Call For Entry: The Surreal

Full Prospectus and Terms

Possible Interpretations

Dreams, nightmares, and the subconscious
Strange encounters and uncanny moments
Psychological landscapes
Fantasy, myth, and imagined worlds
Altered perception and distorted reality
The absurd, theatrical, or irrational
Surreal uses of light, shadow, color, and form
Staged photography and constructed scenes
Symbolism, metaphor, and visual ambiguity
Memory, hallucination, and fragmented experience
Displacement, transformation, and the unknown
The body, identity, and self as surreal subject
Everyday scenes made strange
Architectural, natural, or domestic spaces transformed by imagination
The relationship between photography and the impossible

Eligibility

The Surreal is open to photographers worldwide, ages 18 and older.

All photographic genres and processes are accepted, including digital, film, alternative process, and mixed-media photographic works with an analog or digital photographic base.

Individual images and cohesive series may be submitted.

All submitted work must be created by the submitting artist. Artists are responsible for ensuring that submitted works do not violate copyright, privacy, publicity, or other rights held by any third party.

About TCG Gallery

TCG Gallery is an independent artist-run exhibition platform dedicated to supporting emerging and established photographers through curated exhibitions, publications, and collaborative projects. Operating outside traditional institutional structures, TCG focuses on accessible opportunities for artists while maintaining a commitment to thoughtful curatorial practice.

Curatorial Statement

Photography is often associated with evidence, documentation, and the visible world. Yet the camera has always had the power to unsettle reality as much as preserve it. Through framing, light, staging, chance, distortion, and imagination, a photograph can transform the familiar into something strange.

The Surreal seeks photographic works that move beyond literal representation and into the realms of dream, ambiguity, fantasy, psychological tension, and the uncanny. The exhibition invites images that question what is real, disrupt ordinary perception, or reveal the bizarre qualities hidden within everyday life.

We are interested in photographs that feel mysterious, symbolic, disorienting, theatrical, absurd, or otherworldly. Works may be staged or found, quiet or chaotic, humorous or unsettling. They may emerge from dreams, memory, fiction, myth, altered states, or the strange logic of the subconscious.

The exhibition asks artists to consider how photography can loosen reality from its ordinary structure and open a space for the impossible, the irrational, and the unknown.

We look forward to seeing your work.

Terms of Entry

All entrants, by their submission, attest that the images submitted are their own work and that there has been no copyright infringement of any artist, living or deceased. All submissions must be original and created by the submitting artist. Submitting work created by or otherwise altered with artificial intelligence is strictly prohibited.

Selection and Exhibition

Approximately 35 images will be selected for exhibition in The Surreal, an online exhibition presented by TCG Gallery from August 1 through August 31, 2026.

Artists will receive a confirmation email after a successful submission. Artist notifications will be sent by July 25, 2026.

Submissions may be retained for up to one year for administrative purposes and for possible consideration in current or future TCG Gallery opportunities.

Jurying Process

Jurors for TCG Gallery are a rotating assortment of past exhibitors, curators, editors, and members of various fields in the arts and culture sector.

TCG Gallery uses a blind jury process whenever possible. Jurors review the submitted images and titles without artist-identifying information. File names are used for administrative organization and are not intended to factor into the jurying process.

Providing an image description is optional but strongly encouraged.

Sales Optional

Artists may choose whether their selected work is listed as available for sale.

TCG Gallery does not require artists to list work for sale. If an artist chooses to make work available, TCG Gallery may direct interested collectors or inquiries to the artist or may assist with communication when appropriate.

TCG Gallery retains a 30% commission on any work sold through TCG Gallery.

Copyright and Usage

Artists retain copyright to their submitted work.

By submitting, artists grant TCG Gallery the non-exclusive right to reproduce submitted images for jurying, exhibition presentation, archival documentation, and promotion of the exhibition. This may include use on TCG Gallery’s website, social media, email newsletters, exhibition catalogs, and related promotional materials.

TCG Gallery will credit artists whenever work is displayed or promoted whenever feasible. Artists may request removal of their work from future promotional use in writing.

Submission Fee

The entry fee is $15 USD for up to 3 images.

Entry fees help support the administrative, promotional, web hosting, and production costs involved in organizing an online exhibition.

We firmly believe that financial circumstances should not prevent artists from sharing their work. Fee waivers are available on the honor system for anyone who needs one. Artists who need a waiver may contact TCG Gallery before submitting.

Since 2019, TCG Gallery has operated continuously in various forms as an independent, de facto non-profit passion project dedicated to supporting emerging and established creators, experimental photography, and independent artistic practices outside of traditional institutional funding structures.

As we work toward expanding future operations in New York City, submission fees help sustain promotional campaigns, web hosting, exhibition materials, and other essential costs associated with maintaining the gallery.

US Foreign Compliance Statement

TCG Gallery cannot accept submissions or provide services where doing so would violate applicable United States sanctions, export, payment-processing, or compliance restrictions.

Please visit our US Foreign Policy Compliance Statement for more information.

Entry Form Instructions and FAQ

You may submit up to 3 images per entry. You may submit more than one entry.

There is no size or production year restriction for submitted images.

Please list print dimensions in inches or centimeters if the work is available for sale. If the work is not for sale, you may mark it as NFS.

Please upload JPG or JPEG files with a minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side and a minimum file size of 500 KB.

Please name your images using the following format:

firstname_lastname_title-01.jpeg

Questions

Contact us if you need help with the entry form, file preparation, eligibility, sales information, or fee waivers.