From September 16 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.

The goal of the award 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 Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT is seeking portfolios of artists who stimulate discussion and offer diverse ideas. At the same time, we 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.

Who can apply?
The competition is open to emerging artists and photographers from the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – provided that the work they are entering in the competition was created within the last three years.

Selection process and jury
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).
The award winner will be offered a solo exhibition in April 2025 at ISSP Gallery (Berga Bazārs, Marijas iela 13 k-3, Riga) within the framework of the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 programme. 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 own award – the opportunity to publish a photo book.

Application procedure
1. Applicants must fill in an APPLICATION FORM, indicating their date and place of birth, current residence (if it differs from their postal address), information about their project and an outline of their creative biography, which must include their education and creative experience.
2. Applicants must submit 10–15 photographs (artwork created in the past three years, or a project still in progress). Works must be in JPG format, and the size of an individual file may not exceed 1000 px on the longest side. The size of an individual file may not exceed 1.5 MB. The images must be marked with: first name_ last name_number in order, for example, “anna_straume_01.jpg”.
3. If the overall size of materials to be submitted exceeds 20 MB, then the works must be sent via wetransfer.com to the address balva@rpbiennial.com.

Dates for submission and further process
September 16 to October 6, 2024 – acceptance of submissions
October 17, 2024 – 15 applicants are notified to take part in the second round
November 12, 2024 – the winners are announced
If the project selected for the final is still in the process of being finalised, the finished project must be submitted by January 8, 2025.

Exhibition preparation
The organisers of the award will contact the winner to coordinate preparation and transportation of the work to be exhibited. The artist is responsible for packaging and preparing the work to be transported. After the exhibition has closed, all exhibited work will be returned to the address indicated by the artist. Transportation costs to and from the exhibition will be paid for by the organisers. If required, expenses relating to preparing the work for the exhibition will also be reimbursed.

Copyright
In submitting their works to the competition, participants agree that the Riga Photography Biennial, ISSP Gallery and third persons will be allowed to use those works, without payment, to advertise the Riga Photography Biennial – NEXT 2025 as well as the award, and the work may be used in publicity materials connected with the biennial and the award. Copyright remains with the respective artists.
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.

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