The Magnum Expression Photography Award is a new international competition which aims to emphasise the value of storytelling through the use of imagery. The theme of this year’s Expression Photography Award is “communities”. From March 16th to September 30th 2009, participants will be able to submit eight to 15 images, a biography and statement about their project via Magnum’s website. The winner of the Magnum Expression Photography Award will receive an HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer and supplies and a $10,000 grant. The 19 finalists and overall winner will be announced later in the year.

Win 2000 Euros in the Voies Off 2009 photography competition. For the past 13 years, the Voies Off Prize has been awarded for an artist’s high-quality work and insightful vision, with around twenty different nationalities represented. The mailing of application forms deadline for this year’s Voies Off is March 30th 2009.

The winners of their 4th annual Our World Underwater 2009 photography and video competition have been announced. Prizes include scuba diving trips to some of the top photo destinations in the world, camera housings and strobes, focus lights, and dive equipment. 15% of proceeds will be donated to marine conservation efforts.

The winners of the Urban Encounter competition, organised by Lonely Planet and Pikeo, have been announced. The four winners each won free trips to India, Russia, Morocco or Kenya. The twenty seven runners-up also received a selection of prizes. From 10th-14th March 2009, the free Urban Encounter exhibition will be displaying the winning images, runner up images and judges’ choice images at Host Gallery in Shoreditch, London. Special guest and professional photographer Pete Seaward will be giving a short talk at the opening night on ‘capturing the urban environment’.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 competition is now open for entries. The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 contest has 17 categories (14 for adults and three for children). Prize money is £10,000 for the overall winner and up to £1,000 for the category winners. Last year’s overall winner was American photographer Steve Winter for his image Snowstorm leopard (pictured). The closing date is 27th March 2009.

Anthony Suau’s image of an armed officer moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following an eviction is the winner of World Press Photo of the Year 2008. This year, a record 5,508 professional photographers from 124 countries submitted a total of 96,268 images. The winning image was taken in March 2008 as part of a story commissioned by Time magazine.  Anthony Suau will receive a cash prize of €10,000 from World Press Photo at an awards ceremony in Amsterdam on 3rd May.

Win a share of £5,000 worth of Nikon equipment in the WWT Nikon Photography Competition 2009. Just take a photo at one of the nine WWT wetland centres in the UK and capture any aspect of the WWT experience, from the people to the wildlife to the landscape. The competition is now open and the closing date for entries is Monday 7th September 2008.

Win £5,000 in the 2009 British Wildlife Photography Awards. Open for entries on 2nd April 2009, the British Wildlife Photography Awards has seven main categories and two special awards to encourage participation by young people, schools and youth community groups. The closing date is 31st July 2009. A nationwide exhibition will launch at Hoopers Gallery, Clerkenwell from 16th September 09 and then tour the country.

LG’s “Your moments. Shared” website aims to celebrate photography with regular competitions for the best football photographs. Each week the £1,000 prize will go to the person who takes the most memorable match-day image as voted for before by other users. To add an extra dimension to the competition, members are competing against a Pro Sports Photographer as part of Loop’s ‘Pro V Joe’ challenge. The Pro’s shots are submitted anonymously to avoid any favouritism and add excitement to the competition.

Website: LG Loop

The 20 winning images in National Geographic’s “Visions of Paradise” photography contest have been selected. Each winner receives a customized edition of the National Geographic book “Visions of Paradise,” with their winning photograph as the cover image.

The 2009 Sony Campaign Award is a new football photography competition within the Sony World Photography Awards. Amateur photographers are invited to enter the Campaign Award with a single image that captures the beauty and spirit of football in unexpected places. The award is looking for originality amongst the thousands of typical images featured on the sport every year. The closing date for the Sony Campaign Award is 28th February 2009.

