The BPPA’s Press Photographer of the Year 2022 Results

We are delighted to announce that Reuters photographerย Hannah McKayย has been named as The BPPAโ€™s Press Photographer of the Year for 2022. More than 2000 photographs taken throughout the year were entered into the 10 categories by photographers working in the UK and abroad. Members of the association were then invited to vote for they favourite entries in each category with members of the board then choosing the overall winning portfolio from the category winners..

Category Winners

  • Arts & Entertainment- Robert Perry
  • Business – Simon Hulme
  • Essay – Simon Townsley
  • Essay (death of a monarch) Victoria Jones
  • News – Hannah McKay
  • Portrait – Joann Randles
  • Royal – Max Mumby
  • Sport (action) – Ben Stansall
  • Sport (away from the action) – Eddie Keogh
  • Young Photographer – George Cracknell-Wright

Highly Commended

  • Arts & Entertainment – Julian Simmonds
  • Business – Danny Lawson
  • Essay – Kiran Ridley
  • Essay (death of a monarch) – Ben Stansall
  • News – Chris Furlong
  • Portrait – Chris Furlong
  • Royal – James Whatling
  • Sport (action) – Shaun Botterill
  • Sport (away from the action) – Justin Setterfield, Michael Steele and Neil Hall
  • Young Photographer – Molly Darlington

Comment from the Chair:

Itโ€™s been another great year for The BPPAโ€™s competition with an increase in the number of entries on last year and also the number of members of our association having their say as to who should be named as winners of each category. The quality of the images is absolutely first class.

It felt that 2022 provided more breaking news and sporting events to focus on than ever before. With the Queenโ€™s Platinum Jubilee in the summer and then the time following her passing later in the year, I feel that the galleries of photographs in the โ€˜Royalโ€™ and โ€˜Photo Essay – Death of a monarchโ€™ categories show how incredibly high the standard of press photography is in this country.

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated the skill and bravery of photographers and many of their images are displayed in our โ€˜Newsโ€™ and โ€˜Essayโ€™ categories. On the sporting front, The Commonwealth Games, World Gymnastics as well as The World Cup and Premier League provided just a few of the subjects on show in the sporting categories.

The Arts, Business and Portraits really do show how creative photographers can be. Also, Iโ€™m delighted that once again we have a winner from the regional press as well as freelance winners based in Scotland and Wales representing press photography across the country.

Iโ€™d like to thank everyone for entering, judging and to the team at The BPPA for their hard work to run this competition on behalf of press photographers.

Paul Ellis, Chair, The BPPA

We would like to thank our friends at Canon for their continued support

Assignments 2021 – The BPPA Exhibition

The British Press Photographersโ€™ Association present their annual โ€˜Assignmentsโ€™ exhibition celebrating the best of press photography from its members. Curated by 5 leading industry figures, this yearโ€™s exhibition covers stories from April 2019 through to the recent developments in the pandemic and will feature everything from sports and entertainment through to politics and protest with royals, celebrities and global events as seen through eyes of the associationโ€™s photographers. Founded in the mid 1980s, The BPPA has sought to promote and inspire the highest ethical, technical and creative standards from within the industry and once again is set to deliver an exhibition of photographs from the cutting edge of journalism.

  • Assignments 2021 is FREE to attend
  • Open from 11am to 6pm daily between August 27th and September 5th 2021
  • Covers 5 floors of The Bargehouse on London’s Southbank, part of Oxo Tower Wharf
  • Once again the BPPA bookshop will return during the exhibition

How to find us;

Train
Blackfriars, Waterloo or Waterloo East

Tube
Waterloo (Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines) 5 minutes walk
Southwark (Jubilee line) 7 minutes walk
Blackfriars (Circle and District lines) 5 minutes walk

Car
There is secure underground car parking adjacent to the centre.

Boat
Blackfriars Millennium pier or Festival pier.

Image Credit: Samir Hussein, Andrew Baker

Assignments 2021 – NOW OPEN

The British Press Photographersโ€™ 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 arenโ€™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.

The BPPA Press Photographer of the Year 2020 – RESULTS

Photo: ยฉAdam Gray/SWNS for Daily Mail |


The results are in for the first British Press Photographersโ€™ Association Press Photographer of the year competition.

