Exhibition Open Call:

COMMERCIAL BREAK.

Announcing An Ordinary Place's second open call exhibition:

"Commercial Break"

This new exhibition will run from the last week in November until the middle of December: that time of the year when society loses itself in an orgy of Christmas consumerism, where love is measured on the price tags of our presents, and where expressions of humanity are relegated to slogans in a cola TV advert.

Of course, the irony of running a pre-yuletide selling exhibition, that hints at criticism of an annual rabid spending spree, hasn't been lost on the inmates of AOP towers. Accordingly, we are looking - with the broadest and loosest of briefs - for any imagery that directly, or abstractly, does any of the following:

• provides a calming antidote to the holiday 'rush'

• attempts to shift the centre of gravity of the festive period to something more meaningful / spiritual (faith-based, or otherwise)

• documents the pre-Christmas period, in all it's manifestations

• shines a light on the power of advertising in society

As previously with 'Washed Up!' this is is an open show that is intended to inspire contributions that are as varied as whatever the creatives (of Leith, Edinburgh, or Scotland...) can bring to An Ordinary Place. The exhibition will open Wednesdays to Sundays, running from 25th November until 13th December.

Photographers at any level of training and experience may submit images. We don't judge you by your paper qualifications, or lack of them, and images will be accepted into the exhibition on their merits alone. If the submissions are over-subscribed, all images will be reviewed by an anonymous panel. The anonymity will be 'two-way' as far as is practically possible, ie. the panel will not know the identity of the submitting artists.

You can submit up to three different images for consideration. If the images are intended to be part of a set or series, please indicate that, in your submission email.

Now for the tedious - but important - small print...

Each submitted image file should be:

• Jpeg files only.

• Submitted file names should take the form: "your_name image_title.jpg"

• File size should be maximum 600 pixels on the longest edge of the image.

Attach up to 3 images for consideration to a single email and send them to: hello@anordinaryplace.com with "Commercial Break submission" as your email subject line. In your email, include your name and each image's full title (if there is one) or 'untitled 01, 02...' (if there isn't a title).

Submissions will be accepted until 23:59h on Sunday, 1st November 2026.

If selected, you will need to:

• pay a hanging fee of £4 per print to confirm your submissions' inclusion in the exhibition.

• print, mount and/or frame your own prints, to a maximum overall size of 24"x16" (61.0 x 40.6 cm). If you have larger pieces of work to display, please contact An Ordinary Place to discuss options.

• all prints must have a hook point as near as possible to the top edge of the frame or mount. This can take the form of a 'D' ring, a 'sawtooth' hanger, or a nylon or wire loop firmly fixed to the mount or frame.

• drop off the mounted/framed prints to 87a Ocean Drive during specified opening hours, no later than end of business on Sunday, 22nd November.

• indicate if you wish the print to be available for sale and, if so, what your selling price will be (see below).

Unsold prints must be collected from 87a Ocean Drive no later than end of business Sunday 20th December.

Pricing your framed prints:

Bear in mind that the gallery will take 15% commission on sales, and that commission is subject to VAT, so the total cost of commission will be 18% of your base price.

For example: if you wish to receive £50 for the sale of your framed print, the gallery will charge a buyer £50 +18% = £59. You will then receive £50 from An Ordinary Place Ltd, while the gallery will receive £9 (of which £1.50 will be paid to HMRC as VAT).

Most important: Commission sales comprise a direct contract between the artist and the purchaser, and are limited to one-off items. If the artists is not registered for VAT, there will be no VAT chargeable on the sale, VAT will only apply to the commission charged by An Ordinary Place. However, if you wish to sell images published in multiple copies during the exhibition (eg, postcards, calendars, multiples of mounted or unmounted prints) these must be sold by An Ordinary Place Ltd as retail items and will attract a 20% VAT rate (except for books and zines which are zero-rated for VAT) in addition to a 25% margin for AOP. Please bear all of this in mind when deciding what your final, customer-facing, price for your work will be.

Intellectual property:

By paying your £4 hanging fee, you are granting permission to An Ordinary Place Ltd to use your image on its social media platforms, and in other publicity material, for the promotion of the exhibition. Copyright of the images remains with the photographer at all times, and no other use will be made of the images by An Ordinary Place Ltd without the artist / photographer's expressed permission.

Safekeeping of artwork: While An Ordinary Place Ltd will take all reasonable measures to ensure that artworks remain undamaged while on display, all artworks are displayed at the artist's own risk. In the event of loss or damage to an artwork on display at 87aOcean Drive, An Ordinary Place Ltd will consider claims for compensation to the value of the materials used in the artwork only, but will not be held liable for loss of value relating to the perceived artistic merits of the artwork.

Gallery & Exhibitions