Wildlife photographers William and Matthew Burrard-Lucas have launched a wildlife photography competition with a Olympus SP-570UZ camera (pictured) up for grabs. The theme is “Wildlife Portraits”. A photograph of any animal is eligible as long as it was taken in the wild. The competition is open to participants worldwide, of any age.There is a fantastic prize on offer for the winner: an Olympus SP-570UZ, a camera with a 10-megapixel sensor, a 2.7-inch LCD screen and 20x optical zoom with image stabilization - a perfect combination for wildlife photography.The deadline is 30th April 2009.

Website: Burrad-Lucas Photography - Wildlife Photography Competition

The Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2009 competition has just opened for submissions. Celebrating its 30th year, a Newcomers Award has been added which is open to all photographers aged 25 years and under. The winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award will receive 5,000 euros or, alternatively, Leica camera equipment to the same value. The winner of the Newcomer Award will be awarded 2,500 euros.

Whether you’re just starting out or have a great portfolio, Name Your Dream Assignment is a chance for photographers to go anywhere in the world on assignment. The Name Your Dream Assignment organizers are inviting anyone to submit an idea for a never-done-before photo shoot. Everyone will have a chance to vote on their favorite idea, and a panel of judges (including me!) will select from the top 20 most creative and inspiring suggestions. The winner will get a $50,000 cash award plus lots of goodies including a Lenovo ThinkPad W700 notebook computer with Windows Vista, specially designed for photographers.

This is a great chance for starting photographers to enter the profession and to be recognized for their photography accomplishments through their creativity and imagination, rather than just their connections. You don’t need to be a pro photographer, or even to have a portfolio. Established photographers will get more exposure and a great assignment of their own making. The competition Web site will open to accept entries in early March. In the meantime, visit the site and enter your email to get updates and info when the competition opens.

Website: Name Your Dream Assignment

The Kodak Wedding Photographer of the Year is Royce Yeacoob of Olney, while Lisa Visser of East Grinstead has been named Kodak Portrait Photographer of the Year. The subject of each of the two winning photographs received £1,000 while 20 Kodak digital cameras were given to the runner up consumers. The MPA are once again teaming-up with Kodak and will soon launch the 2009 Kodak Wedding and Portrait Awards.

The Ray Flash Photo Contest is open to all images shot with ExpoImaging’s Ray Flash ring light adapter. The winners’ photos will be published in national photo trade magazines, and they will receive high-end photo gear as well as a Platinum+ membership to One Model Place. Submitters must include both the contest photo taken with a Ray Flash, plus a photo of themselves shooting while using the product. Photos may be submitted from January 16th until March 31th 2009.

The International Filter Photo Contest 2008/9 is open to anyone who has taken a photograph using any type of filter. Sponsored by Kenko with a top prize of 500,000 Yen of Kenko products, there are a total of 139 prizes to be won with a total prize fund of 2,900,000 Yen. Images can be of any subject and taken on digital or film cameras, black and white or colour. Entries to the International Filter Photo Contest must be submitted by 31st December 2009.

Paper manufacturer Hahnemühle are celebrating their 425th anniversary with a new competition and products. The Hahnemühle 425th Anniversary Photo Award is an open, international competition with the theme “For Originals”. Hahnemühle will be awarding non-cash prizes, in several categories, worth 36.000 Euro. Hahnemühle are also releasing a special anniversary edition containing a choice of three papers from the Digital FineArt Collection.

The winners of the 2008 Nikon Discovery Awards have been announced. Gina Brocker of University of Wales, Newport, was named as the Grand Prize Winner at an awards ceremony in Olympia, London, winning £5000 plus a D300 camera kit. The Nikon Discovery Awards, in association with British Journal of Photography, was set up two years ago to encourage photographic excellence by offering students and their universities or colleges.

Get your photo published in a glossy photo coffee table book by entering Datacolor’s “The Real Colors of my Life” competition. 30 winners will have their work featured, with the overall winner receiving a one week workshop with Tuscany Photographic Workshop. Entries to The Real Colors of my Life will be accepted from now until the 31st of January 2009 and can be in colour or black and white.