We were delighted to receive more than 2400 photographs from 183 photographers, members and non-members, into the ten categories.

The competition was then judged by our members, 140 of them took part, viewing the 408 entries. The photographer with the most votes in each category went through to be voted on by members of The BPPA board to become ‘The BPPA Press Photographer of the Year’.

We are delighted to announce that The BPPA Press Photographer of the Year 2020 is Adam Gray of SWNS.

Adam took first place in two categories, Photo Essay and the Covid-19 Essay. The board members who voted thought his Covid-19 folio in particular stood out and that he deserved the top award in this, out first, Press Photographer of the Year competition. You can see Adam’s winning folios along with the rest of the winners at thebppa.pixelrights.com

The winning portfolios, voted for by members of The BPPA are:

  • News Photographer of the Year – Dylan Martinez – Reuters
  • Arts and Entertainment Photographer of the Year Neil Hall – EPA
  • Portrait Photographer of the Year – Christopher Furlong – Getty Images
  • Royal Photographer of the Year – Samir Hussein
  • Business Photographer of the Year – James Hardisty – The Yorkshire Post
  • Sport Photographer of the Year (Action) – Tom Jenkins – The Guardian
  • Sport Photographer of the Year (Away from the action) Lee Smith – Action Images/Reuters
  • Young Photographer of the Year – Peter Summers
  • Covid-19 Photo Essay of the Year – Adam Gray – SWNS
  • Photo Essay of the Year (non-Covid-19) Adam Gray – SWNS

Highly Commended :

  • News – Hannah McKay – Reuters
  • Arts and Entertainment – Samir Hussein
  • Portrait Photographer – Dan Charity – The Sun
  • Royal Photographer – Chris Jackson – Getty Images
  • Business Photographer – Christopher Furlong – Getty Images
  • Sport Photographer (Action) – Clive Mason – Getty Images
  • Sport Photographer (Away from the action) Carl Recine – Action Images/Reuters
  • Young Photographers – Molly Darlington – Action Images/Reuters, James Speakman – Mercury Press, Jordan Pettitt – Solent News
  • Covid-19 Photo Essay – Christopher Furlong – Getty Images
  • Photo Essay (non-Covid-19) Kiran Ridley

Lindsey Parnaby, Chairman of The British Press Photographersโ€™ Association, said: โ€œWeโ€™ve had an amazing response from photographers entering our first Photographer of the Year competition. It really is a showcase of fantastic press photography from what really was a very memorable year. 2020 will be remembered for many reasons and these collections of photographs document it in a very special way.Many thanks to everyone who entered and thanks must go to our sponsors Canon and Pixelrights. I really hope you enjoy viewing the galleries.”

Adam Gray makes his acceptance speech from New York.

The BPPA 2020 Press Photographer of The Year

Photo: ยฉLindsey Parnaby |

In an email message to members of the association, Chair Lindsey Parnaby wished everyone entering the competition the best of luck. He wrote:

“2020 was undoubtedly an incredible year for the press photographer. The impact of Covid19 changing the way we live our everyday lives for the foreseeable future as public events were forced to close their doors and socialisation banned under successive lockdowns. The NHS becoming the nationโ€™s saviour at itโ€™s darkest time. Brexit. George Floydโ€™s death and the global Black Lives Matter campaign. Captain Tom Mooreโ€™s epic ยฃ30m charity walk. Marcus Rashfordโ€™s campaign to end child food poverty. Sports being played behind closed doors and so many more news events in the space of just 366 days.

The Board deliberated for a long time whether now was the right time to hold an awards competition after many of our members had themselves suffered lack of work throughout 2020, but with such exceptional circumstances and as an organisation representing press photographers, we felt it would be an insult to those who were fortunate to work and to press photography if we didnโ€™t acknowledge the exceptional images that have been achieved throughout 2020.”

The competition is being sponsored by Canon UK and Pixelrights and the awards website is now on line at https://thebppa.pixelrights.com

Women 2021 – a photographic celebration

Photo: ยฉElli Birch |

NEWS RELEASE: 8th March 2021

โ€˜Womenโ€™ is a photographic celebration of images telling the stories and achievements of women and girls launching for International Womenโ€™s Day 2021

To mark International Womenโ€™s Day 2021 The British Press Photographersโ€™ Association has curated a new exhibition of pictures telling the stories and highlighting the achievements of women and girls as recorded through the eyes of visual storytellers.โ€จโ€จ

In accordance with the aims of International Womenโ€™s Day the exhibition seeks to celebrate the strength and achievement of women throughout society – socially, culturally, economically and politically.

