JUNE 5, 2020
SEMI-FINALISTS SELECTED & CONTEST TIMELINE POSTPONED
As of Friday, May 29th we have finalized our selection of the contest's 25 semi-finalists. We are sorry to say, if you haven’t heard from us stating otherwise, you have not been selected as a semi-finalist for this contest.
Out of respect for the amazing effort that was put into each and every application, we initially intended to send an e-mail directly to inform everyone that wasn’t selected as a semi-finalist and acknowledge their commendable work. However, current events have refocused many of our thoughts, intentions, and actions. For one, we will be postponing the next stages of the judging process and the announcement of the grand-prize winner and the runner(s)-up until a later time. Though, to be clear, this contest is not canceled and the funds will still be awarded.
The anti-racist protests around the world are a vital response to this country's systemic, institutional, psychological, and cultural violence against Black people — a violence this country was shamefully built on. These demonstrations, as well as the recent tragic events that have sparked them, have both caused and resurfaced a great deal of pain and trauma for many people.
Winning this contest, by design, was meant to be impactful to whoever wins it; however at the end of the day, it is just a contest. We do not want it to add any weight to those who are already suffering. Therefore, we did not feel it was appropriate to inject more potentially upsetting news into anyone’s life right now by directly e-mailing this information.
It is still necessary to give this update to avoid uncertainty (something which plagues so many of our lives right now) and we decided it would be best to simply post the update and our message to the applicants who weren't selected as semi-finalists, to this site.
To everyone that applied, thank you so much for being a part of the 2020 Circadian Pictures Creative Fund and sharing your art with us. We were humbled and inspired by the overwhelming response from the artistic community.
Because of the huge response from remarkably talented artists, our decisions have been incredibly difficult. We had to pass on so many great projects from amazing photographers. We wish we had the resources to support everyone, but since we don't, we have compiled a list of other resources designed to help artists during the global pandemic and its aftermath. Please follow that link below.
To those whose projects we were unable to fund, we hope this contest sparked some creative energy and would love to stay connected. Please let us know if there is any way we can support you in the future.
Stay safe & healthy, and continue to wash those hands!
MAY 15, 2020
WE ARE EXTENDING THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE TO SUNDAY, MAY 24TH!
We've been witnessing community in the purest sense of the word.
The submissions we've received have been so impressive and inspiring. We’ve also been deeply heartened by the amount of people showing how much they care for one another by spreading the word about the contest to their friends and colleagues.
Some have also reached out with concerns about the contest — primarily around some of the language in the contest documents. Honoring that sense of community, we not only listened, we heard you. We understand your concerns and don’t want anything to make you or anyone else doubt our intentions.
We’re putting on this contest because we want to help people. We don’t have the resources to help everyone, so we decided to focus on a community that is very near and dear to us — artists. We’ve seen time and time again the power that art has to heal and transform people. Not only does art itself have that power, the process of making art has that power. It’s a power the world needs right now. So, we’ve decided to put on this contest to help artists (in this case, specifically artists using the medium of photography). That’s where we’re coming from. This is a contest with the intention of helping people.
If anyone doesn’t feel comfortable applying to the contest, then we’ve lost our chance to inspire and support them — that’s the whole point! So we’ve updated the License & Release to address the concerns the best we can, while still being mindful of protecting ourselves and our team, as well as adhering to the legal requirements necessary to administer the contest. We've addressed these changes in further detail on the FAQs page.
To make sure everyone has adequate time to submit now that we’ve made these updates, we’ve also extended the submission deadline to Sunday, May 24th at 11:59pm PT. As a result, we've also shifted back the dates on which we will be notifying semi-finalists and the winners and runners-up of the contest — please review the Official Rules for all updated dates. Any previous submissions are still valid and no one is required to resubmit.
If you have any follow-up questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail us. We truly appreciate your feedback. [team@circadianpictures.com]
Good luck, spread the word, and as always…wash your hands!
