Please read these carefully and ensure your entry complies with them. As with all Terms & Conditions, these are here to protect both us and you.

Abiding by them is your best chance of progressing in our competition.

Note: we know our community, so for those of you here for info on Image Rights, this is covered in Section 4.

1. Information

1.1 By entering the American Photography Awards Competition (the “Competition”), each of the entrant (the “Entrant”), Awards (as defined below) and the Admin (as defined below) agrees to be bound by these terms (the “Terms and Conditions”).

1.2 It is the Entrant’s responsibility to have read the  Terms and Conditions prior to or at the time of entry into the Competition, and entry into the Competition is will be treated as acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. 

1.3 THE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS LIMITED (Company Number: 10115882), trading as “The American Photography Awards” or “Admin”), is the full operator of the Competition, and its team Administers all of the proceedings relating to the Competition.

1.4 The Competition is not open to any persons (including employees, staff members, consultants, sponsors, judges and event hosts) who are employed by, party to any contract with or who are otherwise involved with Admin.

1.5 Each image entered into the Competition (an “Entry” or “Image”, as appropriate) must be submitted electronically through www.americanphotographyawards.com

1.6 All enquiries from Entrants regarding the Competition or the Terms and Conditions must be made through contact of same website.

1.7 The Closing Date of the Competition (the “Closing Date”) will be included on the “Timetable” navigation tab on the  same website. Any changes made to the Closing Date at any stage will appear on this page.

2. Conditions of Entry

2.1 All Entrants into the Competition must be a full time resident of the United States or hold a valid United States Passport if not.

2.2 Each Entry must be made by the individual whose details are presented with the entrance submission.

2.3 Each Entry must be received by the deadline as specified in the Admin timetable, which shall be published from time to time on the Admin website and which may change.

2.4 The Entrant acknowledges entry into the Competition does not grant the Entrant any intellectual property rights in or over The American Photography Awards or the Competition itself. 

2.5 The Entrant agrees and undertakes not to use any names, logos or any other intellectual property, or to make any public statement, in each case regarding either  The American Photography Awards  or the Competition, without gaining prior written consent from the Admin.

2.6 All Entrants agree not to bring the Competition or the Admin into disrepute. Behaviour that causes damage to the reputation of the Competition, other Entrants, partners, charities, supporters, sponsors or associated parties may lead to the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these The American Photography Awards, a lifetime ban for that Entrant and further legal action depending on the scale & nature of the infraction.

3. Entrance Fee and Charitable Donation

Submitting an Entry

3.1 An Entry Fee (the “Entry Fee”) must be paid in respect of each Image submitted, using credits purchased on  The American Photography Awards  website (the “Entry Credits”). The price of each Entry will be published on the BPA website and may change from time to time at the sole discretion of the Admin.

3.2 Each Entry Credit is non-transferable and shall have a monetary value of $5. The monetary value of each Entry Credit will not be refunded to the Entrant, save at the sole discretion of the Admin.

3.3 Each Entrant is permitted to submit up to forty (40) Images for each image category. 

3.4 Each Entrant may submit the same Image to multiple categories, in which case a separate Entry Fee must be paid for each category to which the Image is submitted. Where an Image is submitted to multiple categories, the Entrant may select a different charity or non-profit organisation for each submission for the purpose of the Charitable Donation (defined below). 

3.5 To withdraw from the Competition, the Entrant must send a request to Admin and such request must include a copy of valid proof of identification and an address that corresponds with the information provided with the entrance submission (or otherwise held on file by  Admin). 

Unused Entry Credits

3.6 Any Entry Credits that are not used to pay an Entry Fee before the Closing Date of the Competition may be used by the Entrant to pay Entry Fees in subsequent  The American Photography Awards  Competitions (if any) the Closing Date for which falls on or before before the earlier of (i) the fifth anniversary of the Closing Date of the Competition cycle in which the Entry Credits were purchased, and (ii) the permanent cessation of operations by  The American Photography Awards  (the “Validity Period”). The Validity Period may be extended from time to time at the sole discretion of the Admin.

