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Tang_Wizard_blow up 00:00 1
CREDIT: Wizard Tang

International Photography Exhibition 167

Call for entry | 2 September - 9 December 2025

The International Photography Exhibition is the world’s longest-running contemporary photography exhibition. Photographers and image-makers, of all ages, can submit their work to the RPS International Photography Exhibition.

Submissions are encouraged from new, emerging and established photographers worldwide. If you would like to be kept informed about the open call for the 167th edition of the International Photography Exhibition please subscribe to our RPS newsletter.

The International Photography Exhibition is supported by theprintspace.

| Entry Guide & FAQ | Awards & Recognition |  Upload your Images |  T&Cs | Selection PanelDiscover the IPE 166

Schultze_Kate_Ferrybridge
CREDIT: Kate Schultze

Call for Entries / IPE 167

Photographers and image-makers, of all ages, can submit their work to the RPS International Photography Exhibition. Submissions are encouraged from new, emerging and established photographers worldwide.

The IPE presents a unique opportunity to exhibit in a Royal Photographic Society group touring exhibition around nationwide venues, alongside a prize fund to support future photographic projects.

Exhibition selection is anonymous throughout, including the award recipients, with a changing guest selection panel for each edition. The process is both rigorous and fair, where digital image and print work form part of the selection process. Each IPE edition is a unique celebration of photography today.

The information on this page includes all you need to know to submit your work to the International Photography Exhibition, including details of our Awards, key dates and an extensive FAQs.

Call for entry for the International Photography Exhibition 

2 September - 9 December 2025

Submit online
O_Toole Collett_Ryan_Laundurette, Beaufort, 2015
CREDIT: Ryan O'Toole
Entry Overview
Entry Information & FAQ's

1. Anyone of any age can submit their images to the IPE - this includes student, amateur, professional and non-professional photographers and image-makers worldwide.
 
2. The IPE is an open-call exhibition; therefore all subjects and approaches can be submitted, including alternative photographic processes and experimental work. There are no predefined categories, allowing for a completely open submission. Read our FAQs for details on artwork size. 

Entrants can submit four images from a series of work or four single images. One free single image entry is available to everyone.

3. Register online to submit your images. After the closing date, 9 December 2025, the online selection takes place and all shortlisted entrants are invited to submit prints for the final stage of selection. Entrants remain anonymous throughout the online and print selection process. 

Enter your images
IPE 167 Selectors
IPE 167 Selection Panel

The RPS is delighted to announce this years selection panel for the International Photography Exhibition 167.

Each edition of the International Photography Exhibition the RPS invite a panel of leading voices in photography to be on the selection panel as they bring an exciting mix of expertise in photography, as artists, curators, editors, and commentators. ⁠ 

For the 167 edition of the IPE the selection panel include, Max Gorbatsky, Irene Lombardo, Dr Michael Pritchard, Lydia Goldblatt and Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora.

You will find bios and information on all of the selectors on the page below.

 

Meet the selectors
Michelet_Maxime_Rémi and Lucie
CREDIT: Maxime Michelet
Key Dates & Submission Fee

Early-bird prize draw deadline:
Tuesday 7 October 2025

Closing date for entries:
Tuesday 9 December 2025

ENTRY COST

One free single image submission is available to all entrants. Payment for a series of work or a set of single images is made online during the entry process.

Standard entry of four images:
£35 per person

RPS Member entry of four images:
£27 per person

Entry of four images for anyone Under 30:
£20 per person* 
*Entrants must be under 30 years old on 9 December 2025 (proof of age will be required if selected)

Reduced entry is available for groups of 10+.
Please contact the Exhibitions Team 

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  /  £1000 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 at RPS partnering venues

4. Solo Exhibition  /  2-week solo exhibition at RPS partnering venues, awarded by the RPS. The RPS will support the selected photographer to develop and deliver the exhibition.

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

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

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

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

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

Yuxing_Chen_The Chinese house in Biddulph Grange Garden
CREDIT: Yuxing Chen

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.

Selection Panel  

Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora

Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora (panjabi, brummie, artist, mother, educator) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a socially engaged practice, working with local communities on global issues. She is interested in celebrating untold stories while exploring visual representations of gender, ethnicity and place.  

Jaskirt creates work with the aim to empower and give voice to marginalised communities. Awards include winning the British Journal of Photography's Portrait of Britain award for three consecutive years, and the LensCulture Photo Art award. 

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Wembley Stadium, UN Headquarters New York, Peckham24, New Art Exchange Nottingham and Manchester’s People Museum. Her work Birmingham Lockdown Stories (2020) is held in the permanent archive and collection of the Birmingham Museums Trust.

Jaskirt is also the founder of @womeninphotobham, a bi-monthly social event for women photographers in the W.Midlands and a Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University.

Lydia Goldblatt

Lydia Goldblatt is a British photographic artist based in London. Her work is concerned with female identities and she is interested in the ways personal experience informs collective understanding. She creatively fuses the approaches of both documentary and constructed photography. Of her work, she writes: “I am looking to see within experiences and moments that are unfolding, to reach something that speaks about being human, about our emotions, connections, and interior life as much if not more than external appearance.”

