The 2012 international Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards are now open for entries. “Open to amateur and professional photographers from all countries and of all ages, Travel Photographer of the Year is one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions, with photographers from nearly 90 countries taking part last year alone,” the organisers say. This year’s overall winner – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 - will be the first-ever recipient of the Cutty Sark Award, presented by Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky. This very special prize consists of two elements: firstly, the winner will receive £5,000 - £2,500 as cash, plus an expenses-paid international photography commission to shoot images for Cutty Sark with a further £2,500 commission fee. Category winners will also receive exciting and valuable prizes including a Fujifilm X-Pro1 kit with three lenses, as well as jorneys to Kenya and the Greek Islands.

TPOTY Press Release

ASPIRATIONAL REWARDS FOR INSPIRATIONAL IMAGES

The 2012 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards open for entries

New Cutty Sark Award for overall winner – including the chance to blend their own whisky
The very latest Fujifilm cameras including XPro 1, FinePix X100, FinePix X100 and X-S1
Prize trips to Kenya, the Greek Islands and Morocco’s Essaouira Music Festival
Paid commission for Condé Nast Traveller magazine
HD video category
Winning images to be exhibited at Royal Geographical Society

With the introduction of the Cutty Sark Award for the overall winner, a category for HD video (for the first time ever), and prizes that include trips to Kenya, the Greek Islands and Morocco’s Essaouira Music Festival, plus the very latest Fujifilm cameras and a paid commission for Condé Nast Traveller magazine, there are more reasons than ever to enter the international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY). Entries are now open and close on September 17th.

Open to amateur and professional photographers from all countries and of all ages, Travel Photographer of the Year is one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions, with photographers from nearly 90 countries taking part last year alone. In 2011 TPOTY embarked on a five-year partnership with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) to host major annual exhibitions of the awards’ stunning travel photography, supported by an ongoing programme of workshops and events. So, in addition to receiving highly desirable prizes, winners also have the immense privilege of seeing their images exhibited at the Society. The images are also published in the Travel Photographer of the Year ‘Journey’ books – all fantastic exposure for the winners.

Travel Photographer of the Year was founded in 2003, and is celebrating its 10th year in style. The 2012 awards were launched at London’s iconic May Fair Hotel, and Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky, Plastic Sandwich, Photo Iconic, Young Photographers Alliance, Genesis Digital and the travel specialists Explore, Tribes Travel, and Tselana Travel are all sponsoring the awards again this year. Condé Nast Traveller magazine, Radisson Blu Edwardian, London, The May Fair Hotel and copyright communication and image tracking experts Digimarc have joined the line-up, while founding sponsor Fujifilm has returned to support TPOTY once more.

The Cutty Sark Award
This year’s overall winner – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 - will be the first-ever recipient of the Cutty Sark Award, presented by Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky. This very special prize consists of two elements: firstly, the winner will receive £5,000 - £2,500 as cash, plus an expenses-paid international photography commission to shoot images for Cutty Sark with a further £2,500 commission fee. And secondly, a unique, ‘money-can’t-buy’, opportunity! With the guidance of Master Blender, Kirsteen Campbell, the Cutty Sark Award winner will blend their own whisky, selecting whiskies from a range of casks. They will also design their own label, and bottle up to 50 bottles of what will be a truly unique blended Scotch whisky to their own personal taste. 

Portfolio categories and prizes
The portfolio categories challenge photographers to submit sets of four images that fit the category theme. The overall winner – the recipient of the Cutty Sark Award - is chosen from these categories.

Luxury travel experts Tselana Travel will take the winner of the People Watching portfolio category to the Greek Islands, where they and a guest will stay in the stunning, award-winning 5-star Grace Mykonos and Grace Santorini boutique hotels.

The winner of the Wild Planet portfolio category (wildlife, landscapes, nature and adventure) will take a nine-day, tailor-made tour of Kenya with adventure travel specialists Explore. Their trip will include visits to two of the country’s most famous game parks, the Masai Mara and Amboseli.

