Most Prestigious Photography Competitions Every Photographer Should Enter – Part-II

4. Xposure Photography Awards

This is one of the largest and most prestigious photography competitions held annually in Sharjah, UAE. Known for its global exposure and grand festival, this contest is free to enter and attracts photographers from all over the world. The competition offers 8 main categories, with some changing each year, providing a wide range of opportunities for photographers to showcase their talent.

Participation Fee: Free
Last Date for Submission:  Closed for Season 2024/25 on 15 September 2024

Pro Tip from Ali: For those with a fine art or creative photography style, participation is limited to the Photo Manipulation and AI section, where editing and artistic modifications are permitted. However, in all other sections, originality and minimal editing are required. The festival is an incredible opportunity for photographers to gain international recognition, with winners receiving a 7-night stay in Sharjah to attend the award ceremony and enjoy the Xposure festival.

Categories

Rules of the Competition

Each participant can submit up to 10 photos across any or all of the sections. Images must be in JPG format, with a maximum size of 8 MB. The preferred resolution is 300 dpi, with dimensions between 2,700 and 5,000 pixels on the longer side, and a 3:2 ratio is recommended. All submitted photos must have been taken within the last three years. Category no.6, Photo Manipulation and AI, is specifically for fine art and creative photographers, where photo editing and manipulation are allowed.

Award

The competition offers substantial prizes, including $6,000 for the overall winner, $3,000 for the winner of each category, and $1,500 for second-place finishers. Additionally, winners receive digital photography equipment, free tickets and accommodation for the Xposure photography festival, and their work will be published in the festival’s annual book. The top five nominees in each category will also have their works featured in the exhibition and festival.

Legal Rights

Your copyright in the work stays with you. However, you are required to grant them an unlimited (i.e., without any term or restrictions), non-exclusive (i.e., you can use image for other purposes and competitions) right to use your high-resolution images for promotional activities related to the award. The awarded images can be be published in their Yearbook and the SGMB Public Archive.

5. Urban Photo Awards

Held annually in Italy, is one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the world, celebrating the art of urban photography. The Urban Photo Awards provide an excellent opportunity for photographers to gain international recognition and connect with the urban photography community.

Categories:

1. Single Photos
2. Projects and Portfolios
3. Urban Book and Zine Award
4. Urban Photo Arena

Participation Fee: Free for one photo, € 15 for the first submitted photo and € 9 for every further photo

Last Date for Submission:  Closed on 23 June 2024

Pro Tip from Ali: Participants are allowed to submit one photo for free, so careful selection is crucial. Those with heavily edited images are encouraged to enter the Creative section instead. Winners are invited to Trieste for an award ceremony and exhibition, with their works featured in an annual published book.

The competition is divided into several sections:

1. Single Photos – This section includes categories such as Streets, People, Spaces, and Creative photography, allowing participants to submit striking individual images.
2. Projects & Portfolios – Contestants can submit sets of interconnected photos, which may take the form of thematic portfolios, photographic projects, series, reportages, or storyboards that tell a cohesive narrative.
3. Urban Book & Zine Award – This new section is dedicated to extended projects inspired by the theme of Urban Life. Photographers can submit drafts of their photographic books or zines in PDF format. The winning project will be published as a paper book by dotART/URBAN* and officially presented during the Trieste Photo Days festival in 2024. This section allows for larger submissions beyond the 12-photo limit set for the Projects & Portfolios category.
4. Urban Photo Arena – A platform for young talent, this section is aimed at photographers under 35 and was formerly known as Trieste Photo Young. With the support of the Pietro Pittini Foundation, this international contest offers visibility and recognition within the broader Urban Photo Awards framework, allowing emerging photographers to showcase their work to a global audience.

Rules of the Competition

For ‘Streets’ and ‘Spaces’, while basic post-production is allowed, photo manipulation or modification of the subject with Photoshop is prohibited. For ‘People’ and ‘Creative’, photo manipulation is still permitted. AI generated photos are not allowed for any category. RGB color method is accepted. No file should be than 10Mb is size. Projects and Portfolio category can have a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 12 photos. In the Portfolio section, make to sure that the order of the photos is correct.

