Discussing the International Photography Awards
Until this year, I’d never entered the International Photography Awards (IPA). The main reason? Cost. At $30 per image (around £23), it’s one of the more expensive photography competitions around. And if you’re classed as a professional, it’s $40. There are no bulk discounts for multiple single images either, each one racks up the full entry fee.
This year, I decided to give it a shot and see first hand if it's worth it. I wanted to see what it’s really like from the inside, and whether some of my reservations were justified. Here’s how it’s gone so far.
My 2025 International Photography Awards Experience So Far...
I submitted four images to the non-professional category, quiet woodland scenes from near home. Two out of four were recently marked as “Official Selection”, which means they’ve made it to the final round of judging.
But what does that actually mean? Does “final round” suggest a panel of judges sitting down together to deliberate, as with other top-tier competitions? Probably not - IPA claims to use a jury of 66 people. Yes, you read that right, sixty-six. Most competitions use a small panel of around 4–5 judges who work collaboratively, particularly in the final judging, so 66 raises a few questions.
More importantly, how selective is “Official Selection”? Top 10%? Top 50%? There’s no transparency. The IPA doesn’t publish any stats or scoring thresholds.
My guess is this: every category gets scored online by a subset of the 66 judges. An average is calculated, and anything above a certain number, say, 75, gets marked as “Official Selection”. Winners and Highly Commendeds are likely already known internally, but released later for dramatic effect. I'm purely speculating here, but given the information we have, this seems the most likely process.
The email from the International Photography Awards saying I've reached the 'final round of jury voting' - and given an official selection badge.
What Makes a Photography Competition Worth Entering?
For me, a good photography competition stands on three core pillars. These aren’t lofty ideals; they’re basic expectations that should be a given if we’re handing over both our images and our money.
Transparency
A competition should make its process & rules crystal clear. That means publishing the judging methodology, naming the judges, outlining how entries are scored, the judging stages, and making the criteria (ideally) publicly available. When transparency is missing, trust quickly erodes. It shouldn't feel like you're entering a black box and hoping for the best - you should know exactly how well you did!
Fairness
Judging should be done blindly, so all photographers – amateur or professional – are assessed on their work alone. Segmenting people based on self-declared status muddies the water, especially when definitions of "professional" vary so widely. There should also be a sensible cap on the number of entries per person to level the playing field. Without limits, those with deeper pockets can flood the system with dozens of entries, skewing the competition in their favour.
Value
Competitions take time, effort, and money to run, there is no argument there. But the fees should reflect the scale and quality of what’s being offered in return. This includes not just the chance of a prize, but things like meaningful feedback, proper exposure, prestige, and a strong, well-curated exhibition or publication. Pricing should never feel exclusionary, especially in an industry where recognition already comes at a premium.
Let’s now take a look at how the International Photography Awards holds up against these pillars.
How Does the International Photography Awards Stack Up?
Transparency
This is where the cracks show. That “Official Selection” badge many are now sharing online? It’s not mentioned anywhere in IPA’s documentation as an actual stage of the competition. There’s no public data on how many entries reached this stage, it could be well into the thousands.
Then there’s the structure. The competition features 11 main categories, broken down into 89 sub-categories... for example, 14 for Nature alone. Each sub-category has 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Highly Commended awards. This bloated structure makes it easier to win something: good for marketing, less good for prestige.
Also worth noting: no request for RAW files. A red flag in any serious photography competition.
Fairness
There’s little clarity on how judging is done. Are all 66 judges (yes, SIXTY SIX on the Jury!!) reviewing every photo? Doubtful. Is it randomised? Is it balanced across categories? We’re not told. That’s a concern.
Then there’s the professional vs non-professional split. Honestly, it feels outdated. Great photography is great photography. Why draw artificial lines based on someone’s job title? In my opinion, as a "non-professional" - I want to be judged beside "professionals" because I aim for my work to be of the highest quality.
And finally: there’s no cap on the number of entries. Those with deeper pockets can submit dozens or even hundreds of images, effectively increasing their chances. That doesn’t feel fair.
The following wording is used to describe the judging on the IPA website:
"The official judging of the IPA competition is done over several weeks by our distinguished panel of judges, experts in the field from all over the world. The jury rates each entry from 10-100 (10 being the lowest). The scores are tallied and the winners are selected based on the overall score based on the cumulative votes of the Jury. The identity of all photographers are hidden from the jury to ensure and impartial and unbiased voting process.
