Grahamstown – City of Saints, Sinners, Students.

Grahamstown – City of Saints, Sinners, Students.

Really?

Or is that now an old fashioned viewpoint?

What’s your take on our 200-year-old city? What image stands out for you as being ‘typically Grahamstown’?

Where’s your favourite hidey-hole, watering spot or hangout space?

What is it about Grahamstown that makes you grin… or grit your teeth?

The organisers of the National Arts Festival’s Foto Fence Project would like to know. The citywide competition asks Grahamstonians to look around their city and ‘take a snap’.

Entrants stand a chance to win a prize, learn a bit more about photography and have their photo exhibited.

The four broad categories, City /Land Scapes, Afro-futurists and Selfies, Life Up-close, and Live Action, lend themselves to free interpretation and the judging panel is hoping to discover fresh new perspectives on life in the City. The competition is open to everyone – there is no age restriction – however all photographs must be taken within the Grahamstown /Rhini or Makana Municipality region.

The closing date is 13 February 2015 – photos can be uploaded to Facebook (www.Facebook.com/fotofence), emailed to fotofence@gmail.com or dropped off at the Makana Tourism offices.

Entrants will need to complete an application form which will be sent to you or that can be downloaded from www.creativecity.co.za.

A maximum of five photos per person will be accepted.

No fancy photographic equipment is required – you can take your pic on your cellphone.

"Don’t be put off by technical jargon in the application form," the organisers assure. "We’ll contact you if your pic doesn’t conform to the tech requirements – help is at hand."

Devised by Rhodes lecturer and photographer Brent Meistre, Foto Fence is part of the Festival’s Creative City initiative in partnership with the European Union and Rhodes University.

As head of the judging panel, Meistre hopes to identify potential new creative photographers and, ultimately, offer them training and mentorship through the Makana Arts Academy.

R10 000 worth of cash prizes will go the way of the winning entries in the four categories and photography related prizes will also be up for grabs.

Finalists’ photographs, together with work from established local photographers, will be on display in a unique outdoor exhibition hung on the fences around Fiddlers Green – the Foto Fence.

Winners will be announced on 4 March 2015 after which the exhibition will be officially opened. For full details on the competition, visit www.creativecity.co.za or call Carolyn at 046 603 1103.

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