ADVERTISING
This category is for commercial images used to sell, market, promote or advertise a product, service, or person(s).
- Automotive — featuring motor vehicles of any kind (motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc.)
- Beauty — glamour-style portraiture, either artistic or commercial, emphasising someone’s or something’s beauty
- Brands Campaign — photos to advertise or promote a specific brand
- Conceptual — photographs using creative concepts, symbolism, or imaginative storytelling to communicate ideas or messages for advertising.
- Fashion — featuring clothing, other fashion items/accessories, makeup or styling
- Food — Photographs showcasing food, ingredients, and culinary creations, emphasizing presentation, composition, texture, and visual appeal.
- Music — relating to music, musicians, records (album art), concerts and musical events
- Pets – photographs featuring domesticated animals, pets, farm animals, or animals in captivity.
- Product — images that accurately and attractively represent products for commercial purposes
- Self-Promotion — images that promote the photographer’s personal brand, style, personality, etc.
- Travel/Wanderlust — photographs created to promote travel, tourism, and destinations around the world that inspire exploration and a sense of adventure.
- Other — advertising or commercial photographs which fall outside the scope of the above categories
ANALOG/FILM
This category is for photography that uses non-digital methods of capturing images.
- Architecture – Film photographs of buildings, structures, and architectural details, emphasizing design, form, composition, and light.
- Fine Art — images that focus on aesthetics; express an idea, a message, or an emotion through the artistic vision and execution of the photographer
- Nature – Film photographs capturing the beauty and diversity of the natural world, including landscapes, wildlife, plants, and natural phenomena.
- Photojournalism – Film photographs documenting real events, people, and social issues, capturing authentic moments and telling stories of public interest.
- Portrait — photos where a person or a group of people are the main subject
- Other — analog or film photographs that fall outside the scope of the above categories
ARCHITECTURE
This category is for architectural photography, buildings or structures, interior or exterior, and any part thereof; dynamic images of architecture or architectural details.
- Abstract — a more ‘artistic’ take on architecture photography, usually featuring lines, shapes, or angles, or parts of a structure outside the context of the whole
- Aerial/Drone – Photographs of buildings, structures, and urban environments captured from above using aircraft, drones, or other aerial techniques.
- Bridges — images of bridges, arches, piers, or other similar structures or parts thereof
- Buildings — photographs featuring buildings and structures, or any aspects of a building’s architectural features
- Cityscapes — the physical aspects of a city or urban area
- Historic — buildings or architectural sites with historic significance or value
- Industrial — buildings and structures serving commerce and/or industry
- Interiors — Interior design or aspects or buildings or structural spaces
- Other — architectural sites and structures, or aspects thereof, which fall outside the range of the above categories
BOOK
This category is for bodies of work published in book form. Eligible books include exhibition catalogues, prototypes, proposals, independently published, self-published, traditional, limited edition, multi-author, single-author, intersectional, zine, handmade, re-issue, and more.
- Documentary — providing factual information on specific subjects or events
- Fine Art—where the intention is aesthetic, revealing the subjective, creative vision of the artist
- Monograph — specialist work on a single subject or a limited aspect of a subject
- Nature — focusing on natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures
- People — portraiture and/or works focusing on the human element
- Self-Published — work published by the author, independent of an established publisher
- Other — book entries that fall outside the range of the above categories
EDITORIAL/PRESS
This category is for images usually meant to accompany text, illustrate a story, article, or an idea within the context of a publication, and can cover a wide range of subjects.
- Contemporary Issues — photographs highlighting important social or political issues of our time
- Environmental — including images of the natural environment or natural events (global warming, ecological footprint, etc.), taken for artistic, research, or monitoring purposes
- Feature Story/ Photo Essay — images (usually a series) arranged to explore a theme, news feature, human-interest story, etc.
- General News — images accurately representing news and current events
- Personality — portraiture photography, specifically capturing the unique personalities and characteristics of the subject
- Political — documentary or narrative photographs with a political theme
- Sports — editorial images documenting any sport or sporting event, professional or amateur
- Travel / Tourism — photographs documenting destinations, landscapes, people, cultures, and travel experiences, offering authentic perspectives on places around the world.
- War/Conflict — photographs covering armed conflicts and their effects on people and places
- Other — editorial photographs that fall outside the scope of the above categories
EVENT
This category is for photographs featuring occurrences and people at any special event or occasion.
- Competitive Events — this could include sporting or any other competitive events
- Social Cause — photos covering events focused around social issues and causes
- Traditions and Cultures — photos of events relating to or representing a specific culture or tradition
- Wedding — images featuring people and activities relating to wedding or engagement ceremonies, celebrations or traditions
- Concert — this could include music concerts or similar events
- Other — event photography which falls outside the scope of the above categories
EXPERIMENAL
This category is for the more “niche” genres of photography, and those using special techniques or technology to achieve the finished product.
- Abstract – Images that use digital techniques to transform photographic material into abstract, unconventional, or experimental visual expressions.
- Digital Collage – Images incorporating photographic elements, graphics, textures, or other visual materials into an artistic composition.
- Digital Manipulation – Photographs that have been substantially altered or transformed using digital editing techniques to create a new visual interpretation of the original image.
- Macro – Images incorporating photographic elements, graphics, textures, or other visual materials into an artistic composition.
- Multiple Exposure – Images created by combining two or more exposures, either in-camera or digitally, to produce a layered or blended composition.