Award:

Details of the award money and other accolades and benefits is detailed here.

Legal Rights

The organizer, dotART association, will have the non-exclusive right to use the winning/ selected images for the promotion and advertising of their non-profit activities, in traditional print media. However, they will officially communication to the photographer regarding the same, and give necessary credit/attribution for the work. For online usages, dotART will use best professional diligence to cite/tag the photographer.

Ali’s Experiences and Wins

Ali had the honor of participating in the Urban Photography Awards in Italy, one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions. In 2022, he received an honorable mention in the Creative Photography category, placing third overall, which led to an invitation to attend the exhibition and awards ceremony. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make the trip due to visa issues. In 2023, he was recognized again, submitting five finalist photos in the Creative Photography section and receiving the title for the second-best photo. Once more, he was invited to Italy for the ceremony, but visa complications prevented his attendance.

Winners of 2024 Single Picture Category is available here
Winners of 2024 Urban Zine Award is available here

6. WPEAwards

Held annually in France, this competition is also known as the World Cup of Photography. More than 10 thousand photographers participate in this competition every year.

Participation Fee:

• From opening date until the first deadline: €15 per Image.
• From the first deadline until the final deadline: €18 per Image

Last Date for Submission:  

Pro Tip from Ali: The WPE Awards annual race usually gives a number of free Credit to participate in the contest after your membership. With any Credit, you can upload a photo in a section. To upload more pictures, you must buy Credit.

The competition is held every year at three stages, namely First Half, Second Half and Annual Final, (with a total of 3 competitions per year. At the end of these three competitions, an Annual Catalog of the best photographs and photographers is made and the top 100 photographers in the world is selected. See more details here.

Categories

This competition has 33 categories. Most of the categories of this competition are for wedding and portraits. Needless to say, there are other categories as well like, streets, landscape, wildlife, sports, etc. including categories like photo manipulation and AI.

1. Wedding Photography: Bride Alone Wedding Day; Groom Alone Wedding Day; Wedding Couple Together Wedding Day; Wedding Details; Bridal Party; Wedding Photojournalism; Creative Wedding; Pre Wedding Bride Alone; Pre Wedding Groom Alone, and Pre Wedding Couple Together
2. Portrait: Fashion/Beauty; Portrait Creative; Individual; Newborn; Maternity; Children; Group/ Families, and Fine Art Nude
3. Other Categories: Street Photography; Photojournalism/Reportage/Culture; Architecture; Landscape; Flowers; Macro; Animals/Pets/Insects; Wildlife; Food; Commercial and Sports
4.  Aerial / Drone Photography
5. Storytelling With Collages (Creating stories by making collages)
6. Photo Manipulation
7. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Portrait AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Landscape AI
   

Rules of the Competition

Thankfully, there is no restriction on the date your photo was taken. They reserve the right to move an entry into another category, and change the rules without prior notice. The photograph must be equal to 2048px on the longer side, without any watermarks, copyright sign. See more details here.

Award:

All the winners receive the crystal statue of this competition. The biggest crystal of WPE is given to photographers who are in the top three, collecting the most points at the end of each competition.

Further, a cash prize of €2000 is awarded to the highest ranked photographer with the maximum number of points. Second and third place holder of the Grand Prize is awarded with 15 and 10 free entries respectively, to the next competition. Kindly note that these three Grand Prizes are limited to top 3 photographers attaining the most points overall (not per category) in every competition.

Legal Rights

All entries will be considered the intellectual property of the authorized account holder (i.e., the participant). All images submitted by you will be protected by copyright belonging exclusively to you. By entering into this competition, you consent to your image(s) being reproduced and used to conduct and promote http://www.wpeawards.com. WPE may only use them for its own promotion. If the photograph has an identifiable person in the frame, you must have necessary permission to use the image from that person. Please be informed that you may be asked to prove such permission to use by way of their handwritten/signed confirmation.

Winning Pictures are available here
See Grand Prize winners here
Download Annual Catalog from here