Beauty, drama and destruction were all present among 2019’s Earth Photo competition winners. Elegant glacial arches and luminous star-strewn heavens contrasted with plastic-filled waterways and fiery, polluted skies. For the 2020 competition, the RGS-IBG has once again teamed with Forestry Commission England and has now opened the submission process for professional, amateur, national and international photographers of all ages to put forward their efforts. At its heart, the competition seeks to reveal the story behind images: informing, entertaining and engaging audiences of all kinds and encouraging conversations to begin about their subjects.
Greg Funnell, Oyster Harvesting Sherbro River Delta 2018
This year’s categories are People, Places, Nature and Changing Forests, plus a new category specially for this year – Climate Change – to mark COP26, The UN climate change summit in Glasgow in November 2020. There will also be a ‘Short Film’ category.
Sebastian Voltmer, Line Up Milky Over Stonehenge 2018
The judging panel is once again headed by award-winning photographer Marissa Roth, a member of the photojournalism team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 1992 LA riots. Roth has worked for the LA Times, the New York Times, Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly and is a Fellow of the RGS-IBG.
Each category winner will receive a £250 cash prize and one ‘overall winner’ will be awarded £1000. The winners and other shortlisted entries will also be displayed as part of an exhibition, presented to audiences at the Royal Geographical Society in London from June to August 2020, and on a national tour to a number of Forestry England forests.
Mark Benham Forest of the Crosses 4, 2018
All applications to enter the competition must be made before 5pm on 7 April 2020, and candidates are limited to ten entries that must have been taken or completed since 1 January 2019. Entries are submitted via Earth Photo’s online portal here. Full rules and guidelines can be found here.
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