12th Fine Art Photography Awards 2025

The 12th Fine Art Photography Awards invites photographers from around the globe to submit works born from passion and a unique artistic vision. This international competition aims to celebrate fine art photography as a powerful medium for personal expression and communication with the world. It welcomes entries from both professional and amateur photographers residing in any country, providing a platform for diverse perspectives within the fine art genre.

Key aspects of the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards 2025 include a substantial prize pool, distinct recognition for professionals and amateurs, and a broad range of categories. The competition culminates in the awarding of $5,000 in total cash prizes, with the top professional receiving $3,000 and the top amateur receiving $2,000. Submissions are accepted across 20 categories, covering various themes and styles within fine art. Photographers should note the deadlines: an early deadline on October 12th, 2025, offering reduced entry fees (starting at $19 for amateurs and $24 for professionals), and a final deadline on February 16th, 2026 (with fees increasing to $24 and $29 respectively). This fine art photography contest is judged by a panel of international photography professionals.

Participating in the Fine Art Photography Awards 2025 offers photographers a significant opportunity for international recognition and exposure. Beyond the cash prizes and prestigious titles for the grand winners, category winners and nominees receive digital badges and certificates. Awarded work is showcased in the Winners Gallery and benefits from international press and publicity, potentially opening doors for artists seeking wider acknowledgment. The emphasis on passion and unique vision encourages creative expression, making it a compelling challenge for photographers worldwide.

The 12th Fine Art Photography Awards Prizes

The Fine Art Photography Awards offers significant recognition and financial rewards for its winners, distributed between professional and amateur participants.

The competition features a total cash prize pool of $5,000 USD.

Overall winner (professional):

• $3,000 USD
• The title of “Professional Fine Art Photographer of the Year”.

Overall winner (amateur):

• $2,000 USD
• The title “Amateur Fine Art Photographer of the Year”.

Beyond the grand prizes, the Professional and Amateur Fine Art Photographers of the Year gain exposure through being showcased in the Winners Gallery on the contest website and benefit from international press coverage and publicity organised by the awards.

Winners and nominees across all 20 categories, in both professional and amateur sections, are acknowledged for their achievement. They receive downloadable gold, silver, bronze, or white badges and certificates, providing tangible recognition of their success in one of the best photography challenges to participate in.

The Categories of the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards

The 12th Fine Art Photography Awards is structured around 20 distinct categories, allowing photographers to submit their work to the genre that best represents their style and subject matter. Each category is judged separately for professional and amateur levels of expertise.

The categories are:

• Abstract: Images using elements of reality (perspective, light, form, colour, texture) to create meanings without direct connection to the physical world.
• Architecture: Photographs of buildings (exteriors, interiors, details), urban landscapes, and man-made environments.
• Conceptual: Images resulting from a planned creative process, illustrating an idea, message, or emotion visually.
• Experimental: Dedicated to photographers experimenting with the medium and process, setting new directions and expanding photography’s limits. This category stands out among experimental photography competitions for its focus on innovation.
• Fashion Fine Art: Artistic fashion and beauty photography, including commissioned or personal work, both studio and location.
• Fine Art: Work demonstrating artistic vision, originality, and an unusual approach, presenting new aesthetics.
• Landscape: Artistic representation of spaces, from vast natural scenes to microscopic details, including man-made or influenced landscapes.
• Nature: Photography depicting the world of animate and inanimate nature, including the impact of human activity.
• Night Photography: Images captured after dark, including night skies, cityscapes, landscapes, and creative uses of low light.
• Nudes: Focusing on the human body to represent beauty, emotion, identity, or as an object of art. A key category for artists interested in a specific nude photo contest within a broader awards framework.
• Open Theme: A category for submissions that do not fit neatly into the other defined categories.
• Panoramic: Photographs presented in a panoramic format, covering any subject matter.
• People: Images focusing on individuals or groups, depicting lifestyles, activities, and cultural aspects.
• Photojournalism: Commissioned or personal work documenting current events, social issues, news, investigations, or daily life narratives.
• Photomanipulation: For photomontages and collages transporting viewers to unreal moments through combined or generated elements. This serves as a dedicated photo manipulation contest space within the awards.
• Portrait: Photography focused on capturing the personality, emotions, or lifestyle of an individual or group, including self-portraits.
• Seascape: Images focusing on seas, oceans, and coastal landscapes.
• Street Photography: Candid moments captured in public spaces, reflecting everyday life, often in urban environments.
• Travel: Photography documenting people, cultures, landscapes, and places around the world.
• Wildlife / Animals: Images of animals in their natural habitat, pets, zoo animals, or microscopic life.

12th Fine Art Photography Awards Dates and Entry Fees

If you are interested in the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards should be aware of the following deadlines and associated entry fees.