The exhibition is a celebration of the achievements of women and exhibition organisers Vickie Flores and Isabel Infantes took the decision to include pictures taken by any of our members rather than just focussing on the view of women:

โ€œOne of the aims of the project was to make photographers of all genders think about how we portray women and to achieve equality and gender parity, we need the support of each other.โ€

Chair of The BPPA Lindsey Parnaby says:

โ€œPress photographers are very fortunate to meet many inspirational women in the course of their work; women from all walks in life who shine brightly despite, at times, facing much adversity. Launched to coincide with International Womenโ€™s Day, The BPPA โ€˜Womenโ€™ is a visual celebration dedicated to just some those inspiring women of the world who personify female empowerment: images of their moments of triumph and strength captured by members of The BPPA.โ€


WOMEN is an online exhibition of 70 images, launching on 8th March 2021 and can be viewed at: https://women.thebppa.com

ABOUT INTERNATIONAL WOMENโ€™S DAY

International Women’s Day is a global day marked annually on 8th March celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.

For more information visit: www.internationalwomensday.com

The BPPA was formed in 1984 by a small group of Fleet Street photographers to showcase the work that they were so passionate about. Over the next few years the association grew staging a series of hugely influential exhibitions and publishing three volumes of โ€œAssignmentsโ€ โ€“ collections of each yearโ€™s best work.


In 2003 we adopted a โ€˜mission statementโ€™:

To promote and inspire the highest ethical, technical and creative standards from within the profession and raise awareness and appreciation of our industry outside it.

As of March 2021, the BPPA has 439 full members.

CURATORS OF WOMEN 2021
โ€ข Fiona Shields โ€“ The Guardian Head of Photography
โ€ข Gao Rongguo โ€“ China based Photographer and selected at Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2020
โ€ข Jakki Moores โ€“ News & Sports Press Segment Manager for Canon
โ€ข Jane Sherwood โ€“ Getty Images News Editor
โ€ข Milica Lamb โ€“ former Head of International and Entertainment at Press Association Media
โ€ข Rebecca Naden โ€“ Wales based News, Sports and Features Photographer for Thomson Reuters
โ€ข Rob Pinney โ€“ London based Photographer and founding editor of Point 5.1 Magazine

Image by: Milton Haworth

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Vickie Flores: +44(0)7771 613 991 E: [email protected]

Isabel Infantes: +44(0)7795 350 975 E: [email protected]

Lindsey Parnaby +44(0)7815 737 443 E: [email protected]

Announcing the Curators for โ€˜Womenโ€™

We would like to introduce the seven fantastic curators we have lined up to select their favourite images from those submitted to โ€˜Womenโ€™: a photographic celebration by BPPA members of women across the globe for International Womenโ€™s Day 2021 on 8th March.

In the launch year of what promises to be a fabulous new exhibition, the BPPA are looking for images telling the stories and achievements of women and girls for an online exhibition, which remains open for entries until midnight on Sunday 14th February

www.women.thebppa.com


Fiona Shields โ€“ The Guardian Head of Photography

Fiona has over twenty years’ picture editing experience across a range of newspaper titles. She was picture editor of the Guardian for ten years before taking up the role of Head of Photography for the Guardian News and Media Group. 

Throughout her career, Fiona has been involved in the coverage of some of the most historic news stories of our time from the current global pandemic to the events surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent terror attacks in London and across Europe, conflicts around the world from Bosnia to Iraq and Afghanistan, the revolution of the Arab spring, large scale natural disasters such as the earthquakes in Haiti, tsunamis in southern Asia, famine in Sub-Saharan Africa and the humanitarian crises resulting from the growing refugee numbers across the globe.

Fiona also delivers talks at photo festivals, mentors students of photojournalism and has enjoyed judging The World Press Awards, the Sony World Photography Awards, The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and the Renaissance Photography Awards to name a few, has joined the panel for the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and is a regular nominator for the prestigious Prix Pictet Prize.


