2019 ZEISS Photography Award opens for entries

ZEISS and the World Photography Organisation invite photographers worldwide to enter the 2019 ZEISS Photography Award. Now in its fourth year, the ZEISS Photography Award is an international photography competition that challenges photographers to submit bodies of work addressing a selected theme. The 2019 brief is today revealed as “Seeing Beyond - The Unexpected” and the work will be judged by experts in the photograph industry including Simon Frederick (Artist, Photographer and Filmmaker, UK), Shoair Mavlian (Director, Photoworks, UK) and Dagmar Seeland (Picture Editor, STERN Magazine, Germany).

The jury are looking for photographers to push their creative boundaries by responding to the brief with exceptional images and a strong narrative. The Award is free to enter at www.zeiss.com/zpa19 and the deadline is February 8, 2019 at 13.00 GMT.

The 2019 winner will receive €12,000 worth of ZEISS lenses, €3,000 to cover travel costs for a photography project and the opportunity to personally work with ZEISS and the World Photography Organisation. An award ceremony will take place on 17 April 2019 in London. The winning photos plus a selection of shortlisted works will be exhibited at Somerset House in London from 18 April - 6 May 2019. ZEISS will also invite the winner to the company headquarters in Germany, where they will get a peek behind the scenes of the ZEISS world and the opportunity to get to know its lenses.

A shortlist of up to 15 photographers for the 2019 ZEISS Photography Award will be revealed on March 26, 2019, with one winner announced on April 9, 2019.

Nick Hannes, 2018 ZEISS Photography Award winner comments: “Winning the Zeiss Photography Award 2018 for ‘Garden of Delight’ has given great extra visibility for my project, both through repetitive online publications and through portfolios in the regular media and on photography platforms. Several of the artworks have become widely-recognised due to the attention brought by the Award.”

To be understood in its broadest sense, "The Unexpected" challenges photographers to submit a series of 5 - 10 images that look past the everyday and address something unforeseen or surprising – whether this is through the landscape and the physical environment, through human expression, emotion and interaction, through political or social causes or something more conceptual. The 'unexpected' element could be of global or very personal concern and may either showcase the familiar in a new way or shed light on something entirely different. All types of photography are welcomed by judges. All submissions must be accompanied by a supporting statement outlining the story behind the work.

• 22 November 2018: Competition open for submissions
• 8 February 2019 (13.00 GMT): Competition closed for submissions
• 26 March 2019: Shortlist announced
• 9 April 2019: Winner announced
• 17 April 2019: Award ceremony and gala dinner in London
• 18 April to 6 May 2019: Exhibition of winning and selected shortlisted works at Somerset House, London

The ZEISS Photography Award is a joint collaboration between ZEISS and the World Photography Organisation. For more information please visit www.zeiss.com/zpa19 and follow us on social media: @WorldPhotoOrg, @ZEISSCameraLenses (Instagram and Facebook), @ZEISSLenses (Twitter) and #ZEISSPhotoAward.