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The World Travel Photography Awards 2026, organized by JRNY Travel Magazine in partnership with Steppes Travel, celebrates photographs that capture the character of places around the world. The competition is free to enter and offers £1,500 in cash prizes, along with digital magazine subscriptions and opportunities for selected photographs to appear in JRNY publications. The submission deadline is November 9, 2026.
The awards explore travel photography through four categories: Landscape, People, Cities, and Wildlife. Photographers aged 18 and over can submit up to ten images, whether captured with digital or film cameras. The overall winner receives £1,000, while the runner-up receives £500. Both winners and highly commended entrants also receive one-year digital subscriptions to JRNY Travel Magazine.
The World Travel Photography Awards offer an opportunity to share photographs that communicate a distinctive sense of place, whether through natural scenery, cultural encounters, or everyday life in a distant city. For photographers exploring photography contests to enter, this annual competition combines free participation with editorial recognition and an international scope. It also provides an opportunity for photographers interested in other travel photography awards to present work inspired by their journeys.
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Prizes
The World Travel Photography Awards 2026 offer a total cash prize fund of £1,500, complemented by digital magazine subscriptions and opportunities for selected photographs to reach the readership of JRNY Travel Magazine.
- Overall Winner:
- £1,000 cash prize.
- One-year digital subscription to JRNY Travel Magazine.
- Overall Runner-up:
- £500 cash prize.
- One-year digital subscription to JRNY Travel Magazine.
- Highly Commended Entries:
- One-year digital subscription to JRNY Travel Magazine.
- Recognition through the competition’s selection of outstanding photographs.
The competition also offers opportunities for selected work to appear in JRNY’s print and digital publications, connecting it with other photography contests offering publication opportunities.
Other Free Contests
Categories or Themes
The competition features four categories, each exploring a different aspect of travel photography:
- Landscape: Natural scenery, from mountain ranges and coastal panoramas to remote environments that capture the atmosphere of a destination.
- People: Portraits, cultural encounters, and candid moments that reveal something about the people and communities of a place.
- Cities: Urban landscapes, architecture, and street scenes that express the character and daily life of cities.
- Wildlife: Animals photographed in their natural environments, highlighting behavior, habitat, and memorable encounters.
These categories accommodate a wide range of photographic approaches, from landscape photography and intimate portraits to urban storytelling and wildlife photography. Each offers a different way to interpret the places and experiences associated with travel.
Dates and Entry Fees
The World Travel Photography Awards 2026 follow this schedule:
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Competition | Open for entries |
| Submission deadline | November 9, 2026, at 18:00 (UK time) |
Entry Fees:
- Entry fee: Free.
- Submission limit: Up to ten photographs per person across all categories.
- Eligibility: Photographers aged 18 and over worldwide.
As one of the free photo competitions featured on Deartline, the awards allow photographers to submit their travel images without entry fees.
How to Enter
Entries must be submitted online through the JRNY Travel Magazine competition website. Photographers need to register or sign in, select the appropriate category, and upload their chosen photographs before the deadline.
Submission requirements include:
- JPEG format, with a maximum file size of 2 MB per image.
- Images prepared at 72 dpi.
- Film photographs scanned for digital submission.
- No visible watermarks, signatures, or identifying information.
Shortlisted photographers may be asked to provide their original RAW or JPEG files for final verification.
About the Jury
Entries are assessed by a judging panel comprising staff from JRNY Travel Magazine and independent judges appointed by the organizers. The selection process is anonymous, with the panel responsible for choosing the winning and highly commended photographs.
Why Enter the World Travel Photography Awards 2026?
Travel photography often captures details that make a destination memorable: an unexpected encounter, the atmosphere of a city street, or a landscape transformed by light. The World Travel Photography Awards celebrate this ability to communicate the character of a place through a single image, giving photographers room to explore both familiar subjects and personal interpretations of their journeys.
The connection with JRNY Travel Magazine gives the competition a particularly relevant editorial setting. Selected photographs may reach readers interested in travel and visual storytelling, while the four categories offer opportunities for photographers working across landscapes, people, cities, and wildlife. Cash prizes and digital magazine subscriptions provide additional recognition.
For photographers exploring Deartline’s popular photo challenges online, the awards offer a reason to revisit images from past journeys and consider which ones best express a destination’s identity. With international eligibility and free participation, the competition also joins other free photography contests that provide opportunities to share photographic work without an entry fee.
Rules and Copyright
We reviewed the official rules of the World Travel Photography Awards 2026 to summarize the key participation requirements, copyright terms and image usage conditions. Before entering, we recommend checking the complete rules published by the organizer.
Rules
Entrants must be at least 18 years old and may submit up to ten original photographs. Both digital and scanned film images are accepted. Entries must be submitted online before November 9, 2026, at 18:00 UK time.
Digital editing is allowed when it preserves the original scene. Stitched panoramas and exposure-bracketed images of the same scene are permitted, but composites, sky replacements, and other substantial content alterations are prohibited. Images generated wholly or partly using artificial intelligence are not eligible.
Photographs must be submitted without watermarks or identifying information to preserve anonymous judging. Shortlisted entrants may be required to provide original files, and participants must own the copyright to their submissions.
Copyright and Image Usage
Photographers retain ownership of their submitted images. By entering, they grant JRNY Magazine and its partners and affiliates an indefinite, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to display, use, copy, transmit, and broadcast their photographs.
The license covers uses connected with the competition, including promotion and presentation of selected work on websites, social media, at events, and in current or future printed and digital editions of JRNY Magazine. These permissions apply without a specified expiration date.
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For more information and to participate in the contest, visit: the official website.