Gao Rongguo

Born in 1984 in Binzhou,in China’s Shandong province, Gao Rongguo graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2012, majoring in photography.


Gao is now an artist based in Beijing and his work has been exhibited internationally, with venues including National Portrait Gallery, Quai Branly Museum, CAFA Art Museum, Chongqing Art Museum, Today Art Museum, Dong Gang Museum of Photography, Sotheby’s gallery, Changjiang Museum of contemporary Art and Beijing Mingsheng Art Museum.


Gao Rongguoโ€™s work has been featured in numerous publications including TIME, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, VANITY FAIR, La Repubblica, Esquire, Feature Shoot and Rheinische Post Online.


Jakki Moores

Whilst studying Photography at Richmond College Jakki Moores worked for Nikon UK and on graduating became the Head of Nikon Professional Service and worked with some of the UKโ€™s best photographers, supporting them at global events where she became became passionate about imaging and technology. First the transition from film to digital and then the requirement to send images around the world in seconds got Jakki hooked, who then moved into account management and corporate sales.

Now at Canon UK Jakki still specialises in News and Sport, working as part of the pro-business team where her customers range from Global Agencies, Media groups, freelancers and the next generation.

โ€œItโ€™s such an exciting and evolving industry to be involved in – with outstanding images at the core. The pictures we see every day still always amaze me!โ€, says Jakki.


Jane Sherwood

Jane Sherwood is the News Editor, EMEA, at Getty Images and is part of a team that handles Getty Images editorial news output on their subscription wire service. She says ” I am proud to work at a wire agency that is held in such high esteem among photographers and clients alike. The team has a collective integrity in news gathering and the talent of our photographers sets us apart”.

Jane began her career nearly 30 years ago as a receptionist at Rex Features and progressed, through a series of moves around the industry including the picture desks of the Daily Mail, News of the World and Daily Express, to becoming the Picture Editor of the Sunday Express newspaper.  Jane left in 2015 for Getty Images saying, ” I wanted to work where pictures were still being created and invested in – where photography was paramount”.

โ€œI am thrilled to be part of the curating team for the BPPA photography exhibition celebrating International Womenโ€™s Dayโ€ says Jane. โ€œUntil women achieve true equality, highlighting work by and for women in all professions is necessary and essentialโ€.


Milica Lamb

An industry veteran, Milicia Lamb has worked in press photography for many years.

Milicia started her career in image sales before graduating to the editorial side where she was able to work more closely with photographers. After working for News Team International as Head of London Bureau, commissioning photographers and managing assignments,  Milicia went on to work at EPA where she ran the UK and Irish service before joining the Press Association (PA).

Milicia was appointed Picture Editor for the PA in 2012 and in 2015 became Head of International and Entertainment at PA Images where amongst her responsibilities she managed the entertainment photography for the PA Wire alongside the Empics Entertainment service.

Milicia left PA Images in 2020.


Rebecca Naden

Now based back in her homeland of Pembrokeshire, Rebecca Naden covers major news, sport and features for the global agency Thomson Reuters, where she also loves to photograph wildlife – a pull Rebecca says she canโ€™t resist, despite the sometimes extreme weather conditions.


Thirty odd years ago, Rebecca was told โ€œItโ€™s a manโ€™s profession Rebecca, think on because itโ€™s not for a girlโ€. But thankfully she had supportive English and History teachers who promoted and encouraged Rebecca to apply to The National Council for the Training of Journalists for the โ€˜pre- entry courseโ€™ โ€“ she was accepted and her hugely successful career in press photography began.


Rebecca was the first female photographer to join the Birmingham Post and Mail Group in 1977 and the first female photographer to join The Press Association in 1987, where she spent 25 years as a staff photographer before moving to Reuters in 2012 โ€“ winning the 1993 Royal Photographer of the Year and 2007 Picture Editorsโ€™ Award โ€“ Sports Picture of the Year along the way.


Highlights of Rebeccaโ€™s career to date are numerous and include being the only British photographer on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherโ€™s plane for her tour to Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain; flying to the White House to photograph President Clinton; photographer on the Royal Tour to Malta by HM the Queen and Prince Philip. Rebecca has regularly covered the major sporting events, including the Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA and Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League finals including the historic Liverpool v AC Milan match in Istanbul.