3.7 Any Entry Credits that are not used to pay an Entry Fee by the end of the Validity Period will immediately expire. 

3.8 In the case where Entry Credits that have expired in accordance with section 3.7 of these terms The American Photography Awards , the Admin may, in its sole discretion, either (i) donate the monetary value of such expired Entry Credits to one or more of the pre-selected charities or non-profit organisations available for Entrants to select their submission to the Competition or any other  The American Photography Awards  Competition the Closing Date for which falls within the Validity Period, or (ii) use the monetary value of such expired Entry Credits for such other purposes as the Admin and/or BPA see fit, including but not limited to meeting the costs of the Admin or Competition only.

Charitable Donation & Other Costs

3.9 Subject to section 3.13 of these Terms and Conditions, after the Closing Date, 90% of the monetary value of each Entry Credit used to pay an Entry Fee to submit an Image to the Competition (the “Reserved Amount”) will be donated by the Admin to the charity or non-profit organisation specified by the Entrant on each submission (the “Charitable Donation”). The remaining 10% of the monetary value of each such Entry Credit (the “Cost Coverage Amount”) will be used by  The American Photography Awards  and/or the Admin to cover any cost and expenses (including, but not limited to, any applicable tax and credit-card transaction fees) incurred by Admin in respect of the Competition.

3.10 Unless otherwise permitted in these Terms and Conditions, Admin will use the Reserved Amount only for the purposes of making the Charitable Donation.

3.11 To the extent not used to cover costs and expenses of  Admin, the Admin may at its sole discretion donate any amount of the Cost Coverage Amount to one of the non-profit organisations available for Entrants to select in their submission to the Competition. 

3.12 After the end of each Competition cycle, the Admin will make public all cash-flows relating to the Entry Fees for that Competition.

3.13 In the unlikely event that  The American Photography Awards  is required to account to Inland Revenue Service in respect of the Reserved Amount, The American Photography Awards may apply part of the Reserved Amount in respect of that tax amount and the Charitable Donation made by Admin will be reduced accordingly.

4. Image Rights

4.1 All Images must be in the sole and exclusive ownership of the Entrant and must not infringe on the copyright of any other party.

4.2 The copyright in respect of each Image will remain with the copyright owner before and after submission to the Competition and will not be transferred to the Admin or The American Photography Awards .

4.3 The owner of the copyright will be credited in any instance of publication in any media form using their name as provided by that Entrant in their submission(s).

4.4 The Admin may add to the credit text a web pathway and/or social media handles for the photographic website of the copyright owner. Such web pathways or hyperlinks will be the same as those entered on the Entry submission and the Admin is under no obligation to update such information at any time. It is the responsibility of the Entrant to inform the Admin of an updated web pathway or hyperlink.

4.5 The owner of the copyright agrees to grant the Admin a non-exclusive Licence (the “Licence”) to reproduce, publish and exhibit the copyright owner’s Images upon entering the Competition. 

4.6 Subject to section 4.7 of these Terms and Conditions, the Licence applies only to instances that directly or indirectly involve the Competition, including, but not limited to, displaying of the photographs at public events, usage by the Admin on The American Photography Awards website, for publicity, for partner publicity, in email transmission, in print media, and Admin operated social media.

4.7 The Licence will also extend to instances where the Admin requires the transmission of copyrighted material for publicity e-posters, e-banners or leaflets and guides as well as associated global publicity.

4.8 Unless specified above, no merchandising will be undertaken by the Admin or  The American Photography Awards  without seeking separate agreement from the Entrant.

4.9 The Entrant gives permission for the Admin to send the copyright owner’s Entry (image files and captions) to the Competition’s Judges (as defined below) to facilitate the judging process.

4.10 In cases of inadvertent unaccredited disclosure to the public of any material the Admin can take no responsibility. The Admin will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the Licence is not breached by accidental disclosure of unaccredited Images to the public.

5. File Upload Specifications

5.1 All Entries must be submitted in digital JPEG format, scans of film negatives or high resolution transparencies.

5.2 All Entries submitted to each category of the Competition should be at least 1920 pixels at the longest dimension and be no larger than 10 MB in filesize.

5.3 It is the responsibility of the Entrant to ensure that each Entry meets with the requirements this section 5 of the Terms and Conditions by saving the files with no watermarks, stencil, borders or signatures on the Image file itself.

