Lens Culture
International Exposure Awards 2009

Competition rules

1.1 To qualify to enter the competition, you must be over 18 years of age.

1.2 By entering the Competition you hereby accept these competition rules.

1.3 Entries must be submitted no later than the deadline of September 15, 2009.

1.4 The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers.

1.5 By entering the Competition, you agree and acknowledge that Lens Culture is permitted to receive your registration data. Participants agree that personal data including, but not limited to, name, mailing address, phone number, and email address may be collected, processed, stored and otherwise used for the purposes of conducting and administering the Photo competition. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by Lens Culture by sending an email to the following address: contest @ lensculture.com

2.1 To enter the competition, you must submit your entries at lensculture.slideroom.com. Participants must also pay the entry fee(s) and complete the submission form in order to be considered for the competition.

3.1 Entries will be assessed by the international jury of experts selected by Lens Culture, and the decisions of the jury are final.

3.2 One cash-prize winner ($1,500 prize) will be selected for the Portfolio Award, and three cash-prize winners ($1,000, $500, and $250) will be selected for the Single Image Awards. In addition, 25 Honorable Mention Awards will be displayed on the Winners' page in Lens Culture.

3.3 Cash prizes will be paid by USD check or wire transfer. Any fees incurred for foreign currency transfers will be deducted from the winning amount.

3.4 All four cash prize winners will also receive $1,000 credit toward a professional, custom-designed portfolio website from liveBooks.com.

3.5 All four cash prize winners, plus all 25 Honorable Mention winners will win a custom photobook, 8x10 or 10x8, up to 120 pages on premium paper from Blurb.com (value 50 euros or $70).

3.6 No cash alternatives will be offered for any prizes.

4.1 Lens Culture reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any photograph that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the photograph appears on the website. You warrant, in respect of the photograph submitted by you, as follows:

4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of the photograph.

4.1.2 You have the right to make your photograph available to the competition.

4.1.3 To the best of your knowledge, the photograph does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libelous, or defamatory content.

4.1.4 To the best of your knowledge, the photograph does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, and your photograph does not include:

4.1.4.1 trademarks owned by third parties.

4.1.4.2 copyrighted materials owned by third parties.

4.1.4.3 names, likenesses or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead.

4.1.4.4 entries in which you have purchased or secured the rights to use stock images.

4.2 You agree to fully indemnify Lens Culture in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of your breaching any of the foregoing.

4.3 You confirm that each person depicted in the photograph has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

5.1 Lens Culture recognizes you retain full ownership of the copyright in each photograph.

6.1 All winners, including Honorable Mention winners, understand that the photograph(s) submitted to the competition may be used by Lens Culture, to conduct and promote the Lens Culture International Exposure Awards competition. You hereby grant Lens Culture with a right to use the photograph in the framework of such promotional activities.

7.1 Any photograph used by Lens Culture shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as Lens Culture uses its reasonable endeavors to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.

7.2 Lens Culture will not authorize the right to use any winning photograph to any third party. However, you acknowledge that Lens Culture and its event partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse beyond its reasonable control.

8.1 Lens Culture assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition, and Lens Culture assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. Lens Culture assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of entries. Lens Culture is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to Lens Culture on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s photograph cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, Lens Culture assumes no responsibility.

9.1 In no event will Lens Culture, its members, event partners or its officers, directors, employees, be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant’s access to and use of the Website and participation in the contest. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.

10.1 You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of your name and winning image for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity for Lens Culture and the International Exposure Awards without additional compensation.

10.2 All entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media.

10.3. Winners' names will be published online.