OPEN CALL FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS & WRITERS
TENDER PRESENCE

— a photo book project. 
aiming to shape society.

An anthology about fatherhood.
 At the same time loving memory of and fierce call for soft and present fathers. 

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Fathers who hold their own emotions as well as their children’s.

Fathers who cry, care and comfort. 

Fathers who share the load.
Fathers who are truly present with their children and families.

Tenderness as a legacy.

Softness as default.

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Submit your work. Be part of the change.
“We don’t necessarily all need a father, 

but we all need fathers to be
present and soft.
We all need fathers to be present and soft in order to be role models and safe havens for growth and free development. Fathers play a key role in the development towards an equal, feminist society in which men are also allowed to step out of narrow, predetermined role models and finally reconnect and relate to themselves and others.
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For too long now we have been accustomed to and often suffered from the stern, unemotional patriarch who would mostly rule over instead of connecting to his children and protégés. Men who were mostly noticed for their absence or feared for their presence. Even today we find it difficult to define our roles and rights as mothers and fathers.
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“Our collective memory is still
too full of often painful images.
​Yet, there already are and always have been many who are living a caring and emotionally available version of fatherhood, of parenthood really. We as a society need to see them.​ As we are consciously and unconsciously shaped by the role models we were surrounded with, it is true what it often said: You can only become what you know and you know only what you see. It is therefore vital that we create a new collective image of fatherhood. 

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“You can only become what you know
and you know only what you see.
