About CPOY and the contest

We are pleased to announce the 79th College Photographer of the Year competition.

We will receive entries from August 17 to September 16, 2024. Judging will take place from October 19 to 26 and will be livestreamed. Read the rules and ethics standards closely to guarantee acceptance. Please follow @collegephotog and our website for updates on how to watch judging live or how to attend in person.

We believe that open and transparent judging allows student photographers to learn from the conversation, builds public trust, and lets jurors share their own humanity through honest discussion. We hope you have a chance to follow the judging process.

The University of Missouri administers CPOY with support from its co-sponsor Nikon Inc., whose generosity allows CPOY to offer free entry to students in educational institutions worldwide. We thank them for their 18-year dedication.

Who may enter

Undergraduate or graduate students at any college, university or educational institution worldwide who enrolled for at least one semester, trimester or quarter between September 2023 and December 2024 may enter. Those who have worked two years or more as full-time professional photographers or videographers (including paid internships) are not eligible.

You must submit the name and contact information for a faculty member or advisor who can verify your eligibility as a recent student and not a professional photographer. They will only be contacted if we have eligibility concerns.

Awards

College Photographer of the Year - Gold Portfolio Winner

An Internship with Reuters *

Nikon digital camera set

National Press Photographers Foundation scholarship in memory of Colonel William J. Lookadoo

A plaque

Runner-up College Photographer of the Year - Finalist Portfolio Winner

Nikon digital camera set

Tuition to the Missouri Photo Workshop

National Press Photographers Foundation scholarship in memory of Milton Freier

A plaque

Sports Portfolio - Gold Winner

Nikon digital camera set

Documentary Photographic Project - Gold Winner

Tuition to Mountain Workshops

Domestic Picture Story – Gold Winner

Missouri Photo Workshop fellowship in honor of Greg Dorsett / The Muskegon Chronicle

Multimedia: Online Storytelling - Gold Winner

A plaque awarded in the name of the educational institution, workshop or individual

Multimedia: Individual Story or Essay - Gold Winner

Nikon digital camera set

Tuition to One Day MediaStorm Workshop

Multimedia: Group Story or Essay - Gold Winner

Tuition to One Day MediaStorm Workshop

Multimedia: Documentary Short - Gold Winner

Tuition to One Day MediaStorm Workshop

A Classic Pass to the True/False Film Fest

Other Awards

Digital certificates will be emailed to Gold, Finalist and Award of Excellence winners in individual categories, upon request. One certificate will be emailed, upon request, to each group.

All recognized entries will be featured at CPOY.org and on social media.

* Note About Internship with Reuters

CPOY is honored to announce that Reuters, the leading global provider of business, financial and world news, will offer a paid, 12-week internship for the 79th College Photographer of the Year (winner of Portfolio).

The internship furthers CPOY's mission of inclusivity. Reuters global footprint now makes the internship possible for a winning CPOY photographer from nearly any location around the world. 

We are grateful to Reuters for their support of CPOY and student photographers worldwide.

Eligible materials

All entries must have been created between August 23, 2023 and August 22, 2024 and may not have been previously entered in this competition. (There are some exceptions for Category 12 - Documentary Photographic Project and Category 18 - Multimedia: Documentary Short).

All entries or components of entries must be publishable. The work is not eligible if you invaded someone's privacy, promised it would not be published or did not obtain informed consent in the case of people of diminished capacity.

CPOY Ethics Standards

College Photographer of the Year is a journalistic competition. Digital, analog/film or print alteration or deceptive modification of entry materials is strictly prohibited (with the exception of Category 8 - Illustration). Entries that violate CPOY Ethics Standards are subject to disqualification.

Digital alteration rules:

• CPOY accepts two photographic modes: color or black & white images

• black and white images - should display a full grayscale range and may not contain color information. Conversion to black and white that does not alter content is permitted.

• color images - routine image correction for color toning, white balance, and exposure is acceptable; desaturation, over saturation, high dynamic range or other painterly toning is not.

• film edges are not permitted unless the original photograph was captured on film (negative or transparency) or Polaroid, and the border is the true nature of the medium.

• the following are ineligible: diptychs, triptychs, double exposures, in-camera multiple exposures, stitched panoramas, added masks, borders, backgrounds, text, handwritten notes, prints that are manipulated and rephotographed or other artistic effects (except in category 8 - Illustration).

• the following content alterations are prohibited: adding, deleting, rearranging or distorting people or objects in the image is manipulation and not allowed (except in category 8 - Illustration).

• AI-generated images are prohibited: AI-generated images are not allowed in any category, including category 8 - Illustration.

Staging and re-creations are prohibited. As a journalistic competition, CPOY does not allow deceptive modification of entry materials. You may not deliberately arrange a scene or direct subjects to re-create or rearrange a scene. Exceptions are illustrations and portraits. 

