The Penn Berkeley Prize is an award that celebrates and champions the art of photography. The Penn Berkeley Prize prides itself on introducing new and emerging talents within photography to the world through our annual open calls and various exhibition opportunity's.

The Penn Berkeley Prize was set up by artist and gallery owner Bridget Penn Berkeley in memory of Kevin Penn Berkeley and Antony John Stewart-Smith. Kevin had a keen interest in photography and enjoyed exploring the world of Image based practices with his vast array of cameras and Antony had a love of photography that spanned a life time where he enjoyed using cine cameras and super 8 film to explore his practices within photography. He particularly had a soft spot for swans and could often be spotted photographing them at the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset.

Bridget has dreamed of bringing this award to life for the past few years, now that dream has became a reality thanks to the help of award winning photographer and curator Josh Lomen best known for his series titled "The Somerset Willow Farmers". Josh has shared all of his knowledge and has formed a strong collaboration with Bridget in order to bring this award to life with a core aim of giving new and emerging photographers a chance to get their work seen in a variety of top gallery spaces.

The Penn Berkeley Prize team and its gallery partners look forward to seeing you're submissions and discovering the next up and coming talents within photography.

Awards & Prizes

The Penn Berkeley Prize Photographer Of The Year will be awarded to the standout entrant from the open call. The winner will receive a solo exhibition (as agreed with the gallery and awards directors), a group exhibition with selected finalists and category winners, sculptured award, winners certificate, an opportunity to sell your work in a gallery setting, networking opportunities and various press coverage.

The Penn Berkeley Prize Student Photographer Of The Year will be awarded to the standout entrant from the student open call. The winner will receive a solo exhibition (as agreed with the gallery and awards directors), a group exhibition with selected finalists and category winners, sculptured award, winners certificate, an opportunity to sell your work in a gallery setting, networking opportunities and various press coverage.

The Penn Berkeley Prize category shortlisted finalists will be awarded with a group exhibition alongside the category winners, an opportunity to sell your work in a gallery setting, networking opportunities and various press coverage.

Various submissions may also be accepted into the group exhibition at the discretion of the judges, gallery owners and the awards directors.

There will also be a people's choice award for the public's favourite submission during the group exhibition.

A Somerset based student entrant will also be offered a place in the exhibition as well as a one to one portfolio review as well as a next steps guidance session from our acclaimed judge Josh Lomen who is a recent graduate of photography and has had several national and international press articles and magazine/ book features who will offer advice on getting your work seen as a student artist to help prep you for life after study. This will be awarded to Josh's favourite Image from a Somerset based student in the student call.

Rules & Terms

Rules & Terms and Conditions

Please submit your Photographic Images as high resolution file(s).

Maximum of 2 images per submission with a maximum of 2 submissions per entrant.

If you are selected as one of the winners or selected for the exhibition, we will require you to print and send us a high quality photo print up to a maximum size of 10x8 and a minimum size of 4x4, that is ready for framing. This can be mounted (up to 12x10 in size and a Bright White Mount) or unmounted and can be signed and numbered or unsigned but the print must be of a suitable exhibition quality as well as selling quality. We can assist with this and will discuss in more detail with selected entrants via email at the time of selection. Selected works can be sent via post or delivered in person to the gallery on select days prior to the exhibition opening.

All selected entrants for the group exhibition will be given the option to sell their selected works during the exhibition. The aim of the award is to make it accessible to as many photographers as possible and this extends to public visitors to the exhibition so all works will be priced affordably and the price range will range from £20 up to a maximum price of £250 per selected work (we can help advise with pricing at the time of selection). The selected host galleries reserve the right to charge a small commission fee on any sales to cover processing fess but this will be outlined with selected entrants at the time of selection.

All selected works for the exhibition must be available between the 21st of June till the 9th of August. During this time frame all works must remain in the exhibition and no works may be taken out of the exhibition unless formal written consent has been granted by the awards directors and partner galleries.

All selected works for the exhibition must arrive at the gallery no later than one week prior to the opening date of the exhibition. Any Selected submissions that fail to meet this deadline may be subject to withdrawal from the exhibition.