โ€œIโ€™m grateful to all those who helped me get started and to the many generations of photographers and journalists who have supported my professional careerโ€, says Rebecca. โ€œThankfully the glass ceiling has largely gone and now there are exciting career opportunities in professional photography available to all, irrespective of genderโ€.


Rob Pinney

Rob Pinney is a photographer and the editor of Point.51, a print magazine for long-form journalism and original photography from across Europe. 

As a photographer, Robโ€™s work is divided between press work and longer-term personal projects.

After going freelance in 2015, Rob worked extensively in Calais documenting the โ€œJungleโ€ camp and the asylum seekers who lived there, as well as the town itself. His photographs from Calais have since been shown in London, New York and St Petersburg, and culminated in a long-form feature โ€“ Calais Belle Ma Ville โ€“ about the townโ€™s long relationship with migration, which was published in the first issue of Point.51.


Get your entries sent in!

If you want to take part youโ€™d better hurry as you only have until midnight on Friday 12th February to submit your entry : women.thebppa.com

The BPPA 19/20 Chairโ€™s Report

Despite the unforeseen global COVID19 pandemic and resulting negative effects on our industry, The BPPA have had yet another very busy and productive year with success in many projects, from an all-round stirling team effort by the BPPAโ€™s elected Board members in what have been very challenging circumstances for us all.ย 

The Chair wishes to express his personal gratitude to all of our Board members for giving their time, often at very short notice in attending emergency online meetings and quickly adapting to an ever and fast-changing situation conducted with outstanding professionalism, commitment and teamwork. -As always.ย 

The projects that we undertook have not only given our ever-growing membership excellent value for money, they have also promoted the highest ethical, technical and creative standards from within the profession, raising awareness and appreciation from within our industry and outside it, in line with The BPPA โ€˜Mission Statementโ€™.ย 

Below is a list of the Boardโ€™s activities and achievements throughout the year 19/20:

1. Weโ€™ve actively recruited Board members based in the regions to give our UK-wide membership confidence that we are representative of them with direct points of contact to the Board regionally.ย 

2. The BPPAโ€™s Assignments 2019 exhibition was a stunning success story attracting thousands of visitors to three beautiful and unique galleries showing in London, Stoke-on-Trent and Bradford. Also, the introduction of guest speakers from within our membership has proven hugely successful with insightful and candid talks to big audiences during the exhibitions. So successful has Assignments been, our regular sponsors have very kindly offered increased funding for The BPPA to expand the Assignments exhibitions even further into hosting workshops and seminars creating information hubs for our members, those studying press photography and the general public to attend.ย 

3. We held a membersโ€™ vote on a proposal for a new level of Associate membership which had a huge vote in favour for. We now have a panel of Board members working on this project whoโ€™ve been liaising with a number of education establishments keen to work with us. Board members have already given talks to photojournalism students on their own work and that of The BPPA and continue to do so.

4. We attended the 2019 Picture Editorsโ€™ Guild Awards with our members. This event is an excellent networking evening for our organisation.ย 

5. The continuation of The BPPAโ€™s โ€˜Spotlightโ€™ series, highlighting the outstanding and diverse work of our membership through this online gallery.ย 

6. We hosted Assignments Live in London with a tribute to John Downing from his son Bryn and horse racing specialist Alan Crowhurst.

7. We invested corporate sponsorship in The BPPA co-creatorโ€™s John Downing book โ€˜Legacyโ€™.

8. Through the organisation of the Snapperweb Christmas party raffle, The BPPA Board helped to raise a total of ยฃ2,816.00 for the National Autistic Society.ย 

9. We instituted discounted subscriptions on newspaper publications.ย 

10. We issued important guidance on the โ€˜Four Csโ€™ of metadata to coincide with Googleโ€™s Licensable Images.

11. We began work on a complete rebuild of the existing website which is currently ongoing.

12. We intervened in a number of issues relating to freedom of the press including; Downing Street pooling of images, assaults on press photographers during COVID19, private security and police abuse of powers, as well as News UK copyright grab contracts. These have included publication of official statements from The BPPA and interviews with media representatives.ย 

** Please note that the following points all relate to COVID19 and The Boardโ€™s work throughout the ongoing pandemic **

13. Outside of our monthly Board meetings, we held fortnightly online meetings specific to Covid19 as the situation was an ever-changing environment. The meetings have proven vital in quick Board decisions and for giving regular updates and useful resources to our members. This included the creation of a Covid19-specific resources webpage.

