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Visitor Information: The RPS Gallery and coffee shop will be closed on Saturday 7 December

Constant_Nicholas_Local Graveyard-Sarajevo (cropped)
CREDIT: Nicholas Constant

International Photography Exhibition 164

The Royal Photographic Society is delighted to announce the 164th edition of the International Photography Exhibition. The world’s longest-running contemporary photography exhibition ran at RPS Gallery, Bristol 28 January - 7 May 2023.

Find out more about the 46 selected exhibitors for the 164th edition of the exhibition below. Read the press announcement here.

The RPS is an independent educational charity. By supporting the IPE, you help us to continue our mission of bringing 'Photography for Everyone'.

IPE 164 Profiles 3x3
Meet the photographers
Discover new image-makers

From an international open-call inviting new, emerging and established photographers to share their work, here we celebrate the 46 photographers selected to exhibit in our 164th edition of the International Photography Exhibition. Find out more about the artists and their work.

IPE 164 Exhibitors
Wongchanglaw_Natcha_Less-Question-More-Fun
CREDIT: Natcha Wongchanglaw
Exhibitor Talks online

The RPS was delighted to host a series of talks from a selection of IPE 164 exhibitors to celebrate the opening of the exhibition in January. 

If you missed the talks on the open day or would like to listen again, view the recordings from the day by following the links below:

IPE 164 Open House talks - Catch up

Owen Harvey | View online recording

Laurie Beck Peterson | View online recording

Siqi Li | View online recording

Natcha Wongchanglaw | View online recording

Michelle Sank FRPS | View online recording

Max Miechowski | View online recording

Alys Tomlinson | View online recording

 

View all the talks
Li_Siqi_The Death Of A Beautiful Thing
CREDIT: Siqi Li
Awards Announcement
International Photography Exhibition 164

The RPS has announced the two award recipients for the 164th edition of the International Photography Exhibition, Natcha Wongchanglaw, and Siqi Li. Both received the highest accolades from this year's guest selection panel Mariama Attah (Curator, Open Eye Gallery), Amak Mahmoodian (Artist), Ryan Prince (Portrait and Documentary Photographer) and Dr Michael Pritchard, RPS Director of Programmes and photohistorian.

Mariama Attah described her time on the panel ..“Judging the 164th edition of the RPS was a great way of seeing how expressively and fluidly people are using photography to see themselves and to explore the worlds around us.”

View IPE 164 award recipients

Awards & Recognition

The International Photography Exhibition presents an opportunity to exhibit in the world's longest running photography exhibition. You will also be eligible for several significant awards:

1. IPE Award  /  £1500 and 1-year free membership to the RPS

2. Under 30s Award  /  £1000 and 1-year free membership to the RPS

3. Exhibition Tour  /  100 photographs will be selected for the touring exhibition, opening at the RPS Gallery, Bristol

4. RPS Photographic Commission  /  £1250 commission to create new work, awarded by the RPS

5. RPS Journal Features  /  Four opportunities for a photographer to feature in the award-winning RPS Journal, selected by the Editor

6. Visitor Prize  /  £250 prize voted for by visitors to the Bristol exhibition

7. Selectors Spotlight  /  Four photographers will receive a statement by one of the guest selectors about why they selected the work. This will be included in the exhibition

8. IPE Journal Edition  /  All selected photographers will receive a digital copy of the IPE edition of the award-winning RPS Journal

9. International Recognition  /  Shortlisted photographers will be celebrated across our online and digital channels, including opportunities for Instagram take-overs 

10. Membership Offer  /  All IPE entrants receive 15% discount on a new RPS membership 

11. Digital Spotlight  /  We will share stand-out entries during the entry period across RPS digital channels

RPS House Night ED
CREDIT: Evan Dawson

RPS Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom

The Royal Photographic Society (RPS) is an educational charity committed to bringing photography to everyone. Founded when photography was in its infancy, today we are a world-leading photographic community.

Our gallery is situated in the photography hub of Bristol alongside the Martin Parr Foundation. Previous exhibitions have included IN PROGRESS: Laia Abril - Hoda Afshar - Widline Cadet - Adama Jalloh - Alba Zari; Jack Latham's Sugar Paper Theories and Mandy Barker's Altered Ocean. 

