Seeing Sound

Music and photography have a long and vibrant relationship. The New Orleans Photo Alliance and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation invite submissions of your best photographs of these interconnected art forms.

Music and photography have a long and vibrant relationship. The New Orleans Photo Alliance and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation invite submissions of your best photographs of these interconnected art forms - from stages to streets, from full orchestras to solo practice sessions. Photographers are encouraged to think broadly about form, format, process, and approach: as many ways that there are to arrange sounds into music, there are equally as many ways to make a photograph. In the spirit of Roy DeCarava's "The Sound That I Saw," this call for entry invites a wide and improvisational approach to making lens-based work about the sound and images that move us, in New Orleans and beyond.

Our Juror:

Bruce Sunpie Barnes is a veteran New Orleans musician, former Park Ranger with the National Park Service for 30 years, actor, photographer, book author, former high school biology teacher, former college football All-American, and former NFL player (Kansas City Chiefs). Sunpie Barnes’ many careers have taken him far and wide. He has traveled to over 50 countries playing his own style of what he calls Afro-Louisiana music incorporating Blues, Zydeco, Gospel, Caribbean and African influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist, master accordion and harmonica player, also piano, rubboard, talking drum, and dejembe. He learned accordion from some of the best Zydeco pioneers in Louisiana including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. Along with his musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he has performed at festivals and concerts across the US and around the globe. Sunpie has recorded 6 critically acclaimed CDs with his compositions currently featured in 16 Hollywood film productions.

Submission Fee (for Members) : $25
Submission Fee (for Non-Members) : $35
Submission Fee + Basic NOPA Membership: $60
Submission Fee + Silver NOPA Membership (Includes online portfolio listing): $85

https://neworleansphotoalliance.org/membership/
 
Maximum pieces per entry is 5. Files must be in JPEG or JPG, under 5MB with a minimum of 1200 pixels on the longest side so that photographs are large enough to be viewed properly by the juror and used in promotion if selected. 

Seeing Sound will open in late November 2026 and remain on view through PhotoNOLA Fest/December. 

Submissions are open to all photographers; NOPA membership is not required; all ages are accepted. 

Works submitted must be legal, and the artist assumes responsibility for having the legal right to exhibit and sell the images. Fine arts nudes and implied nude works are acceptable. This exhibition will include work that has been digitally manipulated (PhotoShop). AI-generated photos are not permitted for submission.

Photographers are responsible for all shipping fees. The gallery receives 40 percent, and the artist receives 60 percent of the retail price of works sold.

NOTES FOR SELECTED ARTISTS

Shipping: 

Return Label Required
**Please be sure to ship to this mailbox service. Packages are not guaranteed at our gallery address**

New Orleans Photo Alliance
3436 Magazine Street #134
New Orleans, LA 70115

Drop Off:
New Orleans Photo Alliance
2011 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA 70130