Thank you to everyone who applied - the 2023 Tall Poppy Publishing Prize has closed, we look forward to running this again in 2025.

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In a sentence

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Tall Poppy Press will award one submission with a publishing offer, the successful artist(s) will work with us to make a book for publication in mid-to-late 2024.

 

Introduction

 

Tall Poppy Press is an imprint based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded and run by Matt Dunne, with consistent input from Morganna Magee, the imprint aims to publish Australian photography books for a global audience, with a commitment to first books, emerging artists and a financially fair model. Our books are highly collaborative and often occupy a space somewhere between a coffee table book and a zine.

 

Copies of our books can be viewed online and in bookstores around the world.

 

The offer

 

We are looking to award one submission with a published book in 2024.

 

The winner of this prize will publish a book with Tall Poppy Press to be released mid-to-late-2024 at no cost to the artists.

 

As a publisher, Tall Poppy will guarantee: editing, sequencing and design work, printing and selling, distribution and media. 

 

Total edition will depend on the work and artist profile.

 

All submissions will be reviewed and the top 10 will also receive up to a page of written feedback on their work/submission.

 

Who can apply

 

• Photographers living or working in Australia

• Pairs of artists where at least one artist is Australian (we love co-authored books!)

 

If you are not Australian (or working in Australia) unfortunately we are unable to work with you. However we do encourage collaboration between an Australian and non-Australian photographers, so please consider a joint submission.

 

What we are looking for

 

Publishing is all about quality work and quality relationships. We are looking for people in any stage of their career who have a body of work they think could translate well into a book form. 

 

We are also looking for artists who are collaborative. We love to work with people and build books together. A bit of cooperation, compromise and creativity is really important to us :) 

 

A great submission will:

• Share excellent photography

• Explain why a photobook and what the artist hopes to achieve through making a book

• Explain why Tall Poppy Press 

What to submit

 

When you are ready to apply, there are two pages to complete.

 

Page one contains a few questions

• Who is applying?

• What are you submitting? Tell us a little bit about the work (less than 100 words)

• Is this still work in progress, or is it more or less ‘finished’? (less than 50 words)

• What is your experience with making books/publishing/exhibiting?

• Why Tall Poppy Press for this project?

• If successful, what do you hope this book will achieve?

 

The second page asks you to upload a lo-res PDF, we would like to see images from the submitted project, between 20-30. 

 

We do NOT want ANY:

• CVs

• Essays

• Dummys/mockups

 

Just images thank you :) 

 

Closing date: 15th of June. We will let every applicant know if they were successful by 30th of July, with winter to be publicly announced in August. 

 

Cost: $40 AUD per submission

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Frequently Asked Questions

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I’m not Australian, can I submit?

 

Australian is a pretty broad label - if you live or work here then you’re Australian enough for this submission.

 

So, yes please submit IF:

• You’re living/working here (even temporarily)

• You’re partnering with an Australian artist for a joint book (eg images from two or more artists)

 

Why is there a submission fee?

 

To compensate us for our time reviewing your submission. Especially in the case of providing extended feedback. We have tried to keep this at a reasonable cost.

 

Who reviews the submissions?

 

Either Matt Dunne or Morganna Magee. Most likely a bit of both.

 

I have a designed dummy or mockup ready - can I submit that?

 

No thank you. We’d just like to see images now. There’s no need to have anything more considered or developed than that.

 

What would you ideally like to publish?

 

We don’t really have an ideal. Books of ours range the gamut from reference/text books, to books stemming from long term projects, to books made spontaneously from an artists’ archive. 

 

What makes a great book for us is excellent images that are well edited and sequenced, designed interestingly and released thoughtfully. That can take a lot of different forms and we do not have a house style.

 

That being said, whatever is submitted should be relatively close to finished - work that is nascent or unresolved generally isn’t compelling in the books we make.

 

It’s worth noting that we have not yet published an artist of colour, we would love to do so!

 

Who can I reach out to with questions?

 

Matt - tallpoppypress@gmail.com

 

I’m not ready to submit for this, are there other opportunities to share and pitch work to you?

 

Not currently. However, we are hoping to have an annual publishing prize.

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