ENTRY INFO 2021

 

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

We're thrilled to announce the results of Photographer of the Year 2021, presented by Nokia. Winners, Runners-up, and Finalists are showcased in the February 2022 issue of Australian Photography. You can also see the winners' announcement at australianphotography.com

Thank you so much to everyone who entered – we were hugely impressed with your incredible skills and creativity. A huge thank you too to our fabulous major sponsor Nokia and our supporting sponsors SanDisk, WD, World Photo Adventures, Haida, BenQ, Camera House, MSI and Epson!

Photographer of the Year 2022 will open for entries again on Monday 30 May 2022.

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Australian Photography is searching for Australia and New Zealand's most amazing amateur photographers. With the best entries showcased and celebrated in a special issue of Australian Photography magazine in 2022 and more than $30,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, there are plenty of reasons to get involved.

Now in its ninth year, Photographer of the Year includes five portfolio categories – Landscape, Animal & Nature, People, Aerial and Black & White – and four single-image categories – Photo of the Year, Creative, Mobile and Junior.

ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Now in its ninth year, Photographer of the Year, presented by Nokia, is the largest competition for amateur photographers in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2021 entrants will compete for a prize pool valued at more than $28,000, including nearly $10,000 in cash prizes.

Winners and runners up, as well as a selection of the best entries in each category, will be published in a special Photographer of the Year edition of Australian Photography magazine in February 2022. Last year we published 460 images from the competition over 60 pages. See an abridged version of the issue here.

More than 460 images from Photographer of the Year 2020 were published in the February 2021 issue of Australian Photography.

WHO CAN ENTER?

Photographer of the Year is open to Australians and New Zealanders who are essentially amateur photographers. 

For the purposes of this competition, we define an amateur photographer as someone who has not earned more than $5,000 in a year from photography, and has not completed a tertiary photography qualification.

For more detailed information about the eligibility requirements see the terms and conditions.

IMAGE RESTRICTIONS

You can enter images taken on or after 1 January 2019. Do not enter images previously entered in Photographer of the Year.

Cairns-based photographer Jacqueline Hammer won the Black & White category in 2020 with this striking
series of images of spiral staircases.

PRICING AND DEADLINES

$39 (Deadline: Sunday 7 November 2021)

All pricing is in Australian dollars (AUD).

JUNIOR PRICING AND DEADLINES

$20 (Deadline: Sunday 7 November 2021)

All pricing is in Australian dollars (AUD).

This entry, appropriately titled 'Camouflage', was a lockdown project for Victorian photographer Julie Thomas. The series
was named Overall Winner and People Category Winner in Photographer of the Year 2020.

PORTFOLIO AND SINGLE-IMAGE CATEGORIES

Photographer of the Year has five portfolio categories and four single-image categories.

PORTFOLIO CATEGORIES

Landscape, Animal & Nature, Black & White, People, and Aerial categories require you to submit four images. Images are judged together as a portfolio, not as individual images. Entries where the four images work together as a cohesive series, rather than as four unrelated images, tend to perform better in judging. When you are putting your portfolio together, look for images that work together. You can read more about what makes for a successful portfolio entry here.

SINGLE-IMAGE CATEGORIES

There are four single-image categories: Creative, Mobile, Photo of the Year and Junior (for entrants aged under 18).

THE CATEGORIES

LANDSCAPE (4 IMAGES)
Landscape includes scenes of the natural and built environment.

ANIMAL & NATURE (4 IMAGES)
Animal & Nature includes images of animals (wildlife and domesticated), flowers, plants and other flora.

PEOPLE (4 IMAGES)
People includes posed or candid images of people. Can include one person or more.

AERIAL (4 IMAGES)
Aerial includes photos taken from an elevated position. Images may be captured with a drone, from an aircraft, or from a high vantage point such as a building or bridge. Australian Photography supports the safe and legal operation of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs), including drones. All entries must comply with local rules and regulations. Any image suspected of being captured illegally will be disqualified.

BLACK & WHITE (4 IMAGES)
Black & White includes black & white and toned monochromatic images (such as sepia, selenium, etc). Images may be captured in black & white or converted from colour to mono in post-production.

PHOTO OF THE YEAR (1 IMAGE)
Photo of the Year is an open-themed category: you may capture any subject you like.

CREATIVE (1 IMAGE)
The Creative category has no restrictions on the use of post-production. Images must be photographic in origin and all elements must be the work of the entrant. The use of stock images and clip art is not allowed. Images may be single-capture or composite.

MOBILE (1 IMAGE)
Mobile includes images captured on a smartphone or tablet.

JUNIOR (1 IMAGE)
Junior is for entrants aged under 18. Junior is an open-themed category: you may capture any subject you like.

Ali Moughnieh took out Photographer of the Year's Animal & Nature category in 2020 with this artful series of close-up insect portraits.

IMAGE PREPARATION

IMAGE FORMAT: JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), PNG (.png)
IMAGE SIZE: 2,000 pixels (or more) on the longest edge. Please note, while full-size images are used for shortlisting and judging, low-resolution images (620 pixels) are displayed on the website.
FILE SIZE: 5MB maximum per image.
FILE NAME: Do not include unusual characters like brackets and copyright symbols:  ©, @, #, $, &, *, (,),^,| etc. Hyphens (-) and underscore (_) symbols are fine.
WATERMARKS: Do not include watermarks or other branding on your images.

IMAGE MANIPULATION

ALL CATEGORIES EXCEPT CREATIVE

Images may be processed in post-production to adjust photographic variables such as cropping, noise, sharpness, colour, tone and contrast, including dodging and burning and black-and-white conversions. Lens and perspective corrections and minor cloning to remove distractions are allowed. Images must be single capture, not composites, with the following exceptions: stitched panoramas, focus stacks and HDR images (In these cases multiple images may be captured at the same location and merged to form a single image).

CREATIVE CATEGORY

There are no restrictions on the use of post-production, though images must be photographic in origin and all components of the image must be the work of the entrant. The use of stock images or clip art is prohibited. Images may be single-capture or composite.

The winner of Photo of the Year 2020 was captured by Emma Frater during a hazard-reduction burn in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

RECOGNITION

Winners, runners-up, and top-ranked portfolios will be recognised in the February 2022 issue of Australian Photography magazine. For smaller categories, only the Top 10 will be published in the magazine, but for larger categories up to the Top 20 will be published. A parallel announcement will be made at www.australianphotography.com at the end of January 2022.

By 20 February 2022 (or earlier), winners, runners-up, Top 10, Top 20, Highly Commended, and Commended photographers will receive a pdf award (similar to the one pictured right) via e-mail confirming their placing in the competition.

JUDGES

Photographer of the Year will be judged by a panel of some of Australia's leading professional photographers. We've announced some of our judges for the 2021 competition, with more to be announced in the coming months.

PRIZES

In 2021 Photographer of the Year includes a prize pool of more than $30,000, including $10,000 cash and a range of cool prizes from our sponsors, including a photo tour from World Photo Adventures valued at $5,500. You can see the prizes for each of the categories here.

 

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about the competition or you need help uploading your entry, feel free to email us at contact@australianphotography.com

 

MAJOR SPONSOR

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

 

Questions? Email us at contact@australianphotography.com