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Booklette

14/09/2024—15/09/2024, Vevey

Images Vevey and Photo Elysée organize Booklette, a photobook fair bringing together Swiss and international publishers. The equation is simple and convivial: Books + Raclette = Booklette.

near. is taking part by offering members a guided tour of Biennale Images Vevey and the presentation of their publications at a table among the publishers.

Register to take part to the photobook fair and/or follow a guided tour of the biennial exhibitions on Saturday 14 at 11am: info@near.li

Tiziana Amico, winner near. prize 2024, at Verzasca Foto Festival

30/08/2024, Verzasca

The jury of this year’s near. prize is happy to announce the winner of the edition – Tiziana Amico! Her work will be exhibited at the Verzasca Foto Festival 2024. Come and join us in beautiful Ticino for the opening days August 30 – 31.

Jury statement:
In the project “Nunca Fui Adolescente” (’I Never Was A Teenager’), Amico explores the personal stories of Argentine women who became mothers before adulthood, challenging stigmatized representations of adolescent motherhood, highlighting their resilience and individuality through intimate portrayals created in a collaboration with these young women.

The jury was convinced both by the choice of the author’s subject and the visual decisions taken in the project. The strong visual storytelling is combined with a very personal, almost gentle, approach of Amico to the experiences of these women and the desire to give them a voice and understand their perspective. Through a conscious use of portraiture mixed with images of private writings and symbolic objects, Tiziana Amico manages to create a memorable and powerful, yet very tender visual narrative.

Images credits:
From “Nunca Fui Adolescente” (’I Never Was A Teenager’) by Tiziana Amico

Arles near. x Pool Collective

04/07/2024, Arles

We are very excited to inform you that the dates and location for our event during the opening week of the Rencontres d’Arles have been confirmed. We are collaborating with Pool collective to host an apéro and present our associations at the Librairie du Palais. Alongside this evening we are organising a DIY poster campaign throughout the city of Arles.

near. x nuit des images BYOB

22/06/2024, Lausanne

near. photographers will be bringing their beamers and are presenting an abundance of images on the Plateforme 10 esplanade.

Mainly concerned with the themes of nature, artifacts and identity, discover the work of Tiziana Amico, Graziella Antonini, Yann Amstutz, Thomas Annaheim Lambert, Zoé Aubry, Rebecca Bowring, Aline Bovard Rudaz, Delphine Burtin, Margaux Corda, Marie-Pierre Cravedi, Matthieu Croizier, Ankita Das, Tomasz Fall, Matthias Forster, Anne Gabriel-Jürgens, Yann Haeberlin, Fabian Hugo, Emilien Itim, Khashayar Javanmardi, Stephen Kelly, Yann Laubscher, Arthur Lehmann, Samuel Matzig, Cécile Monnier Laurence Rasti, Nora Rupp, Roxana Savin and Mihai Sovaiala.

near. prize 2024

29/05/2024

We are thrilled to announce the opening of the call for entries for the near. prize 2024!
The winner of the near. prize 2024 will have the opportunity to showcase their work at Verzasca Foto Festival 2024, as well as being awarded 1000 CHF and a free one-year near. membership.

This year’s jury panel comprises of the following fotography experts: Alfio Tommasini, Director and Curator of the Verzasca Foto Festival; Annette Amberg, Director of Coalmine – Raum für Fotografie (Winterthur); and the committee of near. counting as one vote.

The call for entries is open from April 22 to May 29, 2024. The winner will be revealed this June, with their exhibition featured in the 2024 edition of Verzasca Foto Festival.
There is no specific theme for this year’s prize, so please refer to the application form guidelines for comprehensive details.

We eagerly await the submission of your application!

→ Apply now (deadline: Wednesday, May 29, 2024)

(*Please note that the near. prize is exclusively reserved for members of the association.)

