The Photography Open Call “The Invisible Price Tag” is part of the programme of the 2nd edition of Festival Impacto, dedicated to the theme of Ethics, and positions itself as a space where the image becomes a question and where the act of seeing can become a first gesture of responsibility.
Mission
The Festival Impacto Photography Open Call is born from the conviction that images can reveal what economic discourse tends to conceal. Through photography as a critical and documentary language, this award aims to make visible what remains outside the frame: production chains, environmental impacts, structural inequalities, and the diffuse responsibilities that sustain contemporary consumption. In a world where the call to consume shapes modern life, it is important to ask: at what cost?
PRIZE FOR THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY: 750,00€ | PUBLICATION IN THE FESTIVAL IMPACTO ALBUM AND MEDIA PARTNERS | EXHIBITION DURING THE Festival Impacto | TRAVELING EXHIBITION IN 2027 |
FRAMEWORK AND THEME
From fast fashion to food waste, from intensive resource extraction to labor exploitation, every product carries an invisible story — a complex network of decisions, interests, and consequences that far exceeds the moment of purchase.
CONSUMPTION AND CONSEQUENCES – “THE INVISIBLE PRICE TAG”
This open call invites artists, photographers, photojournalists, and visual storytellers to investigate and represent the ethical dilemmas associated with global consumption. We seek projects that go beyond the aesthetic surface to reveal the hidden layers of the “price” — social, environmental, cultural, and human — that rarely appear on the label.
CURATOR’S MANIFESTO
We live in a time where consuming is almost automatic and constantly encouraged. We buy with a click and discard at the same speed. The system was designed to minimise the interval between need, desire, and possession — and in that interval, something essential was lost: awareness. The Invisible Price Tag arises from the urgency to reopen space between impulse and decision. Every object that passes through our hands carries a story we do not see. A production chain we do not follow. A territory we may never visit. A body that has worked. A resource that has been extracted. An ecosystem that has been altered. The visible price is only the surface.
Photography has the power to reveal invisible structures: patterns of inequality, production rhythms, systems of exploitation, subtle forms of conditioning. An image can make visible what economic discourse neutralises. As a curator, I am not only interested in denunciation. I am interested in complexity. I am interested in the question that lingers after the image. I am interested in the discomfort that cannot be resolved in seconds… and the consequences of this reality on the individual and collective. Consumption is not only an economic issue. It is cultural, political, environmental, and symbolic. It is language, identity, and power. It would be incoherent to approach such a complex phenomenon from a single perspective. For this reason, I sought a jury panel with diverse backgrounds — art, science, literature, critical thought, innovation — capable of evaluating the images in complementary, and if necessary, divergent ways. I do not only want to assess technical quality. I want thought. I want depth. I want debate.
This open call does not aim to offer closed answers. It seeks to create friction. It seeks to restore thickness to the act of consuming.
Ana Isa Guerreiro
Ana Isa Guerreiro holds a degree in Design from the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon and studied Drawing at the Faculty of Fine Arts, the National Society of Fine Arts, and Ar.Co. She worked for seven years at the Edimoda publishing group, where she worked as a producer and journalist for Máxima, GQ, and Vogue magazines. In the field of cultural production, she produced WIP Galerias Garrett and co-produced Desenha 12, projects that promoted dialogue between art, drawing, and community, involving a wide network of authors, institutions, and audiences. In 2022, she joined the production team of TEDxLisboa, reinforcing her mission to create events that inspire reflection and social transformation. In 2023, she founded Festival Impacto, for which she is responsible for the concept, artistic direction, and overall production. She is currently President of the Festival Impacto Organising Committee.
Gonçalo Negrão is Director of the Higher School of Technology and Management at the Instituto Piaget in Almada, where he also lives. His passion for books led him to work as a bookseller while studying. He later began his career in innovation and digital transformation, working at Galp Energia and in the public sector. He subsequently worked in consulting companies, developing projects across PALOP countries, Brazil, Jordan, Tunisia, Cyprus, the USA, and Australia, with a focus on digital transition and startup ecosystems. He is an innovation specialist for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Commission. Gonçalo holds a degree in Management, a Postgraduate qualification in eBusiness, an MBA in Logistics, an Executive MBA in Creativity and Innovation, and a Postgraduate degree in Purchasing and Innovation from the Vienna Business School. He is currently completing his PhD on “Digital Loneliness and Resonance” at the University of Lisbon Faculty of Arts and Humanities, where he rediscovered the “utility” of his passion for literature. Between teaching and his passion for writing and poetry, he enjoys exploring the role of Artificial Intelligence in mediating our relationship with the world.
