3rd CPA “Julia Daniels” Student Digital Photographic Exhibit
Cary Photographic Artists (CPA) is pleased to announce a student photography competition for undergraduate college and university full time students in the Raleigh-Durham region. The top three awardees in the competition will receive a $250 honorarium each and have the entries exhibited on the CPA website. The competition is named in honor of the late Julia Daniels, a long-time member and volunteer of Cary Photographic Artists, and is made possible through donations from her family, friends and CPA members.
The deadline for entries is March 31, 2026. No entry fee is required for up to three images in JPG format for the initial judging. The final judging will be of digital images as provided by the entrants. The judging panel will be comprised of experienced members of CPA. See below for more details.
Timeline:
January/February - Formal announcement to be sent to institutions and other media outlets.
January 25 - Entries open - send to exhibits1@caryphotographicartists.org
March 31, 2026 - Deadline for submissions of JPGs
April 1-7 - Judging occurs
April 8th - Selectees and awardees will be notified
April 8th - Notification of students not selected
April 9th - Awards Zoom, 7:00 pm
April 15th - Exhibit selectees and awardees will be displayed on the https://www.caryphotographicartists.org/home
Guidelines
Competition is open to all full-time undergraduate students at institutions of higher education regardless of major or program of study.
Work will be judged on artistic merit and technical proficiency.
Entries will be accepted until March 31, 2026.
There is no entry fee.
Images may be either color or monochrome.
Each student can submit up to a total of three images in JPG format. JPGs must be no larger than 2,000 pixels on the longest side.
Images should be emailed to exhibits1@caryphotographicartists.org from an .edu email address. Image must be submitted as attachments, rather than embedded in the email.
Please include the following: Name of the artist, institution, phone number and title of each work.
A panel of CPA members will judge the JPG images as submitted and select 25 images for inclusion in the exhibit.
Selectees and awardees will be notified on April 8, 2026.
The top three awardees in the competition will each receive a $250 honorarium and have the entries exhibited in the Student Gallery on the website caryphotographicartists.org.
An on-line awards ceremony with comments by the jurors will be held at 7:00pm, April 9, 2026. Log in information will be provided to all entrants by email on April 5, 2026.
For questions, please email exhibits1@caryphotographicartists.org.