IPA asks each judge to review the images based on the following criteria: originality, creativity, excellence of execution, and overall impact, as well as relevance to the specific category."
Value
$30 per image is very steep for an entry fee, and $40 for professionals is even more so. Especially when you compare it to other globally respected competitions. If we assume (according to the IPA website) that there are 14,000 entries at a $35 (assuming 50/50 split of pro/non-pro), this would equal revenue of $490,000, with a prize pool I've calculated as $31,500. Not a bad profit even if you include the costs of running the gala dinner event, website & trophies/certificates...
Comparing the entry fee to just a few other international photography competitions:
- Wildlife Photographer of the Year - £30 for 25 entries. ~60,000 entries.
- Nature Photographer of the Year - EUR34 for 20 images. ~25,000 entries.
- Natural Landscape Photography Awards - $46 for 6 images, $68 for 12 images, $113 for 18 images. ~12,000 entries.
Notice - they're capped entries at a very affordable "per image" price.
Not only is the International Photography Awards one of the most expensive, it also doesn't seem to meet the values I've set out above. For example; NLPA gives every entrant detailed scoring breakdowns (inc. an electronic certificate for each image), clear information on the judges/judging and numbers of entries per judging stage. That’s real value.
One of my entries for the International Photography Awards 2025 - Nature / Aerial/Drone Category for the pricy entry fee of $30. This image is one of my two that have the "official selection" badge...
User Experience: A Final Frustration
The International Photography Awards website, with difficult usability and the 'student' URL for Non-Professional photographers...
Try browsing past winners on the IPA website: IPA 2024 Winners. You'll find yourself scrolling endlessly. There’s no filtering, no category navigation. If you do win, good luck trying to find your image or browse other categories. I'd strongy advise a redesign.
And one final grumble (as someone who works in Tech): the URL for the non-professional section reads '=student'. Non-professional photographers are not students. This is probably just a tech oversight, but for a platform taking entry fees from this group, it feels sloppy.
Let’s Crunch Some Numbers from the IPA Data
I love analysing things - it helps me to factually check my own assumptions or thoughts and come to some actual outcomes... So - looking at the small amount of data for the International Photography Awards:
- 14,000 total entries
- 89 sub-categories, each with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd = 267 podiums (~top 2%)
- Estimate: 10 Highly Commended per sub-category = ~890 (~top 6%)
- Total images awarded: ~1,150 (~8% of all entries)
Compare this to NLPA, where only 54 out of 12,179 entries were awarded (top 0.45%). That’s a far higher bar for excellence.
In the IPA, you’ve got a 1 in 14 shot at being officially awarded. Not bad. But also not even close to being as meaningful if you are awarded.
This isn't even including the "offical selection" badge - because we simply don't have the numbers. I expect it is the top ~20%. Again - it's nice to know you're in the top region of entries, but it feels forced to make it a badge of "official selection". It's like it is done to get broad social exposure from people sharing that they've reached the final round. Free marketing for the competition - it's not a bad idea to be honest.
Comparing this to some other competitions I've done well in, such as the Drone Photo Awards or Wildlife Photographer of the Year - when you are told about reaching the final round and requested to provide RAW files, you're told to keep it confidential. You cannot share the chosen image until official results are announced.
Final Thoughts: Is It Worth Entering the International Photography Awards?
If you’re hoping to add an award to your CV or social bio, the odds are decent, especially if you enter multiple categories (particularly those with fewer entries!). Of course, it is still a solid achievement to win or even be commended. But, if you're looking for a good value, transparent, fair, and meaningful photography competition with international prestige, I’d look elsewhere.
It’s not a scam. But it is an expensive, opaque, and bloated competition that seems designed to hand out just enough “success” to keep the entry fees rolling in.
Will I enter again next year? Very unlikely. I hear you asking: "Why did you bother entering then?" I did it to learn, and test my assumptions on the competition. Stay tuned: I’ll update this post once results are announced in the next couple of weeks.
I assume that this post will be seen as controversial; however, I aim to highlight what I can see in front of me and compare it to other competitions. I hope you enjoyed.
Regards,
Chris
If anyone does have further information or wants to correct me on anything, please do get in touch. You can use the contact form.
I was inspired to write this thanks to this excellent article from DPReview on the Monochrome Awards.
