2020 APA Awards

APA Awards Call for Entries is now open!     ENTER

Our annual competition is open to all photographers at every level, worldwide -- everyone from emerging photographers to established professionals.

Our Judges will select 43 APA Award Winners this year.

APA members save on each entry.  APA Leader level members save over 35% on each image.

Now is a great time to join APA : enter enough images and your first year of membership can be free.  

Like to upgrade? Please email: membershiprep@apanational.org

Awards Deadline

Deadline Extended to: Tuesday, July 28, 11:59 PM PDT

Top Reasons to Enter

The APA Awards is established as one of the world's most respected photo contests for professional photographers.

Directly connect to people who can hire you:

• All 43 winners appear in a beautifully printed book sent to art buyers and photo editors
• An impressive gallery showcasing the winning images will be viewable online, and widely promoted
• An acclaimed panel of Judges who hire, and work with pro photographers will view your work

Easy, secure contest-entering process:

• Entering is quick, easy, reliable and secure
• We’ve lowered the entry fees so you can enter more images
• There is no limit on number of images you enter
• Each entry fee is for a single image.
• You can also enter the same image in more than one category by paying the additional fee(s).
• Please upload no more than 10 entries at a time. You can enter more than once, in batches of 10 or less, if you would like to submit more.

For a great cause - proceeds help advance APA's core not-for-profit mission of protecting photographers' rights, so you can feel good about entering!

Awards Categories

• Architecture / Interiors
• Beauty / Fashion
• Celebrity / Musicians
• Conceptual / Altered
• Corporate / Industrial
• Creating During Covid (Images made after 3/1/20)
• Documentary / Photojournalism
• Food / Still Life
• Lifestyle
• Nature / Animals
• Personal Projects
• Portrait
• Sports / Adventure
• Travel / Landscape

Awards Entry Fees

APA Members (Leader level) : $25 / entry
APA Members (Pro & Associate levels) : $30 / entry
APA Members (Supporter & Contributor levels) : $35 / entry
Non-Members :  $40 / entry

APA Membership Pays for Itself

Join APA for as little as $50 and enjoy a wide range of valuable benefits, including significantly discounted Awards entry fees.

Not yet an APA member? If you are entering more than one image, we strongly suggest you join APA first, and save on all of your entries.

APA Member levels and their annual dues:
Contributor: $50, Supporter: $125, Associate: $225, Professional: $350, Leader: $500.

(Monthly installment plans are available for all member levels, except Contributor.)

View the APA Member Benefits for each Member Level, here

Membership FAQs are answered here

Membership questions? Please email: membershiprep@apanational.org

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Awards Fundamentals

• Anyone can enter, but APA members are entitled to a discount on every entry
• APA members receive a commensurate discount based on their membership level
• Images are assigned an arbitrary ID, for "blind" judging
• There is no limit on the number entries you can submit
• The same image can be entered in more than one category
• There is no "series" category, and please do not enter panoramas, diptychs or triptychs 
• There is no restriction on when the entry images were created  (except for the "Created During Covid category)
• The decision of the judges of the competition shall be final and binding
• Entry fees are non refundable
• Winners will be notified in August and officially announced in September
• APA does not accept responsibility for, or warrant any product being delivered by a sponsor
• Any applicable tax, due on the awarding of prizes, is the sole responsibility of each winner
• Prizes, and the APA Awards book are shipped to the winners with U.S. addresses only 
• International winners will need to arrange to receive tangible prizes, and a copy of the book
• Images that won previously in the APA Awards are not eligible for entry, or to win another Award
• Entrants can only win one Award each year
• Image size is for judging only, a larger file size in CMYK will be required for the selected images
• Each entry fee is for a single image.
• You can also enter the same image in more than one category by paying the additional fee(s).
• Please upload no more than 10 entries at a time. You can enter more than once, in batches of 10 or less, if you would like to submit more.
  
   

Image Entry Guidelines

• Images should not contain any text that is not part of the image
• All files must be .jpg format
• File size limit: 10 MB
• Image size no smaller than 1200 pixels on the long side, and no larger than 1800 pixels
• Color profile is sRGB, image resolution : 72 ppi
• Do not include disallowed characters (©, ®, •, $, #) in file names which can corrupt the file
• Judging is blind: image file names are not visible to the judges
• Each entry fee is for a single image.
• You can also enter the same image in more than one category by paying the additional fee(s).
• Please upload no more than 10 entries at a time. You can enter more than once, in batches of 10 or less, if you would like to submit more.
   

Submission Guidelines

• APA members login to apanational.org using your APA credentials
• Non-members can enter images into the contest by creating a guest account
• Each entry fee is for a single image.
• You can also enter the same image in more than one category by paying the additional fee(s).
• Please upload no more than 10 entries at a time. You can enter more than once, in batches of 10 or less, if you would like to submit more.
• The system will automatically charge you based on your membership level
• Once your transaction is complete, your submission is final and you cannot edit your images
• You may request to void a submission, but the entry fee will not be refunded
• You can return to your APA account at any time to review your entries
• You may submit additional images until the final deadline
• Previous APA Award winning images (view at APAnational.org/awards) will not be judged

You will receive an email confirmation upon entering.  If you do not receive a confirmation email, please check your spam, then contact: members@apanational.org

2020 Awards Judges

(Please check back for updates as we add the Judges, here)

Cameron Barnum
BBDO

Katie Buntsma
Saatchi & Saatchi

Helaina Buzzeo
Jane Smith Agency

Heather Church
Arnold

Bianca Escobar
Droga 5

Cameron Ford
Anomaly

Kayte Geldzahler
dentsu MCGARRYBOWEN

Mary Ann Guglietta
FCB Health

Emily Hoskins 
Designory

Cindy Pardy
FCB Health

Stuart Ashner
Cramer‑Krasselt

Awards Prizes

Please Note: The Judges will award a First, Second, and Third Place in each of the Fourteen Categories, plus a Best of Show. So this year, there will be Forty Three APA Award Winners!

(Please check back for updates as we add more valuable prizes, here)

Our Partners

We would like to thank all of our partners for supporting our mission, and our community.

Featured Partner:  

CANON

Best of Show
Canon Camera 5DS

Supporting Partners:
Agency Access
PhotoShelter

AGENCY ACCESS

Best of Show
North American Database 
12,000 Email Credits
2 Lots of 250 - 6 x 8.5 Postcards (print, mailed and postage included)

1st: 1 hr consultation

2nd: 1 Lot of 250 postcards

PHOTOSHELTER

2 Years Pro Photoshelter Account to Best of Show winner
1 Year Pro PhotoShelter Account to each of  First place winner
 

Sign in or Register to Enter http://apanational.org/contests/

Images featured above, from the 2019 APA Awards

Top row, left to right: Travel / Landscape: First Place: © Clark Vandergrift,  Second Place: © Martin Klimek,  Third Place: © Tracy + David

Second row, left to right: Conceptual / Altered  First Place: © RJ Muna,  Second Place: © Kremer Johnson,  Third Place: © Shenyi Wang

Third row, left to right: Corporate / Industrial  First Place: © Doug Menuez,  Second Place: © Geoff Johnson,  Third Place: © John Amatucci

Categories

• Architecture / Interiors
• Beauty / Fashion
• Celebrity / Musicians
• Conceptual / Altered
• Corporate / Industrial
• Created During Covid
• Documentary / Photojournalism
• Food / Still Life
• Lifestyle
• Nature / Animals
• Personal Projects
• Portrait
• Sports / Adventure
• Travel / Landscape