Irish Professional Photographer of the Year Awards
There are 4 judgings throughout the year. These judgings are open judgings and are usually held on a Monday evening at IPPA Headquarters.
Participants submit work via an online upload system, available here
All images are then judged on a properly calibrated monitor at IPPA HQ by a judging panel that is selected by the Chairperson, Vincent O'Byrne.
The minimum qualification for judging is Associateship Qualification.
A 'Call for Entry' with all the necessary criteria for submission is sent out to members on a regular basis; it can also be downloaded here.
Participants must pre-register with their account details to the Head Office at the start of a judging year in order to participate. A pre-registration form can also be downloaded from here. The cost of each image entry is €10. At the moment there are 15 different categories to enter your work. You may enter a maximum of 4 categories per judging round and a total of 6 images per category.
The images are then judged by a minimum of 5 judges and images are awarded as follows:
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At the end of the year when all the 4 judgings have taken place, participants who have scored 4 silvers or higher in a category are asked to submit those images as hard copy prints. These images are referred to as a Portfolio. It is these prints that will be part of the final judging to determine the Irish Professional Photographer of the Year.
You may also select 3 of your favourite images for the Best Single Image Award. A Best Single Image Award is given in each of the 15 categories. You can only enter a maximum of 3 images in total from whatever categories you choose provided the image has achieved a minimum of a Gold Award. Please note that it is 3 images in total and not 3 images per category.
Category winners and single best image winners will also be determined at this time. This judging is a closed judging and is usually judged by overseas Professional Photographers who have a minimum qualification of Fellowship. The judging is chaired by our own chairperson who has not taken part in the competition.
All Portfolio submissions then form part of the travelling exhibition. There can be as many as 20 venues that the exhibition is taken to throughout the year.
The Awards are announced at a Gala dinner that is held to celebrate the RSA Irish Professional Photographer of the Year. This Gala dinner usually takes place in January/February.
Participants may enter a max of 4 categories in each judging round. You may enter a max of 6 images per catergory or 24 images in total per round.