• Anyone over 18, and also a resident of the United States, may apply. You must be an emerging artist, legal resident and currently have a primary address and bank account in the United States.

• Work may be from anywhere in the world, utilizing any type of photography (digital/film, color or black and white, composited or collage), as long as all work is solely the applicant’s. No fully generated AI images allowed, AI as an editing tool is permissible (e.g., Photoshop, Capture One, etc.). Work may range from documentary to fine art narrative (images may be altered or abstracted, candid or staged).

• Submitted photographs must NOT contain watermarks

• Submitted photographs should be original works made by the artist. While found materials may be incorporated, projects primarily composed of found photographs or found objects will not be considered.

• Applicant may submit one project per award cycle. Winning projects from prior years are not eligible.

• All images submitted must have a common theme or work together as a whole.

• Applicant may submit up to 2 projects per award cycle, but each project must be its own entry. Winning projects from prior years are NOT eligible.

• Projects must be previously unpublished. For the purposes of this award, “published” is defined as a project in which 10 or more photographs have been exhibited in a gallery, published on another organization’s website or platform, or included in a book; any of these circumstances would render the project ineligible. However, projects that have been fully self-published on the artist’s own website or social media platforms are eligible. Projects included in a self-published book are also eligible, provided the book has not received ANY awards or accolades. 

• Previously submitted projects to the PPA Photo Award are eligible for re-submission, but only if they have NOT been awarded prize money or featured on another platform in their entirety.

• Applicants must submit a project description of up to 2,000 characters, and a biography of up to 2,000 characters.

• Applicants should submit at least 10 images to show the scope of the project, and can submit up to 20 images total. Images to be submitted digitally, in .jpg format, in sRGB color space, 1200 pixels on the long side, 72ppi, and no larger file than 5 MB each. Jpegs should be named as following: FirstName_LastName_ProjectTitle_01.jpg … FirstName_LastName_ProjectTitle_02.jpg …

• Entries will be judged by a panel of nominated judges, on the basis of creativity, originality, quality, and responsiveness to the call.

• $2,000 Cash Prize

• Lenscratch Feature

• Published Interview on PPA website

• A Virtual Hosted Artist Talk

All submissions should be completed through our the Call For Entry (CaFÉ) portal. Click here for application.

$42/ENTRY

January 6, 2026 : Call for entries is open for submissions

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT: April 12, 2026: Deadline to submit. Call for entries closes at 11:59pm MT. Late submissions will not be considered.

August 21, 2026: Public announcement of winner

Entry deadline is by 11:59pm MT of  April 12, 2026. By submitting an entry, each applicant agrees to the rules of the contest, and states that they are 18 years of age or older, a resident of the United States, and have a US bank account. PPA will determine the winner’s eligibility in its sole discretion. The applicant certifies that they are the sole creator and copyright owner of any submitted work. For an image in which a person is recognizable, the applicant must be able to provide a model release from the subject, or in the case of a minor, the subject’s parent or guardian, if asked. Applicant retains all rights to work submitted. By submitting to the award, applicant grants PPA and those authorized by PPA a royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive license to publicly display, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works of the entry, in any media, for advertising and promotion of PPA and its website and programs, including promoting this award, for exhibition, for PPA publications and for all perpetuity. Any work so reproduced will include photo credit. Applicant agrees that if accepted, their artist talk will be recorded and available to the public on PPA’s website and YouTube channel.