General | Registration | Conditions for participation | Fotomarathon Day | Exhibition Day

General

A Fotomarathon is a photo challenge; where given themes have to be illustrated following a given order and within the given time. At the Berlin Fotomarathon, an overall theme sets the tone for the 12 individual themes that participants have to illustrate in 12 hours. The overall theme and the individual sub themes are only revealed during the Fotomarathon day. A more detailed description of how the Fotomarathon works can be found under “What is a Fotomarathon?”

Our events in 2017 are planned for the following dates:

  • 29. April: Mini-Fotomarathon in der Prignitz (4 hours)
  • 10. June:  Fotomarathon in Berlin (12 hours)
  • End of July (22-23 oder 29-30.Juli): Ausstellung zum Fotomarathon
  • 07. October: Mini-Fotomarathon in Berlin (4 hours)

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Yes, approximately three or four weeks after the Fotomarathon all photos are exhibited during a whole weekend in Berlin. Every officially registered participant has free entry, presenting the original and stamped start number. People who participated for free together with the officially registered person, as accompanying team members, models, assistantes, etc, pay an entrance fee to the exhibition. This allows us to finance the cost of putting the exhibition together.

Visitors to the Exhibition pay EUR 4,00 (reduced EUR 3,00). Children under 12 enjoy free entry. Check this years page to read more about the upcoming exhibition.

Of course! Ten winning series are chosen by a specialized Jury and they all receive prizes offered by our partners and donors. Check the Partners and Sponsors page to check who is supporting the fotomarathon this year.

Yes, worldwide there are many Fotomarathons. You can find an updated list under “what is a fotomarathon“

Registration

Registration takes place online around 2 months before the Fotomarathon day. Just find the Registration button at the Home Page.

The registration fee is 33 Euro. Those making a quick decision, registering during the first two weeks when registration opens, will pay an “early bird” price of 29 Euro. On the Fotomarathon day itself, we will only accept registrations if other participants have cancelled. The registration on the day costs 35 Euro and must be paid in cash.

No, unfortunately we cannot offer standard reduced fees. The Fotomarathon is organised by a non profit organisation run by a team of volunteers, and is fully financed thanks to the participant’s fees and sales of exhibition tickets.

Payments can be done using PayPal or via Bank transfer.

Registration occurs only online, and runs usually until a couple of days before the Fotomarathon or Mini-Fotomarathon.

Cancellation of your participation and a reimbursement of the fee is possible until 7 days before the Fotomarathon, by sending an email to kontakt@fotomarathon.de, with your start number and your bank details. If you paid via PayPal, we will return the registration fee via PayPal as well. If you cancel after this date, we cannot reimburse your fee. You can nominate a replacement person that will participate using your space. If this is the case, send us an email at kontakt@fotomarathon.de at latest a week before the Fotomarathon or Mini-Fotomarathon.

Conditions for participation: Do´s and don´ts

NO, changing pictures after the picture has been taken is not allowed. Photoshopped or otherwise changed photos lead to disqualification.

Modern digital cameras have internal effects or “scene” modes (Miniature effect, HDR, Silhouette, Active D-Lighting, Saturated colours, black and white modus, etc) The effect is produced before the image is produced, and not afterwards. You can use any settings BEFORE the photo is taken, but cannot retouch it or change it later. Post-photo processing leads to disqualification.

The photos must be made with a digital camera. It is not important which model it is. It can be a simple “point and shoot” pocket camera or a professional SLR. What counts is your point of view to illustrate the themes you are given.

The photos should be made in JPG, high quality format. Moreover, we recommend that you set up your camera in 2:3 format. If it is not possible to configure your camera to a 4:3 format, your photos will appear in full size on the 1.5m long strip, but with a white border (above or below, left or right)

We also recommend that you choose landscape (horizontal) oriented photos. During the exhibition, the photos will presented as a 1.5m long strip of continuous photo paper. It is not possible to cut those photos in vertical format, and therefore (while it is not mandatory) we recommend the landscape orientation.

The Berlin Fotomarathon started as an analog event, so we always have a special space for analog photographers. Since going digital in 2007, we have a special analog category, where 30 places are allocated for analog cameras and photographers. A special Jury will curate these photos and select a winner -and allocate special prizes too.

