Sony World Photography Awards YOUTH competition

The World Photography Organisation was established in 2007 by Founder and CEO Scott Gray. Our purpose is to raise the level of conversation around photography worldwide, through a year-round programme of exhibitions, awards and competitions.

Our mission is to support photographers around the world, to celebrate and show their work, as well as nurture the medium of photography on a global scale.

Our value lies in the integrity of our expertise, our years of experience and the strength of our relationships with both individual photographers as well as our industry-leading partners around the world.

Who we are

The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography which activates initiatives, in over 50 countries each year, that help support artists working in the medium of photography. From international exhibition tours, online competitions, and prestigious awards to collaborative projects and high-end art fairs, we embrace photography in all its forms, and are dedicated to the success of our community of artists and photographers.

Our portfolio

We host a year-round portfolio of events to celebrate photography, including the Sony World Photography Awards, the world’s leading photography competition, and PHOTOFAIRS, international art fairs dedicated to photography.

The World Photography Organisation is part of the Angus Montgomery Arts group, the leading art fair organiser in Asia-Pacific with more than 40 years’ experience in the contemporary art sphere. Led by Sandy Angus as Chairman and Scott Gray as CEO, Angus Montgomery Arts is committed to building successful arts events around the world. The current portfolio includes: Art Central Hong Kong, PHOTOFAIRS l Shanghai, Art SG (Singapore), India Art Fair, Sydney Contemporary, Taipei Dangdai (Taiwan) and Art Düsseldorf (Germany).

World Photography Organisation Partners

The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography initiatives. Working across up to 180 countries, our aim is to raise the level of conversation around photography by celebrating the best imagery and photographers on the planet. We pride ourselves on building lasting relationships with both individual photographers as well as our industry-leading partners around the world.

Sony World Photography Awards

Title Sponsor:
Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, imaging, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, interactive entertainment and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading electronics and entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $76 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

Travel Category Partner

Eurostar is the ideal way to travel to London from mainland Europe, offering a seamless city-centre to city-centre journey, quick and convenient check-in and a generous baggage allowance. Travellers can sit back and unwind in comfortable and spacious surroundings with free wi-fi and over 300 hours of on board entertainment, all streamed straight to a phone, tablet or laptop.

Culture Category Partner

Culture Trip is a startup that inspires people to explore the world’s culture and creativity through innovative technology and our global network of local content creators. Our vision – to bring the world to everyone and in doing so bring us all closer together – drives everything we do.

Sony World Photography Awards’ Hotel Partner

Dorsett Hospitality International (DHI) is one of Asia’s fastest-growing hospitality brands. As a Hong Kong-grown hospitality brand, we are proud to have an international footprint in 29 major cities in the world with a total of 57 properties, including DHI’s three core brands: Dorsett Hotels & Resorts, Silka and d.Collection. DHI is also the sister company to Trans World Hotels and an affiliate partner of Agora Hospitalities.

Youth competition

For young passionate photographers aged from 12 to 19 years-old – first prize is top Sony digital imaging equipment!

• Free to enter and open to all 12-19 year-olds submitting single images taken in 2021
• Monthly competitions with a changing theme running from 1 June to 31 December, 2021
• Photographers can enter up to three images per month
• Judges will select a shortlist of 10 images per month, including one winner
• Monthly winners compete to be Youth Photographer of the Year
• Overall winner receives The Youth Photographer of the Year title
• Please see ‘Rules’ below for full image eligibility criteria
• Deadlines for each monthly competition is the last day of the month

Want to enter more than three images each month? Buy image bundles and submit as many photographs as you like. More information available in your account.

Rules

The Sony World Photography Awards supports Pro-Imaging in order to protect the image rights of photographers.

1.1 By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions.

1.2 .1 The competition is free to enter.

1.2.2 The Youth competition is open to all members of the public aged 12-19 on the closing date of the competition.

1.3 Entries must be submitted by the last day of each month between June 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 13:00pm GMT.

