The 2012 Prize is no longer accepting entries.

Finalists in the photo-series category are (in no particular order):

• Chiara Ceolin (London, UK)
• Andres Cobacho (Cordoba, Spain)
• Aaron Hobson (Saranac Lake, USA)
• Ilkin Huseynov (Baku, Azerbaijan)
• Sean Lee (Singapore)
• Hector Mediavilla (Barcelona, Spain)

The 2012 London Festival of Photography Prize winner in the photo-series category is Andres Cobacho.

Finalists in the photo-film category are (in no particular order):

• Kim Badawi (Cairo, Egypt)
• George Benson (Birmingham, UK)
• Sofie Olsen (Oslo, Norway)
• Piotr Malecki (Piaseczno, Poland)
• Dionysis Kouris (Athens, Greece)
• Bruno Quinquet (Tokyo, Japan)

The 2012 London Festival of Photography Prize winner in the photo-film category is Sofie Olsen.

Buy the exhibition catalogue from Blurb.com. The catalogue includes the International Street Photography Award, Student Street Photography Award and London Festival of Photography Prize 2012.

London Festival of Photography Prize 2012

WIN A TRIP TO LONDON AND £1,000

As the festival expands in 2012, the London Festival of Photography Prize is an opportunity for photographers to submit projects for inclusion in a world-class exhibition celebrating the annual festival theme. Each year the festival will explore a relevant and far-reaching theme through photographic exhibitions, workshops, participatory activities and debates.

This prestigious prize will achieve critical acclaim for the chosen winners. Every entry will be seen by a judging panel of internationally renowned experts and each entrant will instantly receive up to £80 in vouchers and discounts. The Street Photography Awards exhibition run by the festival in 2011 was seen by 6,000 visitors and the winners and finalists have had their images published worldwide. The exhibition sat alongside the festival’s Vivian Maier exhibition, listed by the Observer as one of 2011's top 10 photography shows in the UK. The two winners, one for each category, will be flown to London for the exhibition and festival opening in June and each presented with a cheque for £1,000.

There are two options for submission:

•     the photo-series category (still images only) and
•     the photo-film category (multimedia)

What is a photo-film?

HOW TO ENTER

The prize is calling for photographic essays, documentaries and conceptual projects that relate to the 2012 London Festival of Photography theme, InsideOut: Reflections on the Public and the Private.

There are many other interpretations of this theme, so entrants should not feel limited to the way in which the theme is explored - see below...

The emphasis of the prize is on visual storytelling. Projects must work together as a whole and include some sort of narrative structure or unifying concept. We are not looking for single images or fashion/advertising/studio work. If you have any queries about the suitability of a particular project, please contact us.

The prize is open to all photographers aged 18+, anywhere in the world.

All entrants will receive up to £80 in vouchers and discounts including a £28.95 voucher to print your own photo book from Blurb.com, 20% off membership to the Royal Photographic Society and up to £30 off subscription (UK only) to the British Journal of Photography.

The Theme

INSIDEOUT: REFLECTIONS ON THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE

This theme intends to explore the changing boundaries between the public and the private, as both physical and metaphorical concepts, and the social consequences of these shifts. Considering the role of photography as a tool for documentation, expression and collaboration, the festival is looking for work responding to the theme in its broadest interpretation.

You may interpret this theme in any way you wish. Some ideas your work may explore include:

• photography as a means to reflect not only the external world but also the inner self of the image maker
• the social media revolution and how it has overturned our ideas of personal privacy
• the changing boundaries of public and private land, what this means for personal freedom and the ways in which people inhabit these opposing spaces
• the effects and ethics of putting a very private photographic image on public display
• censorship of images
• the democratisation of visual journalism and how the public have become mass purveyors of information

PLEASE NOTE:
There are many other interpretations of this theme, so entrants should not feel limited to this list of ideas. Entrants will, however, need to explain in a brief statement why they feel their work responds to the theme.

Two great examples of projects which serve as possible interpretations of the theme are George Georgiou and Mimi Mollica's joint exhibition in last year's festival, entitled Seen/Unseen.

Another example is Andre Penteado's project Dad's Clothes, or Andre Pinkowski's A Reconstruction of Codes.

Entry Fee

£35* (you may enter only once)
£15 optional extra for written feedback from a member of the jury
*Participants who reside in certain countries receive a 50% discount on the entrance fee.

• Below is the list of countries that receive a 50% discount on the entry fee. Please note that all payments are taken by Paypal which does not serve all countries, please check their countries list for more details: https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/.
  If your country is not listed please email us and we can arrange for you to make payment by alternative methods.

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Algeria
• Angola
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Belarus
• Belize
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Botswana
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Brazil
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burma
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Comoros
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of the Congo
• Costa Rica
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Fiji
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Georgia
• Ghana
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• India
• Iran
• Iraq
• Jamaica
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Libya
• Lithuania
• Macedonia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mali
• Marshall Islands
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Moldova
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nauru
• Nepal
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• Nigeria
• North Korea
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Palestinian Territory, Occupied
• Panama
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Poland
• Qatar
• Romania
• Russia
• Rwanda
• Saudi Arabia
• Samoa
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Solomon Islands
• South Africa
• Somalia
• Sri Lanka
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Swaziland
• Syria
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Venezuela
• Vietnam
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

All entrants will receive up to £80 in vouchers and discounts including a £28.95 voucher to print your own photo book from Blurb.com, 20% off membership to the Royal Photographic Society and up to £30 off subscription (UK only) to the British Journal of Photography.

Please read the following information carefully and study the Rules page before submitting your entry. Refunds to the entry fee will not be given.

Prizes

Two winners, one for each category, will be flown to London for the exhibition and festival opening in June and each presented with a cheque for £1,000.

In addition, their work will be seen by some of the most influential people in the UK photography industry (curators, gallerists, commissioners, collectors, journalists, publishers, agents) with whom the winners will mingle with at their very own launch party!

The festival pays for the printing and production of the exhibition. For full prize details see the prizes page.

Important Information

Deadline:  Thursday 05 April 2012, 11.59pm BST (London, UK time)
Exhibition dates: 1 to 30 June 2012
Exhibition Venue: TBC, Central London

Accepted Formats

Entries will be accepted in two categories:
1) Photo-series category: 5-8 digital images JPEG format, max 7MB per image (minimum 72dpi, 2,000 pixels in width or height)
You may include a caption for each image and a description for your series - you will be asked for these when completing the entry form.

2) Photo-film category: a link to a file embedded in YouTube or Vimeo, max 6 minutes
You may include a description for your work - you will be asked for this when completing the entry form.
PLEASE NOTE: Photo-films must be a combination of still photography with at least one of the following additional media: audio/music/video/animation/graphics.
We can only accept linear productions. Interactive/web-based projects are not accepted.
What is a photo-film?