14. Despite a minor halt in production of press cards, our Membership Secretary and Secretary have done and continue to do an outstanding job of dealing with all new applications and press card renewals as the UKPCA press card became essential to being recognised key workers during the pandemic.ย 

15. We have given six months of payment holidays to our members suffering loss of work as a direct effect of Covid19.

16. Weโ€™ve built good working relationships with a host of organisations including; The National Union of Journalists, the Society of Editors, the Sports Journalists Association, the News Media Coalition, the Football Association, the Premier League, Football Data Co Ltd, the English Football League, Premiership Rugby and Premier League football clubs comms officers. It has been a pleasure working with everyone.ย 

17. Liaised with national football and rugby organisations from a variety of leagues in the creation of Pool C enabling not only members of The BPPA, but also non-member license holders to access ongoing Project Restart fixtures being played behind closed doors in stadia nationally. Countless hours of online meetings have been conducted both in consulting with our members and all relevant organisations and clubs in the creation and continued smooth operation of Pool C.

18. The BPPA Board conducted over 160 Premiership League Pool C draws during the 2019-2020 season finish, in addition to four Pool C draws for FA Cup semi finals and finals held at Wembley stadium played behind closed doors. All draws were announced before being conducted live on Zoom, with results posted on social media immediately afterwards to add transparency to all interested parties.

19. Through the work of The BPPA Board in representing the best interests of our members and of press photography, we have increased our membership number over the 19/20 year by 117 new members (and counting) which brings our total to 420 at the time of writing. The welcome additional funds will be reinvested in new innovative projects.

20. Fortunately the Covid19 pandemic never halted operations of The BPPA Board, we responded well in working together and already have more exciting projects currently in their planning stages for our members throughout 2021.

Thank you to those organisations who work with us, the Assignments speakers and most importantly, our membership for their continued confidence in The BPPA during these uncertain and challenging times.

Onwards and upwards for a brighter and successful 2021.ย 

Lindsey Parnaby

Chair
the BPPA

The BPPA and Pool C

Following the first round of matches after the resumption of English football, The British Press Photographers Association are delighted with the working relationship that they have created following the Premier Leagueโ€™s launch of Operation Restart.


The BPPA board have been instrumental in securing positions for the smaller agencies and freelancers across the UK proportionate to access given to the newswires and publication positions.


Before we undertook the project there was no Pool C โ€“ which meant no access for those outside of the national and international agencies and newspapers.


The goal we set out in gaining positions was achieved and in continuance with fairness for all and to be representative of the whole industry. Members took a vote on a random draw system with the majority voting in favour of the draw.


The board undertook a huge juggling act adhering to the Premier League and individual club requests, whilst supporting sports photographers at their time of need during a global pandemic which brought much of our industry to its knees.

New relationships have been forged as a result of this process and The BPPA are now in constant communication with the Premier League, Data Co Ltd, the English Football League as well as press officers at the majority of the member clubs.

This is a positive step forward for our association. We welcome the new relationships that we have formed as a result of our involvement with Operation Restart with the clubs and league now approaching and involving us is a huge leap forward for The BPPA.

This temporary โ€˜working solutionโ€™, albeit not ideal for everyone, is as fair as it can be and ensures that the match access opportunities for the smaller agencies are distributed on an rota basis. We have worked hard with the individual clubs to find a common ground which means that access is offered to all license holders.

The BPPA are happy to continue operating this draw system on behalf of photographers and the individual clubs and we would ask that all Data Co Ltd licence holders applying for games respect the process in place.
Positive feedback from club press officers has been very encouraging for The BPPA and we request that anyone who has any concerns with the accreditation process speak to us directly rather than the clubs as they have been inundated with calls from photographers.

Covid-19 has placed a massive amount of pressure on everyone in the industry and we are happy to work with you all to make as positive an outcome as possible for everyone in our industry.


The BPPA is an organisation that prides itself on ethics, professionalism and camaraderie for every one of our colleagues.

To see the latest news about the EPL Draws please visit the Facebook Page that we have set up to keep those interested in touch.