- Night Photography — images captured outdoors at night, between dusk and dawn
- Panoramic — wide format images with horizontally elongated fields of view
- Photomontage / Composites – Images created by combining elements from two or more photographs into a single, cohesive composition.
- Smartphone Photography — photos taken using a mobile phone/smartphone
- Special Effects — images showing how a subject or scene can be interpreted or captured by the artist using special effects or techniques (manual or digital included)
- Other — special photographs that fall outside the scope of the above categories
- AI-Generated Images
Acknowledging the emergence of AI technology in the industry, and to allow these images to be seen by a larger audience, IPA has added this new sub-category. However, it will not be judged against the other sub-categories for conventional photos and photography-based images.
FINE ART
This category should feature images where the intention is aesthetic, revealing the subjective, creative vision of the artist, photos that express an idea, a message, or an emotion through the image and the technique used to create it.
- Abstract — non-objective, experimental, or conceptual photography depicting a visual image not immediately associated with the object world
- Architecture – artistic photographs of buildings, structures, and architectural details, emphasizing composition, form, light, and creative interpretation.
- Collage — any image created by combining or pasting several images or parts of images together to create a new composition or interpretation of reality
- Landscape — photography featuring landscapes in an artistic way, often enhanced, showing scenes in nature through the creative eye and techniques of the photographer
- Minimalism — images using a minimum amount of components such as colour, shape, line and texture
- Nudes — photos depicting the nude human body with an emphasis on form, composition, emotional content, and other aesthetic qualities
- Portrait — artistic images of a person or group of people, capturing the personality of the subject by use of lighting, backdrops, poses, etc.
- Still Life — photos depicting inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects or with a single object in focus
- Other — Fine Art photography which falls outside the scope of the above categories
NATURE
This category is for photography that is devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures.
- Aerial / Drone — photographs taken from an aircraft, with a drone, or other flying object, either by hand or remotely
- Astrophotography — photos of astronomical objects, celestial events, and areas of the night sky (landscapes with astronomical objects are included)
- Domestic Animals – photographs featuring domesticated animals, including pets, livestock, and farm animals, captured in natural settings or everyday environments.
- Environmental / Editorial – photographs exploring the natural environment, ecosystems, and the relationship between nature and human activity, including conservation and environmental issues.
- Flowers — floral photography in any form
- Landscapes — photos that capture elements of nature and the natural features of land, sky and water. Photographs of artificial scenery, such as farm fields, orchards and gardens, can be entered here as well
- Macro — close-up photographs where the size of the subject is life-size or larger
- Panoramic – wide format images with horizontally elongated fields of view
- Seasons — images with a focus on the natural seasons, and their effect on nature
- Sunrise/Sunset — photos showing the rich colors and dramatic lighting of the sunset
- Trees — photography of trees and forestry
- Underwater — photographs taken while under water, diving on the surface, scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming, or from a submersible or remotely operated underwater vehicle
- Wildlife – photos documenting animals and other wildlife in their natural habitat (NOTE: animals NOT in their natural habitat, such as farm animals, pets, or animals kept in a zoo, should be entered in the Nature / Domestic Animals sub-category, or in Advertising / Pets sub-category)
- Other — nature photography that falls outside the scope of the above categories
PEOPLE
This category is for photographs where people are the focus, whether a single person or a group, showing the human aspect of life in all its wonderful variety.
- Children — portraits of children and youth
- Culture — images that tell a story about a people and their culture or traditions
- Family — photographs highlighting family and what it means
- Lifestyle — the art of ‘everyday’, photos showing real-life events or milestones, people and their way of life
- Newborn/Baby — portraits of newborns, babies, toddlers, etc.
- Portrait — artistic images capturing the personality of a person or group of people
- Self-Portrait — photos representing the artist taken by the artist
- Wedding — images of wedding or engagement celebrations, ceremonies, or traditions, and the people taking part
- Other — images focusing on people that fall outside the scope of the above categories
SPORTS
This category is for all sports-related photography, editorial or artistic, featuring any competitive or recreational sport.
- Extreme Sports — photos documenting sports and recreational activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk.
- Motor Sports — images covering competitive sporting events that primarily involve the use of motorised vehicles
- Team Sports — featuring any sport in which opposing teams compete to win
- Sport competitions — covering local or international sporting events, such as world championships and world cups, etc., held to determine the best athlete or team in a given sport/field
- Summer Sports — featuring sports primarily played in warmer seasons or climates
- Winter Sports — featuring sports played primarily in colder seasons or climates
- Other — any sports photography that falls outside the scope of the above categories
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
This category is for photos that capture the essence of the urban lifestyle, random moments, real life, chance encounters
- Abstract & Experimental – Creative interpretations of street life through reflections, shadows, unusual perspectives, motion, abstraction, and experimental techniques.
- Daily Life – Everyday activities, routines, work, leisure, and ordinary moments that reveal the character of life on the streets.
- Events & Gatherings – Festivals, celebrations, demonstrations, parades, and other public gatherings.
- Humor & Juxtaposition – Unexpected visual connections, irony, humor, coincidences, and surreal moments in public spaces.
- People – Candid portraits, human interactions, gestures, expressions, and spontaneous moments in public spaces.
- Urban Environment – The relationship between streets, architecture, public spaces, and the people or objects that inhabit them.
- Other — any sports photography that falls outside the scope of the above categories