Assignments 2021 – NOW OPEN

The British Press Photographers’ Association is pleased to announce that ASSIGNMENTS 2021 is now open for entries. Following a break of more than 2 years we are once again seeking the best of British Press Photography from our members to be exhibited at Bargehouse London in August 2021.

  • Entries are open NOW until midnight on Friday 2nd July 2021
  • Each member can enter up to 10 photographs taken between 12th April 2019 and 2nd July 2021 (inclusive).
  • You must be a member of The BPPA to enter – if you aren’t you can join now.
  • Thanks to our generous sponsors at Canon UK and Fixation it is FREE to enter.

We are also pleased to announce the first of our 5 curators as Tom Stoddart. Tom began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North-East of England. In 1978 he moved to London and began working freelance for publications such as the Sunday Times and Time Magazine. During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Read more about Tom here.

Click here for the rules and entry procedures

Image credits: Left to right anti-clockwise: Hannah McKay / Reuters, Hannah McKay / Reuters, Danny Lawson / Press Association, Peter Nicholls / Reuters, Samir Hussein, Stefan Wermuth / Reuters, Stefan Rousseau / Press Association, Damien McFadden, Dan Kitwood / Getty Images, Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images. Tom Stoddart by Daniela Sbrisny.

An open response to a recent social media post about gender in press photography

The BPPA has come in for some criticism from a group called Women Photographers of the UK about what they refer to as the uneven representation of women in the current Assignments 2019 exhibition. You can read their open letter here on Medium. This is a response from Lynne Cameron, Vice Chair of The BPPA.
 
Dear Suzanne, Anna and Susannah
 
We would like to reassure those expressing concerns about the representation of women in our industry that we are very aware of the issues and are currently working on projects to support and help current and future female members of the organisation. We were disappointed that these concerns were not directed to The BPPA in the first instance as we welcome all constructive criticism. It is one of our core values to work transparently with all parties in any matter related to photography.
 
The issue of gender imbalance is a complex one, not just related to photography but to wider society.
 
The association is proactively working to improve such imbalances. As an example The BPPA elected me as Vice Chair and Julie Edwards as our Social Media and Website Editor at last year’s AGM. We are both long-standing professional photographers who have first hand experience of gender related issues within our industry. Julie and I are bringing our experiences, energy and ideas to The Board and welcome further positive constructive comments which could help address this wider topic.
 
In relation to the exhibition (it is not a competition) we would like to reassure those concerned that images were curated by highly regarded members of the profession who were deliberately not given any information about the name or gender of the photographers in order to make the selection process ‘about the images’ as far as is humanly possible.
 
We are extremely proud of Assignments – an exhibition designed to promote and highlight the amazing work that is being produced by our members.
 
The Board of The BPPA welcomes constructive input from anyone who wants to help to promote and inspire great photography. If you have ideas on what more can be done on the issues raised then please get in contact with me or any of the other members of our Board.
 
Lynne Cameron
 
Vice Chair, The BPPA
 
 
 
Statistics:
 
1. The BPPA has 321 paid-up members of whom 40 are women – which is approximately 12.46%.
2. 16 photographers joined or rejoined in order to take part in Assignments 2019 of whom 25% were women.
3. 161 photographers entered photographs for Assignments 2019 of whom 18 were women – 11.2%
4. 1,351 photographs were entered of which 148 were entered by women – 10.95%
5. 110 photographs were selected for exhibition of which 10 were by women – 9.3%

Curators Announcement

We are pleased to announce two more Curators for Assignments – John Downing & Nikki Sutherland
In a long career at the Daily Express John travelled the world covering a huge variety of stories. John was inside the Grand Hotel in Brighton when it was bombed, was imprisoned by Idi Amin, lived rough with the Guerrillas fighting the Russians in Afghanistan – and still found time to win Royal Photographer of the Year!
He was Press Photographer of the Year no less than seven times – as well as numerous other awards including an MBE.
John was also one of the founders of the Press Photographers Association – so we are particularly grateful that he has agreed to spend some of his valuable time to help us put together Assignments this year.
Nikki Sutherland, acting picture editor of the Mail on Sunday is the daughter of News and Royal photographer Jim Bennett – and spent much of her school holidays following Jim about various events dragging an 800mm, or in the darkroom hand printing pictures.
From there she went to work for Nunn Syndication, before moving on to Kent News and then to The Mail on Sunday.
Nikki said “I am looking forward to doing this – I really like the idea of an exhibition that has a range of different people picking the pictures to give it a bit of variety”.
If you want to take part you had better hurry – you only have until noon tomorrow to submit your entry.. Visit the assignments website for details.

We are pleased to announce the first of the Curators for Assignments

Photo by : Brian Harris
Photo by : Brian Harris

We are pleased to announce the first of the Curators for Assignments – Tom Stoddart!
Now established as one of the worlds most respected photojournalists Tom Stoddart began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North-East of England, before moving to London to work for a variety of papers on Fleet Street.
During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
We are thrilled that Tom has agreed to join our panel of curators this year.
If you want to take part you had better hurry – you only have until friday to submit your entry.. Visit the assignments website for details.

Assignments is back – and not just in London!


