OPEN CALL

PHANTASM!
The Fictive Image

A Juried Photography Show
Feb 28 — Apr 4, 2026

Entry Deadline: January 25, 2026 at Midnight

Notification of Accepted Works: February 1, 2026

The invention of photography ushered in a new era of visual veracity. The medium promised objectivity, a claim reinforced by science itself. Images produced through optics, chemistry, and light implied proof of existence – an accurate depiction of the world as it was presumed to be. Details of nature and everyday objects appeared crisply delineated. Likenesses of people proved precise and often unforgiving.

Yet almost from its inception, photography’s documentary authority was disrupted. Beginning with the first fictive image, Hippolyte Bayard’s Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, the photograph revealed itself as a site of invention as much as evidence. Alongside straightforward representations of people, objects, and landscapes emerged fictional narratives, spirit photographs, staged scenes, and other imagined constructions.

Phantasm! – The Fictive Image invites artists to consider how fiction, fantasy, illusion, ambiguity, and obfuscation operate within their work – conceptually, materially, emotionally, or experientially. The exhibition seeks imagery that unsettles certainty and expands perception, revealing how the imaginative photograph can prompt us to see the world otherwise.

Submissions are open to artists working with any photo-based medium, except those incorporating artificial intelligence.

Juror: Michael Paris Mazzeo

Michael Paris Mazzeo: Michael Paris Mazzeo is an artist, educator, and curator who has long traversed the line between art and commerce, having maintained an art practice and teaching studio since 1994 as well as a highly regarded gallery in New York City from 2005 to 2012, and since 2023, an art gallery in Red Bank, NJ. As founding director of the Michael Mazzeo Gallery, specializing in contemporary photography, he launched the careers of many emerging artists, awarding fifteen with their first New York City solo exhibitions and exhibiting the work of more than 130 others in group shows. The gallery is noted for having produced critically recognized exhibitions, publications, and events and for placing artists' works in prominent museums and private collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Michael’s most recent venture, Galerie Lucida, in Red Bank, NJ, has become an important art venue for Monmouth County and beyond, providing the community with curated exhibitions, artist talks, and a monthly art salon, all free and open to the public. Since opening in November of 2023, the gallery has presented three solo and nine group exhibitions.

Eligible Works: The exhibition is open to artists 18 years and older. Artwork submitted must be original creations of the exhibiting artist and must be for sale. Two dimensional work must be properly framed with secure wire for hanging, with clean, undamaged frames (and matting if included). No sawtooth hangers or sandwich frames. Maximum frame size should be 36” on the longest side.

Submissions must be sent digitally through the Airtable Submission form.  All entries must be in JPEG format, RGB, 1200 pixels or more on the longest dimension, 300dpi and file size not to exceed 2MB. Artists may submit up to five pieces for their submission fee of $25 or $35.

Name your JPEG file as follows:

Last Name_First Name_entry #_Title_Size in inches_Price_Medium.jpg 

For example: Doe_Jane_1_SummerScene_13Wx20H_$345_watercolor.jpg 

Artworks must not have been previously exhibited at the AHArts and all artwork must be for sale during the exhibit.

Art Drop off: Feb 22nd, 11am-5pm

Opening Reception: Feb 28th 6-8pm

Art Pickup: Apr 5th, 11am-5pm

Entry Fee: Artists may submit up to five artworks with their submission fee.

$25 for AHArts Members and $35 for Non-members

Not a member?  Sign up today!

SUBMIT HERE