Recount Photography Agora - International Open Call

• Recount Photography Agora

• Deadline: April 27th, 2026

• Theme: Numbers

• Prize: Exhibition in Barcelona (Spain)

• Entry Fees: Free

• REGISTRATION: CLICK HERE

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This call invites contributions that reflect on the quiet yet powerful systems that structure our existence: those of counting, measuring, classifying, and ordering. We are interested in visual stories—combinations of photography and text—that engage with these mechanisms not only as tools, but as cultural, political, and philosophical constructs that shape how we perceive and inhabit the world.

From the works submitted, we will curate three physical exhibitions and produce a publication that brings these perspectives into dialogue. A selection of shortlisted projects will also be presented عبر digital platforms, extending the reach of the conversation beyond the exhibition space.

At its core, this project asks how systems of quantification and classification mediate our relationships—with nature, with each other, and with ourselves. We are drawn to explorations of how ecological systems are ordered or understood through human frameworks, how numerical thinking is embedded in traditions and cultural practices, and how workplaces are structured through metrics, categories, and performance indicators.

We are equally interested in spatial questions: how cities are mapped, divided, and navigated through systems of measurement and representation. The human body, too, becomes a site of inquiry—measured, categorized, optimized, and disciplined through data. Beyond the individual, we invite reflections on collective forms of order: how societies organize themselves, and how these structures are maintained or contested.

Importantly, we welcome works that dwell in instability—moments where systems fail, overflow, or are actively resisted. These disruptions reveal the limits and assumptions of the frameworks we often take for granted.

Text plays a vital role in this process. Each submission should include a written component—whether analytical, poetic, or narrative—that deepens the visual material and helps construct a layered story. These texts will be presented alongside the images, both online and in exhibition contexts.

The notion of “count” operates here as a conceptual hinge. To count is to assign number, to quantify; to recount is to tell, to narrate. These two meanings are inseparable. Numbers are not merely descriptive—they are generative. They shape the stories we tell and the realities we accept. In a world increasingly governed by data, metrics, and algorithms, quantification is no longer just a method—it is a worldview. This project seeks to examine, question, and reimagine that condition.