If selected exhibition works are still available at the ending of the group exhibition, the galleries have the right to request your permission to keep the works in their possession until sold where the gallery will do their best to sell the works. The Penn Berkeley Prize and partner galleries shall not be deemed responsible for the return shipping of the selected works after the exhibition. The individual entrant will be responsible for arranging collection of any unsold works inline with the galleries schedules and opening hours.

The small entry fees that entrants are required to pay for a submission into the awards goes towards the cost of framing the selected works for exhibition, marketing materials for promotion of the award and exhibition, private view and admin costs.

The Penn Berkeley Prize award is open to all photographers and image based creatives who are based in the United Kingdom.

All entrants to the student open call must be studying a relevant photographic/ art qualification at a registered university or college. The entrant is responsible for ensuring that they state their institution name at the time of submission as failure to do so may result in immediate disqualification from the award.

The Penn Berkeley Prize award and its gallery partners reserves the right to amend or change the awards and prizes that are on offer at any given time during the competition in the result of a shortfall of entries or due to natural disaster such as climate change or health related disasters such as national lockdowns .

By submitting to The Penn Berkeley Prize you agree that we can use your images to promote the festival and for use in exhibition.

Each submitted image must contain a title, location, list of equipment used and an Image description of up to 100 words.

Each submitted image, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material created by the Entrant.

Images can be manipulated; however, the manipulation must be clearly outlined within the image description.

By entering the Contest, Entrant represents, acknowledges and warrants that he or she has full power and authority to enter the photograph and that the photograph does not infringe any copyright or violate any other intellectual property rights. The Entrant agrees to indemnify from any and all third party claims arising from the use of the photograph as provided below in "Third Party Releases/Licenses."

If the photograph includes people, you should provide a signed model release form from all persons who appear in the photograph authorising the use of the photograph. The RPS provide a free to use model release form: https://rps.org/media/ipgo0mcb/rps-model-release-form-word-document.docx
(See more of their excellent resources at: https://rps.org/resources/ )

Photographs that include sculptures, statues, paintings, and other works of art will be accepted as long as they do not constitute copyright infringement or fraud, provided that Entrants must be prepared to provide a release form. When photographing the artworks belonging to others, it must be as an object in its environment and not a full-frame portrait of the artwork.

The Entries will be judged in accordance with the Judging Criteria, as defined below. The photograph must not contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. Photographs deemed inappropriate will be disqualified.

All Entries must adhere to the Entry Guidelines indicated below, as determined by sponsors/Judges in their sole discretion.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

1. Entry must not (and Entrants represent and warrant that it will not), violate or infringe any third-party copyright, trademark, trade dress, or other proprietary rights of any entity or person (living or deceased), including but not limited to rights of privacy, publicity or portrayal in a false light.

2. Entry must not make reference to any commercial advertising, including but not limited to corporate logos, brand names, slogans as determined in the Judges sole discretion.

3. Any Entry deemed inappropriate or unsuitable, at Judges sole discretion, will be disqualified.

4. People who work at or within The Penn Berkeley Prize and the sponsor/ partner galleries are not permitted to enter the awards and that applies to immediate family as well.

By submitting an Entry, you understand that if your Entry is deemed to be a winner or shortlisted finalist, it will be posted and distributed in various media online and in print. The winners work as well as selected finalists work will be displayed at the Bridgy gallery for the group exhibition and winners solo show this also extends to our partner galleries.

The Penn Berkeley Prize and its gallery sponsors will not be deemed liable in the event of a disqualification of submission(s) that were incorrectly submitted nor met the required submission criteria. This also extends to the delivery of your prints to the gallery and during the exhibition where loss or damage has occurred.

JUDGING:

There are two rounds of judging: all submissions will be judged by the international acclaimed and award winning photographer Josh Lomen as well as a special guest judge during the first round of judging to determine the shortlisted entrants. For the second round of judging the Judges will select the category award winners and runner up award winners. All decisions of the Judges are final and not subject to appeal.

THIRD PARTY RELEASES/LICENSES:

By entering the awards, each Entrant understands that they retain their copyright. Winners authorise The Penn Berkeley Prize and it's partner galleries to reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative works of the Images entered in connection with the award and all Images that will be shared by The Penn Berkeley Prize and it's gallery partners will be credited to the photographer.

If you have any queries regarding the Penn Berkeley Prize then please reach out to us via email which is Pennberkeleyprize@gmail.com