The Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024 contest opens for entries today (1 November), and potential winners have just over two months to organise their submissions, because the entry window closes on 5 January.
The UK-based annual event is widely regarded as the world’s leading underwater photography competition, say the organisers. The image of an Amazonian dolphin shown above won US photographer Kat Zhou the overall 2023 title from among a wide field of entries.
“The previous edition of UPY received our biggest-ever entry, with 546 underwater photographers submitting almost 6,000 photos,” says chair of the judges Alex Mustard. “That’s a huge jump up from the 2,500 images we received 10 years ago when this contest was reborn.
“The 2024 edition is the 10th UPY since this contest was relaunched, although UPY traces its roots back to 1965, when British photographer Phil Smith was named the first Underwater Photographer of the Year.”
UPY2024 will, as in previous years, celebrate photography “beneath the surface of oceans, lakes, rivers and even swimming pools” in 13 categories with themes such as Macro, Wide Angle, Behaviour, Wreck and Conservation photography, as well as four categories dedicated to photos taken in British waters.
Unlike many major international photo contests, UPY provides feedback to every entrant on how far through the contest each of their images has progressed, as well as offering detailed public critiques by the judges designed to help all photographers improve their own work.
Experienced underwater photographers Peter Rowlands and Tobias Friedrich join Mustard in person to judge every image entered.
To mark the competition’s 10th anniversary, winners will attend an awards ceremony in central London, and there will be an exhibition of winning images over the past 10 years along with, as in previous years, a presentation of prints at the Go Diving Show in the UK and other exhibitions in both the UK and overseas.
Entry fees are £20 for up to three images, £35 for up to 10 or £45 for up to 20 across the categories, with some reductions for entries made before 20 November. The Marine Conservation and British Waters Living Together categories are free to enter, with each limited to five images. To find out more and enter the competition, visit the UPY website.
Also on Divernet: UPY 2023, UPY 2022, UPY 2021, UPY 2020, UPY 2019
