New York Center for Photographic Arts - "Water" Call for Entries

• New York Center for Photographic Arts

• Deadline: February 8th, 2026

• Theme: Water

• Prize: $4,000 Prize Pool + Online Exhibition

• Entry Fees: Yes

• REGISTRATION: CLICK HERE

It begins simply: H₂O — two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. The equation is familiar, taught early, easy to memorize. Yet within its simplicity lies the secret to nearly everything that lives, grows, and endures.

Water is everywhere. It rushes through rivers and hides in the quiet depths of lakes; it stretches endlessly across oceans and gathers in the soft curves of clouds. It cools our skin, quenches our thirst, and nourishes our fields. It can fall gently as rain, dance as mist, or freeze into patterns of breathtaking precision.

And it is beautiful — infinitely, unpredictably beautiful. This exhibition invites you to capture that beauty in all its forms. Perhaps it’s the powerful surge of a tide colliding with a seaside rock, or the tender glisten of raindrops on a windowpane. Maybe it’s the transient steam of a geyser, the mirrored reflection of city lights on a puddle, or the still perfection of an untouched lake at dawn.

Water is a storyteller. It holds our memories in ripples and reflections, in droplets and currents. It can whisper or roar, soothe or overwhelm. Whether you frame it in abstract movement or crisp detail, in color or monochrome, the challenge is to see beyond the surface — to reveal the spirit and emotion within this most essential element.

This call for art celebrates water not only as a subject but as a metaphor for life itself: ever-changing, essential, and astonishingly alive.