READERS have been invited to join a photography project that could see the best work exhibited alongside internationally-renowned artists.

On Thursday the Oxford Mail launched the competition in partnership with Oxford Brookes University to mark the run-up to Oxford’s first ever international photography festival.

Photography Oxford will run from September 14 to October 5 and will see photographers come to Oxford from around the world, to exhibit work in 20 venues across the city.

The Oxford Mail’s sister paper, The Oxford Times, is the official media partner of the event.

Submissions to the competition must be based around the theme “home” and will be part of the university’s “people’s project”.

Oxford Brookes University lecturer and artist Gerard Hanson, who is organising the competition, said: “Oxfordshire is made up of people from all over the world, so the idea of home for some will be sensitive and complicated.

“Our intention is to reveal those complexities by engaging with the community.

“We hope it will generate debate, put forward many different interpretations and ultimately encourage a thoughtful and dynamic response to the subject.”

The winner of the picture competition, chosen by a panel of judges including our Picture Editor Leah McLaren, will win a trophy and be taken out by one of our professional team for a day of news shooting.

And every week the Oxford Mail will keep publishing a selection of the best entries.

Students at Oxford Brookes University have already submitted a number of example entries, which readers can view online, and will also be on hand to provide assistance to entrants at a series of workshops.

Mr Hanson said: “We have been doing some workshops with [homeless charity] Crisis, as well as Oxford Spires Academy and the Blackbird Leys Community Centre. There have been some very interesting submissions.”

The workshops will continue into the opening of Photography Oxford, he said.

And Mr Hanson and his students are going to the Blackbird Leys Community Centre, in Blackbird Leys Road, every Wednesday for drop-in after-school sessions.

He added: “People can bring their image in to us and we can help them fine-tune them on the computer.”

Competition entries should be sent to homeproject14@yahoo.

co.uk and submissions can be viewed at flickr.com/people/ 125288124@N06 or on the Twitter account @Homeproject14.

The deadline for submissions is August 25. Entrants must supply their name, age, address, postcode and contact number, with a brief description of their photo — including why they took it. There is no age limit, but a maximum of two images may be submitted by one person.

For more information, visit photographyoxford.co.uk

TERMS & CONDITIONS

NEWSQUEST Oxfordshire, Photography Oxford Festival and Oxford Brookes University may use any photograph/image for publicity.
By entering into the competition, winners must be a resident of Oxfordshire and agree to publicity involving an interview and a picture of themselves with their work.
A selection of submitted images will be displayed in a public exhibition with entrants name at Oxford Brookes between the September 14 and October 5.
This will form part of the Home exhibition taking place at the University for Photography Oxford 2014.

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