The 2014 international Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards are open for entry. There are three portfolio categories - Tribes, Spirit of Adventure and Earth, Air, Fire and Water –, a New Talent award and an HD video category. The overall winner of TPOTY – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2014 - will receive £2,500 and a Plastic Sandwich personalised leather print book or iPad case. In addition, they will receive a private showcase of their travel photography at next year’s Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition. Entry to the awards costs from £7.50, and entry to Young Travel Photographer of the Year is free.

Website: TPOTY

TPOTY Press Release

Capture the world

2014 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards open for entry

The 2014 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) are open for entry. With three portfolio categories, three single image categories, a New Talent award, HD video category and the Travel Photographer of the Year and Young Travel Photographer of the Year titles to win, amateur and professional photographers of all ages and from all countries have plenty of themes and options to choose from. Entries close on October 1st.

With support from cazenove+loyd, Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky, Direct Photographic, Genesis Imaging, Photo Iconic, Plastic Sandwich, Railbookers, Warr's Harley-Davidson® and Young Photographers Alliance, there are some great prizes to be won. The winning photographers will also have the privilege of seeing their shots displayed at a major exhibition at London’s Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in 2015. 

The awards will be judged by a hugely respected international panel, including Daria Bonera, photo agency director and photo editor and editorial coordinator for ‘Touring’ - National Geographic Traveler Italy, award-winning photographer and picture editor Eamonn McCabe, wildlife photographer Chris Weston, Manfred Zollner, deputy Editor in Chief of FOTOmagazin (Germany), and Caroline Metcalfe, photography director of Condé Nast Traveller.

Last year Travel Photographer of the Year attracted entries from almost 100 countries, with photographers drawn to take the TPOTY challenge by the prospect of success in one of the world’s most prestigious travel photography awards.  

Awards, categories and prizes

The overall winner of TPOTY – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2014 - will receive £2,500 and a Plastic Sandwich personalised leather print book or iPad case. In addition, they will receive a private showcase of their travel photography at next year’s Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition. The 2013 exhibition attracted over 48,000 visitors in just five weeks, so this presents a fantastic opportunity for exposure for the winning photographer.

The Travel Photographer of the Year 2014 will be chosen from photographers submitting two or more portfolio entries. There are three portfolio categories:

Tribes – the winner of this portfolio category will go to the hugely photogenic Indian festival of Holi with luxury travel specialist cazenove+loyd in March 2015, for a week-long trip to Rajasthan, staying first in a luxurious tented camp in a Maharajah's pleasure garden and then travelling to Jaipur for Holi itself, staying in the historic Samode Haveli.

Earth, Air, Fire and Water – the winner of this portfolio category receives £1,000 plus 12 bottles of Cutty SarkStorm blended Scotch whisky. Master Blender Kirsteen Campbell has used a greater proportion of malts from Scotland's most celebrated distilleries to create a profoundly rich whisky.  

Spirit of Adventure – the winner of this portfolio category receives a suitably adventurous prize - the use of a splendid Harley-Davidson® motorcycle for a weekend, plus a magnificent, and valuable, Harley-Davidson®leather jacket, courtesy of Warr's Harley-Davidson® of London, Europe’s oldest and most successful Harley-Davidson® dealership group.

The winners of the judges’ Best Single Image award for each of the three portfolio categories receive a 24" exhibition quality Giclée print of their winning image from Genesis Imaging, who produce all of the prints for the TPOTY exhibitions at the Royal Geographical Society. 

The New Talent Award, open to amateur and semi-professional photographers only, has the theme Travelogue. The winning photographer will spend a day being mentored by a TPOTY judge – a superb learning experience for any would-be professional photographer – plus receive £500, a personalised Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book or iPad case and a private showcase at the 2015 TPOTY exhibition.

The winners of the three One Shot single image categories will each go on a European city break withRailbookers, and receive a 24" exhibition quality Giclée print of their selected image from Genesis Imaging.  The city break destination for the winner of Monochromal is Paris, for the winner of Wild & Vibrant it is Cologne, and for the winner of One Moment it is Bruges. Each city break is for two people and includes two nights’ accommodation and, of course, all necessary rail travel.

The challenge for entrants in the HD Video category, Travel Shorts, is to produce a two-minute short film giving an insight into a country or a place, shot on a stills camera. The reward for the successful filmmaker is a £500 TPOTY bursary.

The Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2014 wins £250, a Plastic Sandwich iPad case or print portfolio and a place on a Young Photographers Alliance mentoring programme, while the winners of the 14 and under and 15-18 age groups receive £100 plus a Photo Iconic imaging critique session, to help them develop their photographic skills.

Entry to the awards costs from £7.50, and entry to Young Travel Photographer of the Year is free. Entry is via image upload to www.tpoty.com or by prints, and HD Video category entries are via DVD.

Potential entrants looking for inspiration will find it in the TPOTY exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society running from July 11th to August 17th this year and featuring the winning images from TPOTY 2013.

For further information on the awards or exhibition, please visit www.tpoty.com.

Photo: Timothy Allen, Travel Photographer of the Year 2013

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