COMPETITION RULES & REGULATIONS

SUBMITTING PHOTOS: entries for Lens op de Mens 2023 are now closed

In this TUTORIAL you will be guided step by step in submitting your photos
To participate, you must first register. Registrations from previous editions are no longer valid.

• The competition is open for professional and amateur photographers of a high level.
• The theme of the photos is ‘Lens op de mens’ meaning that photos have to be about people in the large meaning of the word. For example, photos can represent documentaries or art.
• The sub-theme for edition 2023 is ‘humour’ (not mandatory). Humour photos must also respond to the main theme ‘man’.
• Before submitting photos, the photographer must first register on the Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt vzw site
• After registration on the website of the festival the photo files can be uploaded to the festival
• Every photographer can upload a maximum of 10 photos.
• To complete his/her photo upload the photographer has to pay 20 euro for every photo uploaded to share costs.
• Uploading photos is only valid after payment has been made.
• The submission period starts October 15th, 2022 and ends February 8th, 2023 at midnight (postponed submission deadline).
• Photos are selected by an international jury depending on photographic qualities. It is not possible to appeal against their decision.
• The copyright of all images submitted remains with the copyright holder. However the Pelt Photo Festival ‘Lens op de Mens’ reserves the right to use any of the images submitted, without payment, for display and publicity purposes for this and future Pelt Photo Festival projects. It is vital that the candidate obtains the permission of the client and/or the copyright holder and any relevant model release forms, where appropriate before submitting the work.
• Photos have to be submitted as jpg-files, compression High (10-12). The longest side of the pictures must be 50 cm (= 5906 pixels at 300 dpi).
• A file name is preferably composed by: Last name of the photographer_first name_serial number
  Example: Johnsson_John_01
• The file name of the photos should consist of a maximum of 32 characters and should not contain any special characters with accents, commas, umlauts, dots, tildes, etc. and therefore no non-Latin characters. Only aA-zZ and 0-9.
• When the festival is finished and the exhibition is dismantled, the photographer can collect all photos. This will be in October 2023 at set days and times. These will be advised at a future date. If the photographer doesn’t collect the photos, they will automatically become property of the organization. Photos selected for other exhibitions can’t be collected by the photographer.

RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES

• The copyright on all photos submitted remains the property of the holder of these rights.
• By submitting, the participant grants vzw Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt the right to exhibit all submitted images several times and without compensation and to use them in its own publications concerning these and future competitions and projects organised by vzw Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt and this both in print and in digital or electronic format.
• Entrant details will be used to contact winners.
• The participant must be the creator of the photo(s).
• Each participant undertakes to have received the necessary permission from the person(s) depicted and to be able to prove portrait rights.
• vzw Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt cannot be held liable for copyright obligations towards the persons photographed.
• If the submitted photo in any way infringes the copyrights, portrait rights or other rights of third parties, the participant is fully responsible.

EXHIBITION

• The selected photos will be printed by the organization at the highest possible quality without any extra cost to the participating photographer and exhibited during the open air exhibition.
• The name of the photographer, the code of his country of origin and his e-mail address and/or the URL of his website will be inserted by the organisation under each photo. Logos of partners and sponsors can also be included under the photo.
• Photos may be rejected for ethical reasons (pornographic, sexist, political or offensive reason,…).
• When the festival is finished and the exhibition is dismantled, the photographer can collect all photos. This will be in October 2023 at set days and times. These will be advised at a future date. If the photographer doesn’t collect the photos, they will automatically become property of the organization. For organisational reasons, photos will not be sent.

PRIZES

The selected photos are automatically entered into a competition. Prizes are awarded in different categories.

Awards for amateur photographers

• gold
• silver
• bronze
• honorable mentioning

Awards for professional photographers

• gold
• silver
• bronze
• honorable mentioning

Prize for the most promising photographer younger than 30 years old.

Prize for the best ‘Humour photo’, the photo that portrays the regained joy and freedom after the coronapandemic and its effect on ‘man’ with the most humour

Prize for the most creative photography

Participants agree to all rules when submitting photos.

GENERAL RULES

• Participants agree to all rules when submitting photos.
• To submit photos for Lens op de Mens, the photographer must first register as a user on the competition pages of the website.
• A registration will only become definitive after the registration of the participant, upload of the photos and payment of 20 euros per photo submitted.
• A participant can still add additional photos or delete photos and replace them with other photos until the maximum of 10 photos per participant is reached.
• Only after paying 20 euros online per submitted photo is the participation valid and the photos are admitted to the pre-selections.
• If the final number of photos submitted is less than the number originally paid for, the entrant will NOT be able to reclaim the excess amount paid.
• After uploading and completing payment, the submitter will see a confirmation that the upload was successful.
• Participants will be informed by email in the course of March whether or not their photos have been selected by the jury for the exhibition.
• vzw Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt reserves the right to disqualify participants if it considers that they are not acting in accordance with these competition conditions.
• By submitting the photos and completing the registration form the photographer gives permission for the submitted photos to be used at the international photo festival ‘Lens op de Mens’, including upcoming editions.
• The jury’s decisions are final and uncontested. There’s no correspondence about the course and outcome of the judging.
• Lens op de Mens – Photo Festival Pelt vzw reserves the right to postpone or cancel the competition, or not to choose a photo if the circumstances so require.

​​