Submissions

Open Call: Viewings in black: image, object, and the expanded frame

Black Is Magazine is seeking submissions for our second print issue. Images submitted must be sized at 300dpi for printing. The open call will be open from October 2 until the deadline on November 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST.

Black Is Magazine is now accepting submissions for our second print issue, Viewings in Black: Image, Object, and the Expanded Frame. This issue explores the work of emerging image-makers across the African diaspora who are pushing photography beyond its traditional boundaries, incorporating assemblage, collage, photomontage, textile, and other expanded forms into their practice.

Photography has never existed in isolation. This issue is interested in artists for whom the image is not the final destination but a starting point, something to be built upon, layered, folded into object, and transformed. We are looking for work that takes up space, that accumulates meaning, and that asks something more of the viewer than a single glance.

The artists who inspire this issue, including Romare Bearden, Betye Saar, Ralph Arnold, Lorraine O’Grady, and Mickalene Thomas, share a commitment to the image as something alive. This issue carries that lineage forward, centering the voices of emerging artists across the African diaspora who are doing the same work today.

Who Can Submit

This open call is open to emerging artists across the African diaspora, regardless of location. We define emerging as artists who are actively developing their practice and have not yet received significant institutional recognition.

What We Are Looking For

Work that engages with one or more of the following:

Assemblage, collage, or photomontage. Textile or fiber incorporated into image-based work. Three-dimensional or sculptural uses of photography. Work that moves between photography and another medium in a way that expands what the image can do or say.

We are especially interested in work that is in conversation with Black artistic tradition and cultural history, and that brings a distinct point of view to questions of identity, memory, diaspora, or representation.

Submission Requirements

All submissions must include the following:

Up to five work samples (JPEG or PNG, minimum 300 dpi). An artist statement (300 words maximum). A short bio (150 words maximum). A brief project proposal describing the work you are submitting and how it connects to the issue theme (250 words maximum).

Submission Details

Open Call Period: October 2 – November 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM EST. Submissions are free. Submit via Google Form (link below). Selected artists will be notified by email. All submitting artists will receive a response.