COMPETITIONS
OPEN FOR ENTRIES
The award is made up of 12 monthly competitions – each judged by an industry leader with a wealth of experience and expertise.
CLOSING SOON
PLANET EARTH
Judge: Melissa Farlow
Deadline: 31 July 2024
THE BRIEF:
From icy polar snowscapes to vast and arid deserts; from sweeping agricultural plains to dense tropical rainforest; the earth has always provided an awe-inspiring backdrop to our short stay.
This month we want you to capture the beauty of our shared planet – nature’s landscapes and man’s influence on them. The land, our cultures, and the myriad of species with which we inhabit planet Earth. Let’s step out into our world and capture its majesty! Whether on your doorstop or the other side of the world. Landscapes, conceptual, aerial, documentary…. All types of photographer welcome with images of any genre, new or from your archives.
PLANET EARTH INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY
PLANET EARTH INSPIRATIONAL IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © KIN CHAN, ALEX OELOFSE, JATENIPAT KETPRADIT, LUCA RENNER, MARC LLEWELLYN, MARCO DEL ZOTTO, MIKE LOUAGIE, JOSUÉ SILVA.
PLANET EARTH INSPIRATIONAL IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © KIN CHAN, ALEX OELOFSE, MARC LLEWELLYN, LUCA RENNER, MIKE LOUAGIE, MARCO DEL ZOTTO, JATENIPAT KETPRADIT, JOSUÉ SILVA.
COMPETITION JUDGED BY MELISSA FARLOW
Melissa Farlow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning documentary photographer who has worked extensively for National Geographic magazine in the American West telling stories of public lands, the environment and wild horses.
Having studied and later taught photojournalism, she is known for her personal approach when photographing people, with features in renowned publications such as Smithsonian, LIFE, Marie Claire, GEO, Sierra, and The Nature Conservancy. Her passion for animal advocacy and in-depth storytelling led to the acclaimed book Wild at Heart, in which she documents the plight of courageous young people working to protect wild mustangs in the Western United States.
Passionate about helping others develop their photographic voice, she has lead workshops in Italy, Switzerland, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, taught at Nat Geo Photo Camps, and served on the faculty of the renowned Missouri Photo Workshop.
IMAGES © MELISSA FARLOW
PORTRAITS
Judge: Todd Antony
Deadline: 31 August 2024
THE BRIEF:
“A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex, more obvious and more profound”. – Charles Baudelaire
A window into the soul as the cliché goes, and yet there ’s some truth in the power of a portrait – from the history of the studio sitting to the rise of the selfie, the best portraits give a glimpse into another life, a connection formed across distance, cultures and ages. Show us faces – individuals or groups, the iconic or the unknown – that celebrate diversity, creativity, honesty and self-expression.
Studio portraiture, candid street shots, self-portraits, conceptual and fine art all welcome, images new or old from all types of photographer with any type of camera.
PORTRAITS INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY
IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © SAM WRIGHT, MATTHEW NORDMAN, VLADIMIR KARAMAZOV, MINAMI IVORY, JASMIN JADE, JADA IMANI M, JESS WILLIAMS, DASHA PEARS.
IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © JASMIN JADE, DASHA PEARS, VLADIMIR KARAMAZOV, MATTHEW NORDMAN, JESS WILLIAMS, MINAMI IVORY, SAM WRIGHT, JADA IMANI M.
COMPETITION JUDGED BY TODD ANTONY
Todd Antony is a multi-award winning advertising and fine art photographer from New Zealand whose work is hard to pigeonhole. Across subject matter as diverse as amputee football teams in Sierra Leone, Japanese truck driving culture, cheerleading retirees in Arizona and boundary-pushing Bolivian female climbers there are perhaps two unifying aspects – a flawless technical execution, bringing exquisite details and color to the fore, and a compulsion to tell stories of ordinary people living fascinating lives.
His singular style has led to representation in the UK, US, France and Australia, and advertising work for some of the world’s largest companies in Samsung, the BBC, Sony, Sky TV and Coors. He has won accolades from the American Photography Awards, IPA, Creative Review and AOP, and has been included in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and multiple times in Lurzer’s Archive 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide.
IMAGES © TODD ANTONY
COLORS
Judge: Shana Lopes
Deadline: 30 September 2024
THE BRIEF:
“A photographer must choose a palette as painters choose theirs.” – Joel Sternfeld
Life is a stream of color. Red, blue, yellow, and a billion pigments in between! We are looking for color-inspired photographs…literally and figuratively. A scene, a detail, a narrative or mood. A single tone or a technicolor daydream.
Urban street scenes, portraits, travel adventures, landscapes, editorial, conceptual, still life… Color our lives.
COLORS INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY
IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © MAX STURGEON, ASH DANIELSEN, ELLEN JANTZEN, FINN EVANS, KILLA SCHUETZE, GILI BENITA, ARIE BOTBOL, VIKRAM KUSHWAH.
IMAGES (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) © MAX STURGEON, ASH DANIELSEN, ARIE BOTBOL, GILI BENITA, ELLEN JANTZEN, FINN EVANS, KILLA SCHUETZE, VIKRAM KUSHWAH.
COMPETITION JUDGED BY SHANA LOPES
Shana Lopes is a highly experienced art historian and curator based at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMoMA.
Following roles in commercial photography studios, as well as at both the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she has in her current role organized exhibitions such as Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Sea Change, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, and the upcoming SECA 2024 Art Award.
She holds a PhD in History of Photography, and has a particular passion for work that explores identity, under-represented communities, climate change, as well as photographic work that uses alternative processes and blurs the boundaries between media.
IMAGES © SHANA LOPES / SFMOMA
PRIZES &
BENEFITS
Win cash prizes, global exposure and professional feedback
|
Monthly |
Monthly |
Other |
All |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2,000 monthly cash prize | ||||
| Your image exhibited in three global exhibitions | ||||
| Your image in the Life Framer Photobook | ||||
| Online exposure | ||||
| Personal feedback | ||||
| Submission to The Collection | ||||
| Submission to #lifeframerstories |
Life Framer Profiles
– Share your favourite body of work far and wide
– Add a link to your website and social accounts
– Feature your profile in The Collection
Feedback
Over the past few years we’ve helped hundreds of photographers to improve their technique and find their style. Discover some of their happy testimonials here.
UPCOMING COMPETITIONS
PLANET EARTH – July 2024
PORTRAITS – August 2024
COLORS – September 2024
HUMANS OF THE WORLD – October 2024
BLACK AND WHITE II – November 2024
URBAN LIFE – December 2024
EXHIBITIONS
NIGHT LIFE – January 2025
ANIMAL KINGDOM – February 2025
TBA – March 2025
TBA – April 2025
TBA – May 2025
TBA – June 2025