Selection Panel

Mariama Attah

Mariama Attah is a photography curator, writer and lecturer with a particular interest in overlooked visual histories, and understanding how photography and visual culture can be used to amplify underrepresented voices. Mariama is curator of Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. She was previously Assistant Editor of Foam Magazine. Prior to this, she was Curator of Photoworks, where she was responsible for developing and curating programs and events including Brighton Photo Biennial and was also Commissioning and Managing Editor of the yearly magazine Photoworks Annual.

Amak Mahmoodian

Amak Mahmoodian is an Iranian artist based in UK. Her work questions notions of identity, bridging a space  personal and political. Amak’s practice explores the effects of exile on memory, dreams and daily life. In 2015, she completed a practice-based doctorate in photography at the University of South Wales, having previously studied at the Art University of Tehran. Working with image, poems and archives, she looks for lyrical realities framed in photographs. Amak has shown her work extensively and won numerous awards.

Ryan Prince

Ryan Prince is an award-winning portrait and documentary photographer based in London. He uses his camera as a tool to explore themes that revolve around his own identity as a black British male from the Jamaican diaspora.  Ryan’s photographic work has been in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, The Royal Photographic Society 163rd international exhibition and he was the winner of the Martin Parr Foundation Bursary Award.

CREDIT: Almudena Romero
Dr Michael Pritchard / Director of Programmes, RPS

Michael has been involved in photography for his whole career. He started as a photography specialist at Christie’s auction house where he curated auctions internationally. He has a particular knowledge of British photography but his interests extend across Western, Asian and African historical and contemporary photography. 

Michael leads the RPS's education and public programmes. He is also the founder of the online community, British Photographic History.

About the IPE

Bobb_Kelly-Ann _Sacred Bodies
CREDIT: Kelly-Ann Bobb
Shortlist announcement

With over 6000 images submitted to the International Photography Exhibition 164 open call in early 2022, we are delighted to announce the 314 shortlisted photographers.

The guest selection panel shortlisted 762 images from international photographers in 47 countries.

Congratulations to all of the photographers shortlisted and we would like to wish them all luck in the next stage of the selection process.

IPE 164 Shortlist
Cobb Cody Liminal State
CREDIT: Cody Cobb

Exhibition's History

The International Photography Exhibition has been held almost every year since 1854 and is the longest running exhibition of its kind in the world.

In the early years, the exhibition included work from some of the world's most eminent photographers including Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton, Edward Steichen and Paul Strand.

Empson_Josh_Ellie, 2021
CREDIT: Josh Empson
Stand-out Submissions
Shortlisted images from the IPE 164

762 images from international photographers in 47 countries were shortlisted for the International Photography Exhibition 164. 

View a selection of stand-out submissions in our online gallery.

Online Gallery

Recent Awardees 

IPE 163 Award: Tim Franco

"I am really humbled that my work has been selected for the IPE awards, especially after seeing all the amazing work that was submitted this year!"
Tim Franco, France

IPE 163 Under 30s Award: KyeongJun Yang

"I am deeply honored to win the award and I am thankful to everyone who appreciates my dad’s story."
KyeongJun Yang, South Korea 

IPE 162 Award: Cody Cobb

"It's an incredible honor to not only be a part of an historic exhibition but to also have my work recognized by such an esteemed committee. The support and resources of The RPS has encouraged me to continue pushing myself and my work in ways that weren’t possible before. I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity to share my interpretation of what it means to be human on this strange and fantastic planet."
Cody Cobb, USA

IPE 162 Under 30s Award: Chirag Jindal

"As any other debut project, the work follows many long periods of experimenting, indecision and risk. It’s a privilege to have it be given this level of recognition and platform for outreach and exposure - especially amongst the high standard of photography in this year’s RPS exhibition."
Chirag Jindal, New Zealand

Catherine Hyland
IPE 161 Gold Award: Catherine Hyland

"I am extremely grateful to be awarded the Gold RPS Award from such a strong line up. I really rated the names on the judging panel and the other photographers that participated. I hoped they’d see something engaging in terms of the background story behind this project as Nevis itself is so steeped in history, so I feel both delighted and very humbled to be selected for the award."
Catherine Hyland, UK

The International Photography Exhibition is supported by