ELIGIBILITY:

The contest is open only for professional photographers.

The contest is open for photographers both freelancer and under the name of a company / agency. Freelancers can add company name for each submission at the INSERT IMAGE tab.

Applications are free and open between 13 Nov. 2025 – 9 Jan. 2026 at 23:59 (UTC+3) İstanbul time.

Photographs contain the relevant and correct information. Submitted photos must be taken in 2025 (between 1 Jan. 2025- 31 Dec. 2025).

The photographer has the liability for providing accurate personal information like name, age, company etc. besides the image info like date, location etc..

All submissions must have necessary information embedded into photographs IPTC like: title, description, creation date, city, and country. The info and category of the photographs can be updated until the deadline.

Photography captions must be written in English. Kindly check the caption limits before upload your photos.

No signatures, stamp or any other identifying mark is allowed anywhere on the entry. Photographer’s name or company should not be mentioned in the captions.

Digital manipulation and any kind of photoshop effects are not allowed, only basic color corrections are allowed. It is not allowed to add signatures on the photo or in the caption.

Photographers must be the copyright owner of the submitted photographs.

Photographs must not violate any third-party rights.

Photographers are invited to apply all categories at the same time, both with published and unpublished photos. 

Photographers can apply 4 different photos in single categories and 2 different stories in story categories.

Same photo cannot be submitted into two different categories. Story category applications should include 10 photos.

Kindly note that this contest is for professionals only, and İstanbul Photo Awards’ jury may ask for proof of the source of the photo or publications in newspapers, magazines, or websites.

BENEFIT:

2026 PRIZES: Single News 1st prize winner will be nominated as “Photo of the Year”, the laureate receives 6.000 USD in total.      

CATEGORIES  FIRST SECOND THIRD