Lydia Goldblatt attended London College of Communications, studying a Master’s Degree in Photography. Her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House London, the National Museum Gdansk, the GoEun Museum of Photography and the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Germany. Her first book, Still Here, is held in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum National Art Library, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections. Lydia received an award for her portrait ‘Eden’ in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, and the GRAIN Projects Artist Commission. She was awarded the Grand Prix at Tokyo International Photography Festival, and the Royal Photographic Society IPE Award in 2025. Her second book, Fugue, was published by GOST Books in 2024.

 

Max Gorbatskyi

Max Gorbatskyi is a curator at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, UK. Together with Viktoria Bavykina, he co-founded Ukrainian.Photographies, a platform dedicated to international research on Ukrainian photography. Their curatorial collaborations include the Ukrainian National Pavilion at the 60th Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024), the HOME programme for EuroFestival/Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool City Region, as well as exhibitions at BredaPhoto Festival, Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh and UK Parliament in London. Previously, Gorbatskyi was a curator at the Department of Contemporary Art at Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he led the photography direction and co-curated the landmark exhibition Sensitivity. Contemporary Ukrainian Photography.

Gorbatskyi is an Academy member of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and a jury member for the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Humanity award. He holds an MA in the History of Photography from Birkbeck College, University of London, and an MA in Cultural Management from the University of Bologna. He is also a recipient of the UK Government’s Chevening Scholarship.

Irene Lombardo

Irene Lombardo is Senior Cultural Manager for EMEA & Asia at Magnum Photos, where she leads institutional partnerships and cultural strategy across these regions. She works closely with museums, festivals, publishers, and foundations to develop exhibitions, commissions, and cultural projects featuring Magnum photographers.

With over 13 years of experience in the photography sector, Irene has worked with museums, galleries, and major photography events, specialising in programme development, exhibition curation and project management. She also contributes to the field as a journalist for Il Fotografo and as a lecturer at Ca’ Foscari University (Venice) and Spéos Photography School (Paris).

Irene serves as a jury member for the Fondation Jean-Luc Lagardère Photography Fellowship and the Belfast Photo Festival, and is regularly invited as a portfolio reviewer by institutions and festivals including Les Rencontres d’Arles, FORMAT International Photography Festival (Derby), Belfast Photo Festival, and Photo Days Paris.

She holds an Advanced Master’s Degree in Management of Cultural Goods & Activities from ESCP Business School and Ca’ Foscari University, as well as a Master’s Degree in Modern Philology from Sapienza University in Rome.

Portrait by: Anna Hernik

Dr Michael Pritchard

Dr Michael Pritchard’s career started at Christie’s where he directed photography auctions. He has taught history of photography at MA level.  He joined the RPS in 2011 as Chief Executive until 2018 and Programmes Director until 2023. He now consults, working with collectors, photographers and institutions.

Michael has been a selector for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, HIPA Awards, Food and Travel photographer competitions, International Photography Awards, Lucie Awards, Earth Photo and others.

In addition, he has curated exhibitions in the UK and been a selector and curator of exhibitions at festivals in China. He has written and broadcast on many aspects of photography in the UK and abroad. 

Inspiration

 

King_Chantel_andO’Hanlon_Jo_Synthesis 01.
CREDIT: Chantel King & Jo O’Hanlon
Inspiration from the archives

The IPE is selected from an open-call. This means that images across all genres, using different types, processes, and experimental techniques can be submitted.

Explore the collection from recent editions and be inspired to enter your work. 

IPE 167 Inspiration Gallery

Recent Awardees 

IPE 165 Award: Yuxing Chen

"I feel highly honoured and deeply grateful to have been awarded the International Photography Exhibition Award. Also, I am grateful for the support and recognition from the RPS, which means so much to the project and myself. I am incredibly excited that a wider audience sees the pagoda and other oriental constructions."

Yuxing Chen, China

IPE 165 Under 30s Award: Juno Seunghui Joo

"It is a great honour for me to be one of the winners exhibiting at RPS. Being recognised by such a renowned organisation is such a privilege and a reassurance to me and my work." 

Juno Seunghui Joo, South Korea and works in London, United Kingdom

IPE 164 Award: Natcha Wongchanglaw

"In addition to knowing that my work has been chosen for the exhibition where the work of the world's most renowned photographers, including Roger Fenton and Paul Strand, was once exhibited, I am thrilled and deeply humbled to have received the IPE Award.  I can't even begin to express how grateful and honored I am. I am extremely thankful that my work has been recognized and appreciated by the panel and RPS, and that I can also share it with a wider audience."

Natcha Wongchanglaw, Thailand | USA

IPE 164 Under 30s Award: Siqi Li

"I feel extremely humbled to be given this award and very pleased to see people of different backgrounds connecting with my personal narratives." 

Siqi Li, London / Beijing

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

The International Photography Exhibition is supported by