5.4 Failure to adhere to this section 5 of the Terms and Conditions may lead to immediate disqualification of the infringing Entries with no further notice or reasoning given, in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

5.5 After the judging process has concluded, Entrants whose Entries have been short listed by the Judges may, at the discretion of the Judges and of the Admin, be required to submit the RAW camera file (or original film negatives, untouched JPEGS or transparency). Accepted RAW data (.CR2, .ORF, .NEF, PEF etc) DNG files are now permitted (even if it is not the native format of the camera and it was essential for editing). The file will not be circulated to any individual other than an Admin or Judges. Submission of the RAW data in accordance with this section 5.5 is to ensure ethical standards are maintained. This section 5.5 applies only for certain categories (as determined by the Admin in its sole discretion) where evidence of animal baiting/cruelty, misrepresentation of reality or an attempt to disguise unethical behaviour is suspected. 

5.6 After the judging process has concluded, high-resolution files will be requested of those Entrants who have been selected by the Admin. These files should be in TIFF format if possible, or JPEG and should be in 8-bit Adobe RGB. These files should be cropped the same, and in the same colour gamete as the original JPEG entry. 

5.7 Entrants are requested not to upscale their Images before submitting them to the Competition.

5.8 Images that cannot be authenticated, or are not of acceptable quality (as determined by the Admin in its sole discretion) may be disqualified from the Competition by the Admin in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

5.9 Entries deemed by the Admin in its sole discretion to have been entered into an incorrect category may be moved to an appropriate category without giving notice to the Entrant.

5.10 Images entered into the Competition do not have to have been taken in the Competition year, and can be from any time in the past.

5.11 Images previously entered into other Competitions are allowed, however Entries that have won a top prize in a Competition on or before the time of entry into the Competition will be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Admin in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions. If an Entrant has any queries about this section 5.11 of the Terms and Conditions, these enquiries should be made to the Admin through the above website.

6. Image Manipulation and Authenticity Assurance

6.1 Save as otherwise permitted in these Terms and Conditions, image manipulation of digital files that include, HDR, focus stacking, cropping,  noise reduction, dodging, burning, dust spot removal, sharpening, contrast, tone, and multiple exposure layering (provided that the Images were all taken in the same session in the same location) are permitted. This list is exhaustive.

6.2 Except for the removal of dust spots in accordance with section 6.1, Images submitted to the Competition must not distort reality and may not have any items or objects, or parts of objects added or removed from the main Image.

6.3 Image-wide contrast and brightness adjustments, saturation, exposure lens profiling and colour temperature tweaking are exempt from necessary mention in the caption submission and should be considered as commonplace tweaking, and are permitted.

6.4 All EXIF data should be kept intact on the files submitted.

6.5 All Images that the Admin suspects or determines (in its sole discretion) to have been tampered with, falsified or are found to be illegal or in breach of this section 6 or the Terms and Conditions generally, may be disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

6.6 All Images must be free from the addition of false or unrelated data that does not originate from the original photograph.

6.7 All Images must be a complete record of all that was in the Image at the time it was taken (with the exception of dust spot removal as permitted by section 6.1). This pertains to, without limitation, the removal of people, animals, items, objects or parts of objects.

6.8 Panoramic or side-by-side stitching is permitted, but must be referred to in the caption submission if it is used.

7. Caption Submissions

7.1 A caption (the “Caption”) must be submitted with every Entry into the Competition. 

7.2 Failure to submit a caption may result in the Entry’s disqualification in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

7.3 Captions must be in English where possible, except where permitted by the Admin. 

7.4 Enquiries regarding the submission of Captions in languages other than English must be sent to the Admin via the webiste.

7.5 Captions must include background information about the Entry, such as any motivations the Entrant may have held for the Image and special circumstances surrounding the moment and/or Image.

7.6 Captions must also include as precise a location as possible for where the Image was captured. Should the Entrant’s camera have GPS, and this was enabled at the time of shooting, the file data relating to the Image should be left intact.

7.7 Captions must also make clear the photographic equipment used as well as the camera settings that were used at the time the Image was taken.

8. The Judging Process

8.1 The judging is performed by a panel of independent judges (the “Judges”). The Judges are selected by the Admin and are appointed to their role by the Admin. 

8.2 Once the Admin has presented the vetted folders of Entries to the Judges, the Judges engage in a scoring exercise and decide (in their sole discretion) on the Entries that score highest in each category. These Entries are stored securely during the judging process.

8.3 After the numerical scores have been tallied, the top selection of Images are then opened to the public for voting. This process is strictly monitored. Any fraudulent or suspicious voting practices will be flagged for investigation by the Admin.

