Press Photographer of the Year 2024

PPOTY 2024

The British Press Photographers’ Association is delighted to announce the return of The Press Photographer of the Year competition for 2024.

Created by press photographers for press photographers, this unique competition enables images submitted to act as a showcase for the outstanding and unprecedented press photography taken for and used by the UK media.

 Our aim is to demonstrate once again that the still image burns the keenest, fastest impression on the public conscience and is the most effective way to show the world as it really is.

Entries will open for the following categories on Friday January 17th 2025 and close at midnight on Friday 24th January:

News Photographer of the Year
Arts and Entertainment Photographer of the Year
Portrait Photographer of the Year
Royal Photographer of the Year
Business Photographer of the Year
Essay Photographer of the Year
Sport Photographer of the Year – Action
Sport Photographer of the Year – Away from the action
Sport Photographer of the Year – Major Event
 (The Olympics, The Paralympics and EUROS 2024)
Young Photographer of the Year
 (under 25s either in full time photography employment or students studying photography at a further or higher education institution)

Each entry will consist of a portfolio of six images – with the exception of the essay category which will consist of ten images.
Entries must be taken between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024 (inclusive).

Photographs will be showcased on the website with the winners in each category being voted on by members of The BPPA. The winners of each category will then go forward for the chance to win The BPPA Press Photographer of the Year 2024.

The category and overall winners will receive a specially commissioned trophy and the winning photographs will be exhibited online.

For existing members of The BPPA the awards will be free to enter. The competition is also be open to non-members for a one-off entry fee of £25 for entry into all categories.

For full details and entry requirements – CLICK HERE.

Good Luck,

PPOTY Team

The BPPA joins the Creative Rights in AI Coalition

Following a meeting of our Board on Wednesday 8th January 2025 The BPPA has joined the UK based Creative Rights in AI Coalition as a member organisation. We will be submitting our objections to the Intellectual Property Office’s Consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence. 

We would urge our members and anyone else who believes that the creative industries will be seriously adversely affected by the IPO’s proposals to also object before the deadline on the 25th of February 2025.  Use this link to register your opposition.

Along with our formal objection, The BPPA is issuing the following statement:

There are many reasons, both economic and aesthetic, why the proposed new exemption should be opposed outright by creators. We are confining our remarks here to the rights and ethical obligations of our members.

We are the eyes of the public. They see through our eyes what they cannot see through theirs. They trust us to bear witness to the truth. We cannot betray their trust. This we would do if we in any way allow our authentic press photographs to be used to create photorealistic fake news. It is not just our reputations at a stake here, but the fundamentals of participating in a democratic society.

For these reasons we are opposed to any exception to copyright law permitting such abuse. The proposed opt-out procedure is both wrong in principle and impractical. Our rights should not be taken away subject to retrieval. They should not be taken away in the first place. As has been said elsewhere, shopkeepers should not have to opt out of shoplifting.

This is also impractical for a number of reasons, including the following. Countless thousands of our photographs are already online and there is no way of excepting these from the proposed exception. It is no argument to say they have already been stolen in the past. They are still there available for AI abuse today and for years to come. For the future, our members take thousands of photographs each and every day. While software exists, and will become more widely available, permitting a reservation to the proposed exception to be inserted into photographic metadata, it is in the nature of news work that so many of our pictures would leave our hands immediately before we have the opportunity to put this into effect. They would then, according to the proposed exception, undoubtedly be considered free to use, and abuse, by all. Moreover such metadata is routinely stripped, and while that is contrary to the law, we have no way of policing or preventing it. If still retained, we would then be dependent on others having both the will and the means to read and abide by reservations to the proposed exception.

The only way through this morass, and to both respect and protect our rights, is for creators to have the right to opt in if they so choose. Our pictures should not be available for AI purposes without our prior permission. We should not be placed in the position of having to go to court, for which we in any case do not have the means, to restore the rights taken from us. Furthermore we are not attracted by the offer of financial compensation for unethical abuse through Generative AI.

The Board of The BPPA, January 2025