Laurence Von Thomas started If You Leave in 2009, and since then the photography blog has gone from strength to strength. What started as a personal image-driven online diary now has a following of more than 425,000 people on Tumblr, and has featured images by some 500 contemporary photographers.
The aim, writes Von Thomas, was simply “to support and offer a platform for up-and-coming photographers to exhibit their work”.
Von Thomas has already published four volumes of images in physical form and is going a step further by launching an International Photography Showcase.
Open to photographers from all over the world, the competition is free to enter and will culminate in a London exhibition in the autumn, with possible pop-up exhibitions elsewhere and a bi-annual magazine.
Two hundred shortlisted images will be presented to a 20-strong jury, which includes the likes of BJP, Huck magazine, Self Publish Be Happy, It’s Nice That, Dazed & Confused and Paper Journal. From this shortlist, 20 images, including a top three, will be shown in the new magazine, exhibition and in a dedicated app.
Von Thomas recently launched a Kickstarter campaign through which he hopes to raise £10,000 to fund the project.
Photographers have until midnight on 08 July to enter a single image in the competition.
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