images that challenge, inspire, or simply demand to be seen.

We’re proud to be launching this open call as part of our mission to make the festival more inclusive, accessible, and community-focused than ever before.

Known to many as “probably the friendliest photo festival in the entire universe”, Northern Eye is proud to champion inclusivity, creativity and connection through photography.

WHO CAN ENTER?

This open call is open to everyone, regardless of experience level, background, or training and is open to both UK and International entries.

Whether you’re an emerging artist, a student, a hobbyist, a community photographer, or a seasoned professional — if you’ve got images that matter to you, we’d love to see them.

We especially welcome submissions from individuals and communities who may be underrepresented in the photography and wider arts landscape, including but not limited to:

  • Women and non-binary photographers

  • LGBTQIA+ creatives

  • Disabled artists

  • People of colour and global majority artists

  • Working-class and low-income photographers

  • Those living in rural, remote, or coastal communities

  • Artists without formal education or previous exhibition experience

You don’t need a long CV or an artist statement full of buzzwords — just strong images and a willingness to share them.

If you’ve never exhibited before, this is the perfect place to start.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

There is no set theme — and no right or wrong way to see and that’s the point.

We’re looking for images that:

  • Speak from the heart or spark conversation

  • Show us the world from your perspective

  • Explore the weird, the wonderful, the overlooked, and the everyday

  • Challenge visual conventions or celebrate timeless beauty

  • Make us feel something

We’re open to work across all photographic genres and practices, including:

  • Street, documentary, or reportage photography

  • Portraiture or self-portraiture

  • Nature and landscape

  • Still life or abstraction

  • Experimental, alternative, and conceptual approaches

  • Analogue, digital, hybrid or mobile photography

  • it’s all welcome…

We’re looking for photography that makes us pause, think, feel, connect. Show us what matters to you — and help others see the world through your eyes.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Selected work will be exhibited as part of the OPEN YOUR EYES group show during Northern Eye Photography Festival 2025, which runs from 03–31 October in a public facing venue in Colwyn Bay.

You’ll be exhibiting alongside a diverse festival programme of internationally acclaimed photographers, talks, workshops, screenings, and community events — and part of something bigger: a celebration of photography that’s open, accessible, and deeply rooted in community.

Participants will:

  • Have a platform at one of the UK’s most vibrant photography festivals

  • Have their work printed and exhibited professionally

  • Be included in a professionally curated public exhibition

  • Reach new audiences, including festival visitors, curators, editors, peers and press

  • Help shape the very first edition of what is hoped will become a regular feature of the festival

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Northern Eye Photography Festival is a much-loved, biennial celebration of photography held in Colwyn Bay on the beautiful North Wales coast. It brings together world-class programme of speakers, exhibitions, talks, workshops, and public events, offering space for dialogue, exploration, and creative exchange — all designed to be open, accessible and welcoming.

We’re proud to have been called “probably the friendliest photo festival in the entire universe” — and we hope you’ll join us and find out why.

KEY DETAILS AT A GLANCE

  • 🕛 Deadline to submit: Midnight, 31 August 2025

  • 🖼️ Exhibition runs: 03–31 October 2025

  • 💷 Entry is free | £10 fee per selected image

  • 📍 A public facing venue in Colwyn Bay

👉 Submit your work below: 

Please ensure each file name includes your name and an image title:

For Example: Paul Sampson-Colwyn Bay Pier.jpg

💷 Submission / Entry is FREE | £10 production cost per selected image

  • Submit up to 5 images (JPG, max 5MB each)

  • Include a short artist bio (max 150 words)

  • Include a short description of your work

  • Deadline: Midnight, 31 August 2025

If your work is selected, a £10 fee per image will apply to support the cost of printing and installation. The festival team will manage all production — you don’t need to supply a physical print.

If cost is a barrier, please contact us in confidence — we’re committed to making participation possible for all.

Need help?

If you have questions, require this information in another format, or need support with access or submission, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We're here to help.

OPEN your EYES. Show us what you see.


We can’t wait to hear from you.