The exhibition of the best of British press photography returns – and as well as the London show we are taking over the The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke on Trent for a whole month.
The opening night is Tuesday 23 July- and will run until Sunday 25th of August to coincide with summer holiday season.
We are doing things slightly differently this year – full details on the website – but here are the key facts:

  • Entries open on April 1
  • Entries close April 12th
  • Pictures taken between 31st August 2017 and 14th April 2019 are eligible
  • We have increased the maximum number of pictures you can enter to 10 this year
  • There is a £10 registration fee to help us pay for everything
  • There is NO framing fee this year – our friends at Canon and Fixation are very kindly picking up the bill for us!
  • We will be doing the “catalogue” and the “contact sheet” again
  • (every image entered makes the contact sheet – so you can choose your own favourites)
  • Everyone who enters gets a pair of invites to the opening night party!
  • The exhibition is open to BPPA members – but if you have lapsed or haven’t got round to joining you can do so now

Check out the Assignments website for the full rules and details of how to enter: https://assignments.thebppa.com
You haven’t got long – so get hunting through those hard drives now!!

Assignments is back!


The exhibition of the best of British press photography returns – this time on Londons South Bank – taking over the Barge House at the OXO Tower.
The opening night is Thursday 16th May – and will run until the 19th to coincide with London Photo Week.
We are doing things slightly differently this year – full details on the website – but here are the key facts:

  • Entries open on April 1
  • Entries close April 12th
  • Pictures taken between 31st August 2017 and 14th April 2019 are eligible
  • We have increased the maximum number of pictures you can enter to 10 this year
  • There is a £10 registration fee to help us pay for everything
  • There is NO framing fee this year – our friends at Canon and Fixation are very kindly picking up the bill for us!
  • We will be doing the “catalogue” and the “contact sheet” again
  • (every image entered makes the contact sheet – so you can choose your own favourites)
  • Everyone who enters gets a pair of invites to the opening night party!
  • The exhibition is open to BPPA members – but if you have lapsed or haven’t got round to joining you can do so now

Check out the Assignments website for the full rules and details of how to enter: https://assignments.thebppa.com
You haven’t got long – so get hunting through those hard drives now!!

Assignments Live with Tom Stoddart

We are proud to announce that the first of our long running Assignments Live events for 2019 features none other than Tom Stoddart on 31st January.
Tom Stoddart began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North-East of England. In 1978 he moved to London and began working freelance for publications such as the Sunday Times and Time Magazine. During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Read more about Tom here..
If you fancy joining us at Wex Photo Video London for this relaxed event listening to Tom’s talk entitled “Every Picture Tells A Story”, detailing his 50 years as one of the worlds leading photojournalists, which is followed by a raffle and plenty of time to socialise (or network if you prefer) with other photographers, you will need to be quick. Assignments Live are free to all but with tickets being available to theBPPA members a week before non-members, many of our members have already snapped up their tickets leaving a fraction remaining.
Tickets are available here…

The BPPA Bookshop – NOW OPEN

We are getting loads of requests for copies of the Assignments catalogues – way more than expected – we’re really pleased that it is so popular!
To make it a bit easier to deal with the demand we have just added a “Bookshop” to the BPPA website where you can buy the books.
IT’S OPEN NOW!!!
For those of you that haven’t seen the Assignments 2017 catalogues they feature every picture that made it onto the wall, printed one picture to an A4 page, in full colour. It’s a pretty amazing collection of the year’s best pictures.
Every picture entered into assignments makes an appearance as part of the “contact sheet” and gets a name check!
We’ve done one for last year too…
Because last year was the first time we had done “Assignments” in it’s current form we weren’t able to do a catalogue to go along side the exhibition. That seemed a bit unfair on the photographers who entered and got pictures used last year – so we decided to put that right by doing a retrospective “Assignments 2016” book.
Stocks really are limited – so place your orders now!
Click here for The BPPA Bookshop

Assignments 2017 – IT’S OPEN!!

The British Press Photographers’ Association is pleased to announce that ASSIGNMENTS 2017 is now accepting entries.
There are a few things different from last year so please do read the new rules and how to enter – we are realists though – we know you will probably skip to the “how do I enter” bit without going through the rest of it.
So here is a very brief rundown..
1, You have to be a member of the BPPA – if you aren’t you can join now.
2, It will cost £2 per picture to submit images, up to a maximum of 5 images. Those selected will be asked to pay a fee of £50 per picture towards the cost of framing (capped at £100 max). A Paypal request for payment will be sent to the email address you submit your pictures from once we have received the files (Sorry – we have to do this to pay for the exhibition – we aren’t making a profit or being paid to do this.)
3, The curators can’t enter so there is no risk of fixing.
4, No trying to nobble the curators – they are independent.
5, No doctoring pictures
6, Its your copyright – but we need to be able to use the images for the exhibition to work.
7, If you don’t want us to use your pictures on social media thats cool – just say so when you enter.
8, Read the tech specs and entry procedure bit
9, Deadline is midnight on 31th of August 2017

Click here for the rules and entry procedures

It’s Bigger.. It’s Better… It’s Back!!!

After the phenomenal success of last year’s ‘Assignments’ exhibition the British Press Photographers’ Association are pleased announce that IT’S BACK!!!
Not only is it back – but it’s bigger and better this year!
Assignments 2017 will go on display from 12th – 16th of October 2017 as part of PHOTOBLOCK Continue reading