The competition features two main deadlines:

Early Deadline: October 12th, 2025

• Amateur Entry: $19 USD for a single image, $24 USD for a series (2-5 images).
• Professional Entry: $24 USD for a single image, $29 USD for a series (2-5 images).

Final Deadline: February 16th, 2026

• Amateur Entry: $24 USD for a single image, $29 USD for a series (2-5 images).
• Professional Entry: $29 USD for a single image, $34 USD for a series (2-5 images).

An additional fee of $10 USD is required for each additional category an image is entered into.

The winners of the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards are scheduled to be announced on April 12th, 2026.

How to Enter:

To enter the competition, photographers must first create an online profile on the official Fine Art Photography Awards website. Following registration, entrants can upload their images according to the specified format (sRGB/Adobe98 JPG, max 1200px longest side, no watermarks/borders). The final step is to pay the corresponding entry fees using PayPal or a Credit/Debit Card. An email confirmation will be sent upon successful payment and submission. This is one of the noteworthy fine art photography competitions available globally.

About the Jury

Submissions to the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards will be evaluated by an international panel composed of high-profile photographers and industry professionals. The judging process relies on the expertise of these individuals to assess entries based on artistic merit, originality, subject matter, and style.

The jury members listed for this edition include:

• Nadja Pollack
• Gerard Berr
• Aman Chotani
• Dindi van der Hoek
• Saso Domijan
• Yiannis Kostavaras
• Cristina Venedict
• Tokio Kuniyoshi
• Bas Meelker
• Venelina Preininger
• Merlin Ortner
• Heinz Effner
• Jaco Marx
• Michele Palazzo
• Jan Møller Hansen
• Martin Krajczy
• Lise Johansson
• Juan Pablo de Miguel
• Csaba Tokolyi

Why Enter 12th Fine Art Photography Awards?

Entering the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards presents several compelling opportunities for photographers seeking to advance their careers and gain recognition for their work. The competition offers substantial cash prizes totaling $5,000 USD, along with the prestigious titles of Professional and Amateur Fine Art Photographer of the Year, which can significantly enhance an artist’s profile.

Visibility is another key benefit. Awarded works are featured in the online Winners Gallery and promoted through international press and publicity channels associated with the awards. This exposure can reach a global audience of photography enthusiasts. Furthermore, the evaluation process providing entrants with the chance to have their work assessed by respected figures in the field. The contest structure, encompassing 20 categories and distinct divisions for professionals and amateurs, ensures relevance for a wide spectrum of photographic styles and experience levels within the fine art domain, making it stand out among photography contests and challenges.

Rules and Copyright

This section about the rules and image rights of the 12th Fine Art Photography Awards has been generated automatically. If you are interested in participating in this contest we suggest you review the complete rules provided by the contest.

Rules

The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers worldwide who are 18 years of age or older, excluding individuals associated with the awards organization, sponsors, or judging panel. Entry requires registration and submission via the official website, accepting the contest’s Terms and Conditions. There are no restrictions on when the photograph was taken, and images that have won or been submitted to other competitions are eligible. Photographers can submit an unlimited number of entries and enter the same image into multiple categories (with an additional fee per category). All submitted work must be the original creation of the entrant, who must hold the sole copyright. Permission must be obtained from any identifiable people featured, and no laws should have been broken during the image capture. Submitted files must be JPGs, max 1200 pixels on the longest side, in sRGB or Adobe98 color space, 8-bit, without watermarks or borders. Winners must be prepared to provide high-resolution files (minimum 3000px wide @ 300dpi) and potentially the original RAW file(s) to verify ownership upon request. Failure to meet eligibility criteria can result in disqualification. Judging is based on artistic merit, originality, subject, and style, with the jury’s decision being final. Entry fees are non-refundable.

Copyright and Image Usage

The copyright for all submitted images remains with the photographer at all times. By entering, photographers grant the Fine Art Photography Awards a non-exclusive, irrevocable license to use submitted images solely for marketing and promotional purposes related to the competition, across all media worldwide. For images that receive an award (winners and nominees), the copyright holder grants the Fine Art Photography Awards unlimited, non-exclusive use of the high-resolution images for activities connected to the contest (including online, print, and social media promotion) without any payment due. Low-resolution versions of awarded images may also be used on the contest website without remuneration. The organizers state that images will be used strictly in connection with the awards and its promotion and will not be resold or used by third parties for other purposes. Requests from third parties for image use will be forwarded to the photographer. Awarded images may be displayed on the Fine Art Photography Awards’ official social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram). Entrants agree to participate in related publicity and allow the use of their name and images for promotional purposes related to the contest without additional compensation. The organizers assume no responsibility for image misuse by external third parties.

–

For more information and to participate in the contest, visit: the official website.