Guided Tour near. prize Pedro Rodrigues

18/05/2024

Special guided tour of the Bieler Fototag/ Journées photographiques de Bienne with Pedro Rodrigues, Rebecca Bowring, Julien Heimann and Sarah Girard
near. is pleased to invite you and your near friend and family to join us for a guided tour of the shows in Bienne / Biel in the very special company of the photographers Pedro Rodrigues, winner of the near Prize 2023, Rebecca Bowring, winner of the near prize 2021, Julien Heimann photographer member of near and Sarah Girard, director of the festival.
The entrance is being taken care by us!
Saturday 18th of May, 2.15pm, meeting point 10 Juraplatz Biel / Bienne

Photographer membership

Applies to active photographers who have developed a personal body of work within the field of contemporary photography whether with a documentarian or an artistic approach.
All members get free access to all near. activities and the possibility to apply for free for the ‘near. prize’, as well as various benefits from our partners.

Become a member

Membership fee: CHF 100.– per year. Applicants for a photographer membership are selected by nears.’ committee based on their portfolio. Young photographers (also selected on the basis of their portfolio) benefit from a free one-year membership, as long as they are students or graduated within a year. Note that the near. membership only extends to Swiss nationals or people that live and work in Switzerland.

Selection Criteria

The acceptance of new members into the association is done by the committee following a series of selection criteria which include, among others, the originality of the submitted project and the artist’s vision, the body of work’s aesthetic quality, the coherence between the content and the form given to it, the integration of the submitted work into the author’s broader artistic project and, finally, the relevance of the project in relation to the current challenges faced by the photographic medium.

near. Network members

Art historians, art critics, curators, associations, institutions, publishers, museums, as well as key people in the field of photography are welcome to be part of our Network. Free of charge, this Network is intended to foster connections between our photographers and the photography world. We regularly invite Network members to be part of our jury’s, crit groups or events. Get in touch to be on our website.

Application

A single PDF document, with the following content (please do not exceed 20 MB) 1) 10–20 images (ideally at least two projects, no single images) 2) a written overview statement of the project(s) in english or french 3) a CV and/or Biography 4) full contact and site * Please note that applications not corresponding to the above guidelines will be rejected. Send to: info@near.li

Procedure

Please send us all content, as listed below. The committee gets together 2 times a year to consider applications and discuss the subscriptions. Deadlines to submit your portfolio: March 1st and September 1st of each year.

Expectations

— Do one Takeover of the near. Instagram account. — Be ready to participate in the ‘near. photographic collection’ which consists of a collection of one print per artist (production is paid by near. selection is done in chronological order of acceptance).— Pay each years membership in due time. — If possible participate to the General Assembly and of course to our events.

2020, Untitled

Exhibition view Verzasca Foto Festival 2020

2020, Untitled

Exhibition view Verzasca Foto Festival 2020

2020, Untitled

Exhibition view Verzasca Foto Festival 2020

2020, Untitled

Hello Darkness, my old Friend

Produced in Verzasca Foto Residency 2020

I wish these words will reach you.

I just remember when we first met. I was five years old and my Mama told me the story of you and Little Red Riding Hood. You were unpredictable and mysterious. Later in religion class I was told that I was a lamb, God was my shepherd and you were my enemy. But you didn‘t scare me. In my dreams you were my friend. I knew that your home was close to where Nonna‘s house is, and that reassured me. You told me the story of how you chased the moon and your twin brother chased the sun. In some sense, you both cause our universe to spin. You drive our cosmos.

Florian Spring

I am a storytelling photographer always trying to explore and stretch the possibilities of documentary photography into a personal and poetic approach. My practice goes from portraits over fashion to fine art photography. My skills from carpentry over Scenografie to Art direction.

I am art director and photographer at reflekt and core member of nccfn.

Location

Bern

Contact

Awards

2024Swiss Design Award 2024
2022European Press Price 2022
Swiss Press Award
2021Swiss Press Award
2020Swiss Press Award
Verzasca Artist Residence

Awards

2024Swiss Design Award 2024
2022European Press Price 2022
Swiss Press Award
2021Swiss Press Award
2020Swiss Press Award
Verzasca Artist Residence