The private, unseen places where reading happens — home bookshelves, bedroom corners, a grandmother's wild collection.
We are looking for photographs of the spaces our books actually live in: the shelf above a bed, the pile beside an armchair, a kitchen table buried in paperbacks.
Be experimental and expressive — we don't mind some flare. We are open to any photographic style or technique: documentary, staged still life, experimental printing techniques, montage, impressionistic or expressive works. Entries are judged on the quality and impact of the image and your accompanying statement.
We want to see different ways of capturing the domestic life of readers and our collections.
Ethnographer with a background in visual cultures, and lecturer in film at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Photographer and library coordinator at Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh.
All winning entries will be exhibited at Tills Bookshop, 1 Hope Park Crescent, for three months from October 2026.
Submissions are taken through a short Google Form. Upload up to three images, with a 50–100 word statement for each.
Can't use the form? Email your photographs (JPEG or PNG, max 10 MB each) and a statement for each image to photo@tillsbookshop.co.uk before 30 July 2026. Include your name, age (if under 18), and a contact number.
Still unsure? Email photo@tillsbookshop.co.uk.
The photographs should be made in Edinburgh, but you don't need to live here.
Yes — your own bookshelves, reading corners, and family libraries are exactly what we're after.
No. If your photograph does include another person, please make sure you have their permission.
You retain full copyright. By entering, you grant Tills Bookshop and Cultural Commons a non-exclusive, perpetual licence to reproduce your work on social media and in connection with the competition and exhibition, always with your name credited. We will not use entries in any for-profit print product.
Yes — please have your parent or guardian's consent.
Yes — still life, analogue development, experimental work, documentary, portraiture and so on are all welcome. There are no specific judging categories for style; all work is considered in relation to the strength of the image and its supporting statement.