1.4 By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that the World Photography Organisation is permitted to receive your registration data. All personal information will be used by the World Photography Organisation in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

2. To enter, you must upload your image via the World Photography Organisation Website (www.worldphoto.org) or any of the official Sony World Photography Award websites and follow the on-screen instructions carefully.

2.1 Images must be taken in 2021 and Entries should be based on the monthly theme outlined, information on which can be found on the Website.

2.2 Images should be no smaller than 1mb and no larger than 5MB. Images should be JPEG files. All images must be saved in the sRGB colour model.

3.1 Entries will be judged on a monthly basis and the monthly winner will be announced at the beginning of each following month. The overall winner will be selected between January 10, 2022 and March 2022

3.2 Monthly winners and a shortlist will be selected and announced prior to April 2022 and the overall winner will be announced in April 2022.

3.2.1 The overall shortlist and winner will be chosen from the monthly shortlist selected for each calendar month of the competition’s duration with each calendar month having a different theme.

3.3 The Youth Competition winner will be voted for by the Judges. The overall winner of the Youth Competition, will be notified by email.

3.4 The decision of the Judges and the World Photography Organisation is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.

3.5 Each Entrant can submit up to three (3) images for free per monthly competition. Judging will be based on the single image and not a series of images.

4.1 The World Photography Organisation reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:

4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of each Entry

4.1.2 You have the right to make Your entry available to the Competition

4.1.3 Each Entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)

4.1.4 Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content

4.1.5 Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law

4.1.6 Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, and Your Entry does not include:

4.1.6.1 Trademarks owned by third parties

4.1.6.2 Copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions)

4.1.6.3 Names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead

4.1.7 Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of the World Photography Organisation.

4.1.8 Entries containing screen credits

4.1.9 No animals were harmed or manipulated in the making of the image

4.2 You agree to fully indemnify the World Photography Organisation in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.

4.3 You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

4.4 In accordance with clause 3.2 and 3.3 all shortlisted and winning photographers will be contacted by email. If the World Photography Organisation does not hear from the entrant by the date specified in any correspondence and is therefore not able to ratify the entry that entrant will be disqualified and replaced by another photographer.

5.1 If you are under 16, you have Your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to participate in the Competition.

5.2 If the World Photography Organisation does not receive a valid signed parental or legal guardian consent form for any winner under the age of 16 within 7 clear days of the Entrant being declared a winner (excluding the day on which such declaration is made by the World Photography Organisation) the World Photography Organisation will be entitled to select an alternative winner from among the Entrants.

6. The World Photography Organisation may run an online rating process whereby members of the public may vote for a favourite photograph. If there is sufficient evidence (in the World Photography Organisation’s sole discretion) to suggest malpractice and manipulation of the rating process, then the World Photography Organisation has the right to remove the relevant Entry or Entries and, if necessary, award the prize to a different Entrant. The decisions of the World Photography Organisation are final.

7.1 The World Photography Organisation recognises You, the author of the image, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.

7.2 All Entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by the World Photography Organisation, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of You the author and the event only, for a maximum of three years after the announcement in April 2022. You hereby grant the World Photography Organisation a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of You the author and the Sony World Photography Awards event and/or competition, including, but not limited to: Entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by the World Photography Organisation, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the event only, for a maximum of three years after the announcement in April 2022. You hereby grant the World Photography Organisation a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of the Sony World Photography Awards Event and/or Competition, including, but not limited too:

(a) Judging the Competition

(b) Displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting the World Photography Organisation and organised by the World Photography Organisation

(c) Inclusion within the Website, a World Photography Awards book, magazine or similar

(d) Inclusion within any materials promoting of the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by the World Photography Organisation, in the promotion of the World Photography Organisation

(e) Inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by the World Photography Organisation or any third party following the individual agreement by the author

(f) Sub-licensing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition

(g) Allowing viewers of the Website and/or Sony World Photography Awards Application to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.

