OPEN CALL: ROOTS
The open call is now closed, and we’re taking a closer look at your photographs as the selection begins.
Fototeka invites analog photographers from around the world to take part in a new collective project that will take its final form as a printed photo album.
Following our first collective publication, Sequence, we are opening a new call centred around a single word:
ROOTS
Roots usually remain hidden, yet they shape what becomes visible.
They hold, nourish and connect. They carry traces of origin and continuity, but can also speak about separation, displacement and the search for belonging. A root may grow beneath the earth, extend through a family, remain embedded in a place or survive through a gesture, a language, a tradition, a myth or a memory.
Roots can be inherited or chosen. They can be preserved, forgotten, severed, rediscovered or newly formed.
They may appear literally in the natural world, in trees, plants, soil and landscape. They may also emerge through portraits, domestic spaces, archives, rituals, objects, bodies, communities or territories marked by personal and collective histories.
The theme is intentionally open. We welcome direct, symbolic, documentary, intimate and experimental interpretations, as well as approaches that move between these categories.
The publication will be shaped through editorial curation. Selected photographs will be brought together to form a visual sequence in which different interpretations of the same word can coexist, respond to one another and gradually develop new meanings.
Each photograph will be considered as part of a larger whole rather than as an isolated image. The final album will grow through relationships between photographs, through contrasts, echoes, interruptions and recurring visual elements.
Selection is editorial and based both on the strength of the individual photographs and on how they function within the collective publication. A submission may be represented by zero, one or several photographs in the printed album, depending on how the work contributes to its overall rhythm and structure.
Alongside the printed publication, a wider selection of submitted images may be shared across Fototeka’s online platforms throughout the project.
This open call is an invitation to look beneath the surface and consider what remains, what has been passed down and what continues to grow.
We look forward to seeing where your roots lead.
HOW TO ENTER
The submission fee is 50 RON (approximately 10 EUR) for one submission of up to ten photographs.
The fee covers participation in the open call and the editorial selection process. Payment of the submission fee does not guarantee the selection or inclusion of any photograph in the printed album.
Payment can be completed at the bottom of this page.
After completing payment, participants will be redirected to a dedicated page where their images can be submitted.
Multiple submissions are welcome for photographers who wish to enter additional bodies of work or distinct interpretations of the theme. Each submission is treated independently and requires a separate submission fee.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- File naming format
FirstName_LastName_Number.jpg - Image resolution
Minimum 3000 pixels on the long side. - Eligible work
Only analog photographs are accepted. Images must be created using film-based photographic processes. Digital photographs and AI-generated images are not eligible for this open call. - Maximum number of images
Up to ten photographs per submission. - Relation to the theme
Submitted photographs should respond to the theme ROOTS, either individually or as part of a coherent group of images. No written statement is required.
TIMELINE
The open call is open for submissions until September 30, 2026.
The list of selected photographers will be announced in October 2026.
The printed photo album is scheduled for publication between October and November 2026.
All updates regarding the selection process and publication timeline will be communicated on this page and through Fototeka’s online platforms.
WHY IS THERE A SUBMISSION FEE?
The submission fee supports the editorial and production work behind the project.
It contributes to the selection process, image preparation, editing, design, layout, printing preparation and the ongoing presentation of the project across Fototeka’s online platforms.
The fee allows the publication to be developed with care and attention, from the open call stage to the final printed volume.
*Cover photograph by Gertrud Gozner, featured in Fototeka’s previous open call.
