Australian Photographer of the Year 2022
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 2023 and more than $22,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, there are plenty of reasons to get involved.
Photographer of the Year includes six portfolio categories – Landscape, Animal & Nature, People, Aerial, Travel and Black & White – and three single-image categories – Single Shot (Previously Photo of the Year), Creative and Junior (for entrants under 18).
ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Now in its tenth year, Photographer of the Year, presented by Camera House, is the largest competition for amateur photographers in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2022 entrants will compete for a prize pool valued at more than $22,000, 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 2023. Last year we published 400 images from the competition over 60 pages. See an abridged version of the issue here.
WHO CAN ENTER?
Photographer of the Year is open to amateur photographers in Australia and New Zealand.
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 2020. Do not enter images previously entered in Photographer of the Year.
PRICING AND DEADLINES
Pre earlybird: $20 (ends Sunday 26 June 2022)
Earlybird: $25 (Monday 27 June to Sunday 31 July 2022)
Standard: $30 (Monday 1 August to Sunday 16 October 2022)
Late: $39 (Monday 17 October to Sunday 13 November 2022)
All pricing is in Australian dollars (AUD).
JUNIOR PRICING AND DEADLINES
Pre earlybird: $10 (ends Sunday 26 June 2022)
Earlybird: $12 (Monday 27 June to Sunday 31 July 2022)
Standard: $15 (Monday 1 August to Sunday 16 October 2022)
Late: $40 (Monday 17 October to Sunday 13 November 2022)
All pricing is in Australian dollars (AUD).
PORTFOLIO AND SINGLE-IMAGE CATEGORIES
Photographer of the Year has six portfolio categories and three single-image categories.
PORTFOLIO CATEGORIES
Landscape, Animal & Nature, Black & White, People, Travel 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 three single-image categories: Creative, Single Shot 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.
TRAVEL (4 IMAGES)
Travel is a deliberately broad genre that can include portraiture, landscapes, wildlife and other imagery, but should try to reveal something about the culture of a place. Images can be captured anywhere in the world including in Australia or New Zealand.
SINGLE SHOT (1 IMAGE)
Single shot (Previously called 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.
JUNIOR (1 IMAGE)
Junior is for entrants aged under 18. Junior is an open-themed category: you may capture any subject you like.
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.
RECOGNITION
Winners, runners-up, and top-ranked portfolios will be recognised in the February 2023 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 2023.
By 20 February 2023 (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. Keep an eye on the Australian Photography website as we announce them later this year.
PRIZES
In 2022 Photographer of the Year includes a prize pool of more than $22,000, including $10,000 cash and a range of cool prizes from our sponsors. You can see the prizes for each of the categories here.