(h) Incorporation by the World Photography Organisation and Sony World Photography Awards Event Partners in Sony World Photography Awards Galleries and or Sony World Photography Awards Gallery Applications on Event Partner devices for a period of three (3) years after the applicable announcement date. Notwithstanding the foregoing, You hereby acknowledge and agree if Your image is included in such Sony World Photography Awards Galleries or Sony World Photography Awards Gallery Applications Your image will remain perpetually in the device royalty free.

7.3 All Entrants understand that the image information, including image name and description, may be shared with Event partners and media as per clause 7.1, 7.2 and 8. For the avoidance of doubt the “image information” does not include any personal information of You the author.

8. Any photograph used by the World Photography Organisation shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as the World Photography Organisation uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.

9. The World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and the World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. the World Photography Organisation is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to the World Photography Organisation on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, the World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility.

10. In no event will the World Photography Organisation, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any Entrant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided “as is”without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.

11. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.

12. All Entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media and an exhibition should the image be required.

13. There are no cash alternatives available for prize winners.

13.1 Prize winners may receive digital imaging equipment as part of their prize and in such cases equipment may be sent to them. In some countries income tax may be applicable to prizes. It is the winner’s responsibility to pay any income taxes related to the prize in compliance with their own country’s law. In such cases the Winner agrees to indemnify and keep the World Photography Organisation, its parents, affiliates or partners indemnified against any tax liability, charges, fines, penalties or interest or any other liability incurred by the winner which liability arose as a result of prizes provided to the Winner.

14. Winners will be announced online.

Can I enter the same image in different categories?
No, this is not allowed.

How do I submit my images?
All images should be submitted online through the Competitions section of the World Photography Organisation users’ site. Please note that you will need to log-in or register for an account with us to get access. You can see a list of the current competitions at worldphoto.org/competitions

What size/format file should I submit?

Images should be no smaller than 1MB and no larger than 5MB. You can find useful information on how to check the file size of your image here.
Images should be JPG or JPEG files. All images must be saved in the RGB color model. All entrants must be able to supply a high-resolution image suitable for printing in exhibitions and marketing materials should the image be required.
If you do need to resize your images and make the file size smaller but do not have the suitable software you can also use picresize.com or a similar online service.

Can I submit manipulated images? Can I use Photoshop?
Images can be manipulated, however, the manipulation must be clearly outlined within the image description.

I have images in original negatives, how can I enter these?
These will need to be scanned into a digital file and then uploaded online through the Competitions section of the World Photography Organisation users’ site. Please state in the image description that the images have been scanned from negatives.

Should there be a watermark/copyright information added to the images entered into the competition?
No. All images must be clear of any copyright information so that the photographer identity is not revealed by the image. In the interest of fairness, the judges are not allowed to see the names of the photographers when judging. Any images that do contain photographers names on the image or any other watermark/copyright information, will be disqualified from being presented to the judges.

Are there any restrictions on image file sizes or file types?

Images must be uploaded in JPEG format and be saved in RGB or sRGB color model. The file size must be between 1MB and 5MB. We will automatically compress and resize images for display on the website.
If you do need to resize your images and make the file size smaller but do not have the suitable software you can also use picresize.com or a similar online service.

Can images be taken on camera phones be entered into the competition?
You can submit images taken with any kind of phone, but images should be no smaller than 1MB in order to enter them, and a higher resolution version may still be required.

Can I submit my images on a CD, URL Link or in a book?
No, all images must be submitted online, through the Competitions section of the World Photography Organisation users’ site.

Is judging anonymous?
Yes, we respect the integrity of the photographers and therefore judging is anonymous. Judges will not know the names of any of the entrants.

Is stacking of photos allowed?.
Yes, this is allowed.

Promoter: World Photography Awards Limited, 9 Manchester Square, London.