Every year, Black Friday rings in the yearly holiday shopping season, with hundreds of thousands of people getting up before sunrise to queue for bargains and deals; when the doors are unlocked, the stores being besieged by their own customers. During Black Friday 2008, security guard Jdimytai Damour, was trampled to death by crazed shoppers as he tried to hold back bargain seekers at a Walmart in Long Island . Unfortunately, the uproar in the media was mostly over by the end of the initial weekend.

Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.

More specifically, Picture Black Friday is an open call for photographers throughout the U.S. to go out and produce images that document Black Friday- how you see it, on your terms. Imagine this project as an open assignment: you have freedom to approach this event from any angle you wish, returning with single images or even a mini-project that documents Black Friday like no other media outlet will. A selection of these images will be exhibited on this site.

In addition to our online exhibition, we will be exhibiting a selection of prints in November at a gallery space in Chelsea neighborhood in NYC. Aperture Foundation is also publishing a selection of past winners in their Fall quarterly, due out November 22nd.

This project was realized by New York City photographer John Saponara in 2009.

This year PBF is offering a signed copy of Brian Ulrich's new monograph "Is This Place Great or What" as well as a limited edition print from one of our past PBF finalists.

For 2011 the Picture Black Friday project will be accepting submissions for one week, beginning on Saturday, November 26th through December 5th via our website. Artists can submit up to 5 of their best photographs of and about Black Friday. Photographers may submit a short statement to go along with their images.

After the initial submission period ends, the Picture Black Friday judges will make a concise selection of work to be featured in a gallery on this site.
Our jurors will then choose from that selection the best image(s) and the chosen photographer(s) will be featured and promoted through PBF and a variety of outlets in our network.

Our goal is to give photographers around the country an outlet to share their images on consumerism, the turbulent economic times we live in, and the mass hysteria that retailers and large corporations feed the American buying public all in search of the almighty dollar, be it paper or plastic.

 
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