8.4 Each category will have its own awards. The category awards are the highest prize awarded in the Competition and no ultimate winner will be selected across all categories.

8.5 Judges may be placed under a non-disclosure agreement that lasts for the duration of the Competition and their association with the Admin. Under such an agreement, Judges are forbidden to discuss the Competition mechanics, internal image sharing systems, Administrative particulars or divulge private personal details of those involved with anyone (including Entrants, sponsors, persons relating to the press or media outlets) unless express written permission is obtained from the Admin ahead of time. 

8.6 The identities of the Judges selected by the Admin will be publicly available on the Competition website.

8.7 Each Judge is independent of  The American Photography Awards  and the Admin and participates as a volunteer to adjudicate the Competition.

8.8 Notification to an Entrant that an Image submitted by that Entrant has been selected for an award is done in the strictest confidence. Entrants are forbidden to disclose any details of any winning Entries to any third party in any way until the Admin grants that Entrant written permission to do so, or until the Admin makes a public announcement that identifies that Entrant’s Entry as a winning Entry (if earlier).

8.9 The Admin retains the right to add or replace (at their sole discretion) any number of the Judges at any stage of the Competition.

9. Ethical Requirements

9.1 The Admin respects the rights of nature, and laws of the United States. As such, any and all breaches of the laws of the United States, or local laws may be grounds for disqualification from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions. 

9.2 Entrants must be honest and genuine with their submissions to the Competition.

9.3 Each Entrant retains full responsibility for obtaining any permissions needed to display the content of their Image in the Competition, or on The American Photography Awards website. This includes abiding by national and international law, seeking permits and permissions for accessing the land on which the photograph was taken and the rights to any and all brands, faces or persons featured in the Entry being legally sought. The Admin accepts no responsibility for those Entrants that fail to comply with this section 9.3 and shall be held harmless by the Entrant for any liabilities associated with such infractions.

9.4 All Entrants must ensure their submissions have been ethically obtained. This includes respect for nature, habitat, animals, personal property and trespass laws. Any suspected destruction of habitat or personal property that is suspected in an attempt to capture an Image will not be tolerated and will result in the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

9.5 All content within the mandated associated Caption of any Entry must be truthful, complete and accurate, and must not mislead or omit details that may later be detrimental to the judging process.

9.6 The use of live bait to lure any animal, and the intentional torment of creatures is unacceptable and any suspected breach of this section 9 of these Terms and Conditions will be taken extremely seriously. In such instances the Entrant will be disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions, and the correct authorities shall be informed.

9.7 All Entrants agree that the Images that they have submitted to the Competition have not involved the intentional torment or injury of any animal in order to capture the Image, or set up the events that led to them being able to capture the Image. Any suspected breach of this rule will not be tolerated and will result in the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 10 of these Terms and Conditions.

10. Disqualification

10.1 The Admin retains the right to disqualify (at its sole discretion) any Entrant, or Entry at any stage and for any reason. These reasons may include, but are not limited to, misuse or theft of intellectual property, antisocial, crude or abusive behaviour, dishonest representation, unethical treatment of animals, contravention of local/national laws and failure to abide by the rules laid out in the Terms and Conditions.

10.2 In the event of disqualification from the Competition, the Entrant will be offered no prizes or compensation and the Admin reserves the right to deny any refund of the Entry Fees paid by the Entrant. 

10.3 A decision of the Admin is final in all matters pertaining to the Competition and no negotiation will be entered into with any Entrant or associated parties.

10.4 The Admin reserves the right to waive a breach of the Terms and Conditions at its sole discretion, after considering the case in question.

11. Data Protection

11.1 All personal data, as defined under the Data Protection Act 2018, collected by the Admin will be managed and protected in accordance of the Data Protection Acts of 1998 and 2018.

11.2 Personal data will be collected in a way pertinent to the facilitating of the Competition, and event as laid out on the electronic submission form.

11.3 The Entrant’s contact email addresses and name data will be stored and added to a mailing list that will solely involve the Competition itself and event activity.

11.4 Entrants may contact the Admin at any time to delete or update that Entrant’s details on the Admin’s record using contact via the website.

11.5 If any Entrant wishes to unsubscribe from the mailing list, this facility will be made available to them and the Entrant should send this request to the Admin using contact from the website.

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