Mia Couto is a writer, biologist, and one of the most influential literary voices in the Portuguese language. He began writing poetry as a teenager and, after studying medicine, turned to journalism during the post-independence period of Mozambique, where he went on to direct important media organisations. He later trained in Biology, specialising in Ecology, a field in which he is a university professor and researcher, with significant work in environmental management and nature conservation. His work is marked by a unique literary language, rich in neologisms and poetic imagination, through which he explores the profound relationship between human beings, the land, and collective memory. He is the most widely translated Mozambican writer internationally, with works published in more than 20 countries, many of which have been adapted for theatre and cinema. Throughout his career, he has received numerous national and international awards.
Susana Paiva resides and works in Lisbon. She is a creator, curator, editor, educator, performer, and producer of visual arts projects and events. She has worked as a photographer in the field of performing arts since 1989. She has coordinated, since 2012, the Escola Informal de Fotografia project, a long-term educational initiative for photography creators. She presented the performative project “Anatomia de uma imagem [uma instalação habitada]” within the context of the Festival CITEMOR in 2019, Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. She coordinated, between 2019 and 2023, the photography team of the project CORPO EM CADEIA, by the Companhia Olga Roriz, an initiative of PARTIS / Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. She was the curator of the exhibition Atlas CITEMOR, presented at the Museu Nacional do Teatro e da Dança from May to November 2024 in Lisbon. In 2025, she completed the 33rd Course in Performing Arts Management and Production at Forum Dança, and has attended training sessions on aesthetics, inclusion, neurodivergence, mediation, and inclusive programming and mediation.
João Pontes is a marine biologist and wildlife photographer/videographer from Lisbon, with a special interest in marine ecosystems and macro photography. His photographic work has been distinguished with several national and international awards, and he was named Runner-up for Young Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 by Oceanographic Magazine. He graduated in Biology from the Universidade de Lisboa in 2022 and obtained a Master’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of Algarve in 2025. He conducted his research work in Kāneʻohe Bay, Hawaii, in partnership with the University of Hawai‘i, where he continues to study the impact of invasive marine sponges in the bay. Alongside his scientific research, he works as a diving guide and uses photography and video as tools for scientific communication, aiming to reveal patterns, relationships, and analogies in nature. He is also responsible for the visual communication and imagery of the deep-sea research group of the Azores at the Okeanos Institute. He currently works as a freelance video and photography professional, having collaborated with several organisations, including Fundação Oceano Azul. He is currently developing a documentary about the largest natural reef in Portugal, located in the Algarve, in partnership with the BioReefAP association, of which he is a member.
António de Sousa Dias Composer, multimedia artist, performer, and researcher, he holds a PhD in Aesthetics, Arts Sciences and Technologies, and is an Associate Professor with aggregation at the University of Lisbon Faculty of Fine Arts. He is the author of works spanning various genres (instrumental, electroacoustic, mixed media), music for film and audiovisual productions (fiction, documentary, animation), performance, musical theatre, and interdisciplinary crossovers. Throughout his career, multimedia, installation, and visual creation have also played an important role.
SELECTION PROCESS
All photographs received will be evaluated based on four key elements: technical factors, compositional factors, emotional factors, and narrative factors. After the pre-selection period, the finalist images will be reviewed again for final selection by the jury. An email will be sent to all selected participants informing them of the outcome of their submission.
TERMS AND LICENSING
All participants in the open call declare that the images and projects submitted are their original work and that no copyright infringement has occurred. COFI is not responsible for any copyright violations that may arise during the selection process or subsequent exhibition of any image. Participants are responsible for obtaining, prior to submission, all necessary authorisations and consents required to allow the exhibition and use of their photographs. Projects will be evaluated by a professional jury with relevant expertise in the thematic field, without any external influence and without access to author information. The jury’s decision is final and not subject to appeal.
COPYRIGHT AND USAGE RIGHTS
The copyright of the photographs remains exclusively with the photographer at all times. The photographs will be used strictly in relation to Festival Impacto. COFI, its partners, and sponsors are granted the right to publish and exhibit the selected photographs, including for promotional purposes on their social media channels, always ensuring proper attribution and respect for copyright.
For more information, please contact: