Flash Forward FAQ

Please refer to the questions below for answers to the most common questions we receive about the competition.

If you are in need of technical assistance please email us and we’ll do our best to assist you.

Competition Rules

The submission fee is $25 US. This is approx. $32 CAD | $195 HKD | 21 EUR | 19 GBP.

Photographers from anywhere around the world, 34 years-of-age or under as of December 31, 2018.

Flash Forward is specifically focused on emerging artists. While there is no universally agreed-upon definition of this term, for the purposes of this project we define it by age.

Just Flash Forward. Other Magenta projects, such as monographs, the artist portfolios and reviews in Magenta Magazine, etc., and the curated exhibitions and other events are not age-specific.

The Flash Forward Call for Entries usually starts in the month of October each year.

Sign up for our newsletter if you want to be sure of getting the news in a timely manner.

You can also keep an eye on our Submittable page.

  • The Flash Forward competition winners are announced in the month of May each year.
  • Special events (eg. book launches, exhibitions, etc) are scheduled in the Fall months.

Sign up for our newsletter if you want to be sure of getting the news in a timely manner.

Submittable

Submittable is a submission management software.

Signing up for a free account allows you to save your permanent information, such as your contact info. It also allows you to choose a password, so that you can at any point log back into Submittable to edit your information.

If you want to submit to another Magenta project in the future, you can just log in, and your permanent information will already be there.

No. All artists wishing to enter our Flash Forward Competition must register an account with Submittable.

Yes. You can log in at any time and view your submission.

You can create a submission draft using Submittable. You can later log into your Submittable account and continue working on your submission until you are ready to submit it.

No. Once you finalized your submission by clicking the Submit button, you will not be able to edit it.

 

Project Guidelines

No. Only one submission per artist per project, please.

Not necessarily. Many artists do choose to submit this way, and it helps to make a more focused impression on the jurors, but the choice is ultimately yours. However, if you choose to submit multiple series of images, you must include an artist statement for each series submitted

You can certainly submit diptychs or triptychs. Each actual image file that you upload counts as one image, even if it is an installation shot of two or three images grouped together. Conversely, if you upload three image files that are meant to be viewed together, those still count as three images. You can upload a total of ten image files.

No. Please submit only .JPG images. Your images will be viewed by the jurors via a web interface, and need to be able to be embedded in a web page as standard images.

No. Your images need to be viewable in the web interface that our jurors will be using, not off on some other web site.

That refers to the size you would want to exhibit the work at — i.e. if you were asked to provide a print for an exhibition. It’s there so that in the event that you’re one of the winners, the jurors putting together the exhibition can decide which specific works to show and how to arrange them.

About Flash Forward

Established in 2004, Flash Forward, in all its award-winning formats, has been a life-changing career boost for young photographers since its inception 14 years ago. This program for supporting and encouraging emerging artists in Canada and worldwide began with an idea to invest in artists barely out of university. Not only did we turn a small idea into a prominent worldwide competition, we paved the way for a high school program to influence arts curriculums, change and encourage leadership in teachers and keep essential funds in high schools.