After long debates, discussions, and hard decisions at the Lithuanian Photographers Association we announce the list of finalists for the competition RESTART for 2024:

Julia Wimmerlin (Ukraine / Switzerland), Viktoriia Sorochuk (Ukraine / Poland), Anya Tsaruk (Ukraina / Germany), Paula Punkstina (Latvia / Netherlands), Alice Jankovic (Italy), Emma Godfrey Pigott (GB / Switzerland), Amin Yousefi (Iran / GB), Gökhan Tanrıöver (Türkiye), Ieva Maslinskaitė (Lithuana / Netherlands), Gediminas Kuncaitis (Lithuana), Ilona Baniuševič (Lithuana).

We sincerely congratulate all authors, and we hope to see you in person or virtually during the opening of the group exhibition August 21^st, 2024, at the Prospektas Gallery. We hope to launch the exhibition catalogue on the opening evening.

Also, we are thankful to our competition evaluating jury – Aurelija Maknytė, Arturas Valiauga, Vilma Samulionytė, Gytis Skudžinskas, who went through all submitted works.

143 authors took part in the competition with 2161 works from 26 countries.

In 2020 we changed the name of the competition from DEBUT to RESTART. We feel that the new name reflects the specifics of competition better and holds more opportunities of expression. Also, the term "debut" has meaning of first-time show, which is harder and harder to reach in today's visual art with so many activities and possibilities.

The competition is open to young and emerging authors. We do not restrict submissions by place of residence, nor by age, nor by topic. The most important thing that the artist is starting his/her carrier or rethinking his/her creative strategies, conceptual approach and have a new series to share. The priority working technique should be photography, but we look openly at the submissions covering extended field of photography and lens-based art.

The old Debut photography exhibitions have been held in Lithuania since 1976.