Journeys is an open category, for photographers to submit their personal take on travel. The photographer who most impresses the judges in this portfolio category will receive a magnificent Fujifilm XPro 1 kit. Complete with revolutionary XPro 1 body, camera case and 18mm, 35mm and 60mm lenses, this is the perfect tool for travel, street and documentary photography.

The winners of the Judges’ award for Best Single Image in each of the three portfolio categories will receive a 24” exhibition print of their winning entry from Genesis Digital, together with a print of one of the fascinating historic images from the archive of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Portfolio category runners-up can showcase their images or their iPad, with their choice of a beautiful, personalised leather portfolio case or iFolio (iPad case) from Plastic Sandwich. In addition, they’ll be able to track and monitor their images online with a Digimarc for Images Professional Edition. This service allows you to embed an imperceptible digital watermark into your images to communicate ownership and monitor usage across the Internet – something that is becoming increasingly critical for photographers.

Condé Nast Traveller Award
To mark Condé Nast Traveller magazine’s 15th anniversary, the magazine is inviting photographers to submit a portfolio of six photographs illustrating the theme ‘Celebration’. The winner will receive a paid commission to go on assignment with the magazine; a tremendous opportunity for any photographer.

New Talent, ‘Another World’
The New Talent category is for photographic students and amateur or semi-professional photographers who want to turn pro. The winner will experience the vibrant Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira, Morocco, with sustainable travel specialists Tribes Travel. And they’ll be able to photograph it on their new Fujifilm FinePix X100, which, inspired by the beauty and form of classic cameras from the past, combines all the latest technical digital innovations in a beautiful, traditional chassis. They will also receive a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iFolio, plus a Digimarc for Images Professional Edition.

HD Video category - Travel Shorts
Always innovative, TPOTY has, for the first time, an HD video category, to reflect the increasing usage of HD video in stills cameras. Entrants will be tasked with creating a 60-second film covering any aspect of travel, and the winner will receive £1,000 from Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky.

Single image categories
Single image categories challenge photographers to catch the judges’ eye with just one, really standout image.  The theme of the One Shot category this year is Water. The winner will receive a Fujifilm X10, a highly advanced compact camera with a nostalgic, analogue-camera look and cutting-edge technology. And Fujifilm is also supporting First Shot – Big City, the beginners’ category, with a prize of a FinePix XP150 - the camera that redefines the new standard for all-weather digital compacts – plus a place on a Photo Iconic photography course.

Young TPOTY
The theme of this year’s Young Travel Photographer of the Year award is Places & Faces. The winners of the two age groups (14 and under, 15-18) each receive a FinePix XP150. Fujifilm’s toughest FinePix to date can survive a drop from up to 2m and is waterproof up to 10m, so the young winners can really let their creativity run wild!

And the overall young winner – the Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 – receives a Fujifilm X-S1 premium bridge camera. With 26 x optical zoom, and super macro mode to 1cm, this is a fantastic piece of kit that will really help the young winner develop their skills.

Young TPOTY entrants will also compete with New Talent entrants aged 25 or under for the Young Photographers Alliance Emerging Talent award, with a prize of a place on the YPA mentoring scheme, or a YPA portfolio review.

The judges
TPOTY is hugely respected for the calibre of its judging panels, and the 2012 judges will include photographers Eamonn McCabe, Jason Hawkes, Ami Vitale, Steve Bloom, Nick Meers and Chris Weston, and the editors of Hotshoe International, FOTO magazin (Germany), Outdoor Photography and the photography director of Condé Nast Traveller.

The exhibition
The winning images and short film from the 2012 awards will be exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in 2013. Winning images from the 2011 awards can be seen at the Society this summer, in a major exhibition running from June 22nd to August 19th – giving visitors to London over the Olympic period a chance to take some time out from all the sporting action and enjoy a glorious selection of world-class travel images. This exhibition will include two special showcases.

How to enter
Images can be submitted as prints or uploaded online, and HD video entries submitted on DVD by post. Entries close on September 17th. Entry fees start at £10 and Young TPOTY is free to enter.  Full details of how to enter can be found on www.tpoty.com.

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Photo: Franco Banfi

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