Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) 2025 is open for entries. There are lots of cash prizes and imaging software to be won, with additional prizes coming soon.
Discover the new Portfolio and One Shot categories, Young TPOTY, Rising Talent and the return of our video category.
There’s also a new take too, with a second video category to show how you make your images – think Instagram reel with a prize!
NEW – Travel Image of the Year – both you and the judges get the chance to choose the best single image in this year\s awards, from the winners of the four single image categories plus the four winners of the Best Single Image in a Portfolio.
OVERALL WINNER – Travel Photographer of the Year 2025
This is the big one! The overall winner and Travel Photographer of the Year 2025 will be the photographer who submits the best two portfolios across the portfolio categories.
This prestigious award gets extensive media exposure for you and your photography. Entry is automatic and free. To qualify simply enter at least two portfolios and we’ll do the rest.
Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2025
Awards will be given in the 14 and Under and 15-18 age groups, and one overall winner will be chosen.
This year’s theme is Journeys & Adventures. All travel is an adventure, an experience, whether it is an exciting holiday or just a local day out. Great images are just as likely to come from familiar surroundings or close to home, as from long distance travel. Show us a collection of four travel images, in colour or black and white, which you are most proud of!
Travel Image of the Year
With so many great images entered every year, we want to recognise the best. So this year, in addition to the People’s Choice vote, we’re asking you to join forces with the judges and choose the best single image from the winners of the four One Shot categories and the four Best Single images in the Portfolio categories. It’s free and we value your opinion. LEARN MORE
PORTFOLIO CATEGORIES
Adventures & Experiences
For many people, travel is about the adventures and experiences we have along the way. Every place offers its own challenges, experiences and adventures, from the fun to the more extreme. Ironically when TPOTY first started these adventures and experiences were something which we had to seek out. Now, though, they are very much a core part of the travel world capturing the spirit of an adventure brings travel alive. LEARN MORE
Culture, Heritage & Beliefs
Around the world, a rich variety of cultures make travel both fascinating and stimulating. With different cultures come different belief systems, religions and spiritualities, often accompanied by spectacular dress, customs, festivals, artefacts and architecture. Some cultures are a riot of colour and tradition. Others simple and revolve more around the human condition, mind and body. All are part of a rich panoply of humanity. LEARN MORE
Landscape, Weather & Climate
A warming earth is not only changing landscapes but affecting weather systems globally, resulting in unusual weather patterns, unpredictable seasons and extreme and unexpected weather. Changing weather comes with changing light and makes a rich canvas for landscape and travel photography. LEARN MORE
Wildlife, Sealife, Birdlife
Planet Earth is rich in a diversity of life and species. The air is populated with a vast array of birdlife. The land is inhabited by creatures of all sizes and shapes, adapted to the climate which they live in. The oceans are teeming with aquatic species, some of which are yet to be discovered. All of these make up Earth’s fascinating wild world. LEARN MORE
RISING TALENT AWARD
Do you want to make a career in photography? Would you like a helping hand to do this and to build that career? This year TPOTY is helping aspiring photographers to develop their talent and make the next step into full time photography.
Rising Talent is looking for photographers who want to get better and have the drive and enthusiasm to learn and develop, but need support and guidance to become the best they can be. If you’ve dreamt of a life in photography then this is your opportunity to start following that dream. It’s a category for amateur photographers and semi-pros and people who have started a career in photography within the last two years only. LEARN MORE
ONE SHOT CATEGORIES
Green Planet
This expression immediately makes us think of nature and conservation, but this category goes beyond that to anything green with a travel connection, including the colour green. LEARN MORE
Slow Travel
Forget the planes and fast cars. Take the local bus, hop on a train, go by bike or just walk. Choose a slower pace to see the world and see it differently. Taking the time to immerse yourself shows us the world differently, in great detail and depth. LEARN MORE
Travel in Monochrome
Travel photography started in black and white (B&W) and, despite a colourful world, monochrome images have remained an interesting and powerful medium. In B&W photography, compositions can make or break an image with shape, form and texture working together in the absence of sometimes distracting colour. LEARN MORE
Travel Portraits
Faces, People are part of the magic of travel. One of the big reasons to travel is to meet people from different cultures and to see the way they live. Every face has something beautiful about it and every face is a window into a character .
It’s easy to take a travel snap of someone but capturing their character, the essence of a person is much harder. The focus here should be on the subject’s uniqueness and character. LEARN MORE
VIDEO CATEGORIES
Shooting Travel
How do you shoot? How do you make a photograph? Here’s you chance to show us in a short one minute video of the photographer or the image. LEARN MORE
Our World
The return of our HD Video categories the opportunity to capture travel – the journey, the destination, the experience. LEARN MORE
YOUR VOTE – PEOPLE’S CHOICE
The People’s Choice award.
Our judges will choose a selection of images from the 2025 finalists, and these will be displayed on our website in December for public vote. The winner receives a selection of books, cards and prints from TPOTY plus membership of Eye for the Light.
Have you discovered Eye for the Light yet? It’s our FREE online creative photography, adventure and travel magazine with over 140 features to enjoy. You can also listen to any of our 30+ ‘Newton & Coe’ podcasts and a new series of ‘&Coe’ podcasts where we chat to photographers from all around the world about their lives and photography. DISCOVER MORE
HEADER IMAGE: Ngar Shun Victor Wong, Hong Kong
Our sponsors and partners
It would not be possible to run Travel Photographer of the Year without the support of our sponsors and partners, and we are hugely grateful for their involvement each year. Click the logo to learn more about each of Travel Photographer of the Year’s sponsor and partners.
