The CEWE Photo Award is once again the largest free-to-enter photo competition in the world, and we don't envy the judging panel one bit. The CEWE international jury now has until July 12, 2023 to whittle down the 509,612 total of submitted photos into a shortlist for selecting the overall winners.
The best part? For every photo submitted, CEWE promised to donate 10 cents to the SOS Children's Villages worldwide, which can as a result look forward to a donation of approximately $54,913 / £43,695 / AU$81,518 from the awards.
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If you haven't heard of the CEWE Photo Award before then you might want to get on board – as it's now considered to be the biggest photo competition in the world (at least according to CEWE). The deadline for entering the fifth edition of the CEWE Photo Awards has now been and gone, but the excitement continues as we wait patiently to find out which global photographers will be selected by the jury next month, and gain global exposure for their undoubtedly exceptional work.
This year was themed around ‘Our world is beautiful’ – a topic more poignant than ever given unfortunate recent global events – and there were 10 categories in which photographers could enter their images, including Landscapes, People, Nature, Architecture and Technology, Sports, Cooking and Food, Hobby and Leisure, Animals, Travel and Culture and Aerial Photography.
"Today is a day of joy for CEWE, because we have once again succeeded in declaring the CEWE Photo Award, which we created, the world's largest photo competition," shares Thomas Mehls, CEWE Board Member.
"People around the world are turning to photography with unabated enthusiasm, and CEWE sees it as its heartfelt duty to continue to strongly promote the topic of photo culture at all levels. In addition, we are particularly pleased to actively support the SOS Children's Villages worldwide with our high donation sum of over 50,000 euros."
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This year's donations from the CEWE Photo Award will benefit an educational project of the children's relief organization based in Somalia, offering children and girls access to education, and participating in school renovations. CEWE has supported the SOS Children's Villages with donations of more than two million euros to date.
The reason for the super high number of entries is actually down to two simple factors, firstly - the competition is completely free to enter. And secondly, each photographer can submit up to 100 photos if they choose to do so.
When you do the math, assuming that each photographer really did enter 100 photos, then by dividing the total number of entries (509,612) by one hundred, this leaves you with just over five thousand individual entries as a rough estimate.
While these factors alone might be enough to encourage any photographer to enter, with no expensive entry fee to pay or limitations on how many images can be entered, but there's also the huge bonus of being in with the chance to receive a share of the €250,000 prize fund.
Prospective winners can expect to receive a holiday of their choice worth €15,000 (first prize), as well as €5,000 of photography equipment and €2,500 of CEWE products for every photographer who comes in 2nd to 10th place. There are even prizes up to 1000th place - with a €100 CEWE voucher for those between 31st to 1000th Place!
"Wait and see" is the motto for the participants of this year's CEWE Photo Award, at least until July 12, 2023, when the best photos in each category will be selected and revealed at a digital press conference. The coveted trophies will be presented to the award winning photographers at the Photopia photo fair in Hamburg in September.
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