What Are We Up to?
British Photography has an enormous heritage, spanning over 180 years; since the dawn of the technology itself, and Brits have always been recognised as creative pioneers in the industry. Each year our talent is visible at the forefront of the global photographic community as we continue to innovate and inspire the world.
We represent British photographers the world over, with a focused aim to highlight, award and celebrate talent. We also want to promote responsible action, and have based our ethical competition around charity fundraising, helping some incredibly important causes.
We are staffed by UK photographers, shortlisted by experts, judged by the public AND raise money for some very important charities.
Half the money from our competition entry goes to a charity of the entrant's choice, the other half goes into prizes and processing (card payment fee etc) and tax. That's it. Nobody takes any money out of the competition's cashflow. This ensures every penny of your donation makes it to the charity you select. Also, this means the more people enter, the higher the incentive to do good in the world - which is rather neat.
For a look at this year's competition dates and judging program click here.
2017: Walking before we ran
Last year we developed our roots in charitable fundraising and as we were proving an untested model, we were cautious with our ambition. Not over-reaching is vital, especially when you are handling chairty funds. Despite this, we enjoyed a hugely successful regional competition with the support of an incredible community. With over 6400 photographs sent in, the BPA established itself as an ethically centred awards scheme based around three core drives:
1) Championing the image rights of photographers,
2) Being as inclusive and ethically centred as possible,
3) Supporting charitable organisations who strive to better our green and pleasant lands.
2018: So, What's next?
Building on this, our 2018 awards model is geared towards promoting both individual and collective talent to the world. There are loads of ways to get involved, but mostly we can't wait to share our plans for the inaugural British Photography Awards event that we are hosting in January at The Savoy in Central London.
Lastly, we are expanding our category list according to demand from last year's stellar community. For more updates on our model see below.
#BPA2018 will be working on a different schedule to last year. Click here for more information on our timetable.
We listened to our community:
Since last year, we have read every email, and listened to all your wonderful feedback and are pleased to announce we are implementing five changes to our model:
1) To avoid leaving people out, we want to include all British photographers, (not just those resident!), so are accepting photos taken from all over the world. This will allow you to submit overseas project work and holiday photos too (something we received a lot of requests for!)
2) We are expanding our category list so we can help as many people as possible support charity with their work.
3) After our judges shortlist, we are opening up our voting systems to the public, this will ensure a more inclusive and objective competition. To avoid a popularity contest, all categories will be heavily marketed and we have a two part authentication process to limit fraudulent voting.
4) We are expanding our Charity Roster to allow for a better, fairer distribution of your donations! Now it will be easier than ever to find a cause that you love, and use your photography to support it.
5) The focus this year is on both national and international publicity which will benefit our entrants, our charities and our corporate partners.
To be kept up to date with #BPA2018, subscribe to our mailing list using the box found at the bottom of each page.