If You Leave
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Emmanuel Rosario
If You Leave seems to be always changing, metamorphosing into new shapes and forms, but throughout its many transformations it has always been an invaluable resource for striking contemporary photography.
Laurence Von Thomas started the blog in 2009 as his personal online visual diary, but since then it has developed into a Tumblr with nearly half a million followers, spawned exhibitions and four printed editions, but the next evolution looks to be the most exciting yet.
The If You Leave Showcase 2014 is a new photography competition open to all photographers worldwide. The best 200 images will be shortlisted and presented to a showcase jury that includes, Huck, It’s Nice That, Dazed & Confused and others. The images will be published in a new If You Leave magazine that will appear twice yearly and the winning 20 images will be presented in a special exhibition on the day of the first issue’s launch.
If You Leave have gone to Kickstarter to make sure that every photographer can submit images for free, without the usual competition fees. Submissions open this week and run until midnight on the 8th of July. Keeping with the theme and feel of the blog, photographers will be asked to send single images, rather than bodies of work, so that images speak for themselves, without any context.
Head over to Kickstarter to support the project or check out If You Leave for information on how to submit.
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