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The Shape of a Life by Decagon Gallery looks at the quiet evidence of how people live: rooms, routines, personal objects, workplaces, family spaces and the marks left by everyday use. The call asks photographers to consider the relationship between a person and the world around them, whether that presence is visible in the frame or only suggested through the environment. Entries close on October 10, 2026.
The international juried competition offers $1,000 in total cash awards, with $500 for First Place, and selected photographs will appear in a professionally curated online exhibition and catalog. Entry costs $25 for up to four photographs, with additional images priced at $5 each. Documentary, fine art, conceptual and personal approaches are all welcome. For photographers comparing an online photo contest, the distinctive element here is the emphasis on lived experience: the photograph can reveal a person through space, objects, habit or absence as much as through the figure itself.
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Prizes
The Shape of a Life by Decagon Gallery distributes $1,000 in cash awards and combines the main prizes with publication and exhibition recognition.
- First Place: $500.
- Second Place: $250.
- Third Place: $150.
- Two Honorable Mentions: $50 each.
- Human Presence Award: Free entry to a future Decagon Gallery exhibition of the photographer’s choice.
- Selected photographers: Inclusion in the online exhibition and professionally designed exhibition catalog, together with a digital badge and certificate.
The prize structure therefore combines cash prizes with publication and online exhibition opportunities.
Related Photo Contests
Categories or Themes
There are no separate categories. The exhibition revolves around the idea of how a life becomes visible through its surroundings.
Photographs may show people, interiors, domestic spaces, familiar streets, workplaces, routines, personal possessions, family environments or traces of presence and absence. The call explicitly welcomes documentary photography, fine art, conceptual and personal approaches, while conventional portraiture is not presented as the primary focus.
Dates and Entry Fees
| Submission deadline | October 10, 2026 |
| Notification | October 20, 2026 |
| Exhibition opens | November 1, 2026 |
| Exhibition closes | December 1, 2026 |
The entry fee is structured as follows:
- Up to 4 photographs: $25.
- Each additional photograph: $5.
How to Enter
Entries are submitted through Decagon Gallery’s online Jotform. Files should be JPG, JPEG or PNG, at least 2,100 pixels on the long side and no larger than 5,000 pixels. Images should contain no watermarks, logos, signatures, borders, frames or text.
Photographers provide a short first-person biography of up to 150 words and, for each submitted image, a brief response to the prompt asking what stayed with them after making the photograph. The gallery notes that these responses may be edited for clarity and used as accompanying text if the work is selected.
About the Jury
The juror is J. Sybylla Smith, an independent curator, consultant and podcaster whose work focuses on helping photographers develop and contextualize ideas across images, exhibitions and books.
Smith has curated more than 40 solo and group exhibitions involving over 125 international photographers in the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Japan. Her Concept Aware® framework and podcast examine photographic practice, visual ideas and photobook development.
Why Enter The Shape of a Life by Decagon Gallery?
The most interesting aspect of The Shape of a Life by Decagon Gallery is its refusal to reduce a life to a face. A person may be central to the image, but the competition is equally interested in the spaces they inhabit, the objects they keep and the routines that define their days. That opens the brief to photographers working with interiors, domestic documentary, environmental portraiture and more conceptual studies of presence and memory.
Decagon Gallery’s SPOTLIGHT calls are also structured around an external juror, with cash awards attached to the exhibition. For photographers comparing the best photo contests to enter, this makes the opportunity particularly relevant to photographers whose work benefits from curatorial interpretation and thematic context rather than simply competing as isolated images.
Rules and Copyright
We reviewed the official rules of The Shape of a Life by Decagon Gallery to summarize the key participation requirements, copyright terms and image usage conditions. Before entering, we recommend checking the complete rules published by the organizer.
Rules
The call is open internationally to photographers aged 18 and over, regardless of experience level. Submitted photographs must be the entrant’s own work and must not infringe another person’s copyright.
Substantially AI-created photographs are not eligible. Decagon does allow limited AI-assisted editing, such as minor object removal or extending image borders, with the final eligibility decision resting with the gallery and exhibition juror.
Images must meet the technical requirements stated in the submission form. The gallery may also consider non-selected photographs for future Instagram “Curator’s Picks”, but only when the photographer explicitly gives permission through the optional checkbox in the entry form.
Copyright and Image Usage
Photographers retain all rights, including copyright, to their submitted photographs. The gallery states that it will not distribute photographs to others without permission.
If a photograph is selected, the photographer grants Decagon Gallery permission to publish it in the online exhibition and exhibition catalog and to use it to promote Decagon Gallery exhibitions and programs through its website, social media, newsletters and other promotional channels. No fixed license duration is stated.
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For more information and to participate in the contest, visit: the official website.