No, the Fotomarathon does not provide memory cards or films. You should bring empty and error-free memory cards. We will check this before the Fotomarathon begins. Analog photographers need to bring their own 12-24-0r 36 exposure film. We will only consider 12 photos for the Fotomarathon.

You must be 18 years old or more to be able to participate as a registered participant. Children or teenagers can participate with authorisation of their parents or guardians, accompanied by an adult.

Fotomarathon Day

Every participant receives an individual start number on the day of the Fotomarathon, which must be clearly visible on the first photo. We receive the photos in long rolls of film, and this start number allows us to identify each series. You can be creative! Use house numbers, billiard balls, letter soup noodles…the options are endless!.

A camera, your registration confirmation and your ID Card or Passport. And naturally lots of fresh ideas, stamina, curiosity, courage, some “out of the box” thinking, willingness to make new friends, good shoes and lots of fun to take photos. We advise you to bring a tripod as well; please remember to charge your batteries -or bring an extra pack just in case. We prepared a comprehensive check-list, to help you prepare for the Fotomarahton. You can find it and download it HERE.

The Fotomarathon lasts for 12 hours, from 11.00 am until 23.00 at night. At the last meeting point, we collect the photos -and participants can chill out, enjoy a drink or eat something. Mini-Fotomarathons run for 4 hours, and can start at different times depending on the season. Usually they run between 14.00 and 18.00 hours, but it can change if we match the event to special events. Please check the registration page for the Mini-Fotomaratho for details

At the starting point all registered participants receive their Fotomarathon number. We strongly advise you to be on time, or arrive there an hour before the start at the latest. Failing to be on time means you will not receive the themes and the next station, disqualifying yourself out of the race. To make sure there is time for everything, the Fotomarathon organisation team will be at the Starting Point 90 minutes before the start.

In addition to the start and finish, there are two intermediate stations at 15.00 and 19.00, where you will receive new lists of themes and the address of the next stations. The end station must be reached until 23.00 hours. The Fotomarathon Team will be at each station 30minutes before and after the given time. Please be at the stations within this window of time, otherwise you miss the cue to the next meeting point and will mean your early disqualification from the competition.

Yes, you can bring friends, acquaintances and family to be part of your team and spend the day together so you can mutually support and inspire each other. If you win a prize, however, only one prize will be given per registered participant. The group has to decide for itself how it will share the prize. Due to organizational constraints, we can only give one prize (or set of prizes) to each winning series.

We recommend landscape (horizontal) formats, bearing in mind how photos are displayed in the exhibition. The photos will be exhibited as a 3 meter long stripe –and therefore landscape formats could be best for this. However, this is just a recommendation and not a rule. The composition of the individual photos should make a good series – the overall theme provides help to achieve this.

Yes, you can, because we won’t seal your camera. This means that you can change memory cards during the day, that you can download photos to your computer meanwhile, if you want to take photos other than just for the competition. However, this does not mean that you can alter your competition photos on your computer! We will check this using a special program and then EXIF data. Important: Your picture series for the competition needs to be shot with one and the same memory card! Transfering a picture from one card to another will lead to disqualification. At the end of the day, there should be no more than 12 photos on the memory card / film roll that you want to hand in.

Many Berliners already have a monthly ticket, use their bicycles or cars to get around. For visitors, we recommend to get a BVG day ticket or a small group ticket for up to 5 persons. More on the tickets can be found here: BVG Tickets

The BVG also has developed a free app for Android, Windows and iPhone where you can check different routes, see maps and even buy tickets.  It allows you to use your mobile phone as a ticket and find out about connections or save favourite routes and call them up at the tap of a finger. In addition, you can display the locations of available car club vehicles from Car2go with an interactive area view. You can read more about it and download it here: http://www.bvg.de/de/Fahrinfo/Jederzeit-mobil

You can also get around using car sharing. If you use different car sharing providers, you can use Free2Move app to organise your cars. Free2Move makes it easy for you to book vehicles from different providers, so you don´t have to worry about switching back and forth between carsharing applications.

Available for iPhone, Android and Windows Phones. Check it out here: https://de.free2move.com/en/app