Caption Standards: Each photograph must include a caption that meets journalistic standards for accuracy and be ready for publication. Captions that are inaccurate or falsely represent the picture content may be disqualified.

Copy Images and Documents, Scans. Photographs submitted into single-image categories cannot be copies, scans or a photograph of other photographs or documents (for example, scans or photographs of archive, historic or found images). However, copies, scans or a photograph of other photographs or documents can serve as a detail image as part of a multiple image entry to elucidate or advance the story, but they may not comprise a majority of the project.

CPOY reviews every still photograph and multimedia entry in advance of judging. CPOY may contact photographers whose images seem to conflict with these standards and provide them with the opportunity to resubmit the photograph before judging begins. Once judging begins, judges may disqualify entries deemed manipulated, over controlled or unethical. At any point, CPOY may contact photographers to request original RAW images or unedited JPGs for image verification.

Words of advice: Before submitting your images, compare them to the original files as captured in camera to verify that your toning is within these journalistic guidelines.

These guidelines may not be exhaustive, but CPOY expects you to live within the spirit of the competition, which awards honest and straightforward photojournalism.

Copyright

Entrants must own the copyright (or the right to copyright) all submitted material. In the case of multimedia categories, the entrant must be the authorized holder of the copyright for all components of the entry, or entrant must have copyright permission or have licensed the work from the holder.

How to enter

File naming

Your files are automatically renamed when you submit.  It is not necessary to rename your files, although you should title them in the IPTC field.

Still Image File Specifications

• File type: .JPG only

• Image size: 3000 pixels minimum on the longer side 

• Resolution: 300 dpi, minimum

Captions, Dates and File Information

Captions are required and can be critical during judging — write and enter your image captions carefully, making sure they are succinct, honest and accurate. Do NOT put your name in the caption. You are also required to submit Story Descriptions for the Picture Story and Portfolio categories.

Each photograph must include a caption embedded in the .jpg file's IPTC metadata description field that meets journalistic standard for accuracy and ready-for-publication requirements.

IPTC data may be embedded into images using Photoshop, Photo Mechanic, Aperture, Lightroom and other image editing solutions. You must include the correct capture date and location information. Please verify that capture dates are correct so you remain eligible. Once you have uploaded your files, any preexisting IPTC data will be automatically extracted and displayed.

Entry Tip! Captions are read in the final rounds of each category and should be written in English. Well-written captions with relevant details strengthen your entry and stand apart from entries with weak captions.

Captions that are inaccurate or falsely represent the picture content may be disqualified.

The following IPTC fields are required:

• DOCUMENT TITLE is the image title

• AUTHOR is the photographer's name

• DESCRIPTION is the caption

• CAPTURE DATE verify that this field is correct.If any images are outside eligible entry dates your entry will be rejected. IMPORTANT: If your IPTC date is incorrect for some reason, you are able to edit the date during entry.

• LOCATION INFORMATION is the city (or nearest city), state/province, country

Picture Story Submissions

The order or sequence of images you create upon entering will be preserved. You may change and verify the sequence after you upload the images. CPOY will not change the order of the pictures after you submit the entry.

For Story categories 9-12 (and 8, if you submit an Illustration project), you must include the story summary after the caption in the first image of the story or essay. For Portfolio category 14, you will create a .jpg title slide for story summaries (see portfolio details).

Multimedia Submissions

• Categories 15-18 require a single URL via an active link. Include needed passwords to access the URL content

• You must submit a thumbnail .jpg image to represent your multimedia project (page 1)

• Submit an active URL for each multimedia entry (page 2)

• Do not upload video files.

• If your Multimedia Project is awarded, you will be asked to provide the video file after judging so that we can display it on the CPOY website.

Portfolio Submissions

The order of images you create upon entry will be preserved. You should verify the order after you upload the images and change the sequence as necessary. CPOY will not change the order of the pictures after you submit the entry.

• Single image category photos go first (categories 1-8, if you entered a single image in 8), followed by multiple image categories (categories 8-12).

• Place a black .jpg title slide at the beginning of each multiple image story or essay (categories 8-12) within the portfolio. This indicates to judges that they are about to view a project.

• For this black slide, fill out the IPTC "document title" field with the story title and the "caption field" with story summary. This will be read aloud during judging.

• You may download the PROVIDED BLACK SLIDE or create your own (white text for the title is nice but not required).

• Single images within the portfolio should not be repeated in a multiple image entry in the portfolio.

• Multimedia entries cannot be included in a Portfolio.

• Multiple image entries within the portfolio are limited to 20 images (a larger limit than the project categories)

• Illustrations are allowed. Please label them as such.

• 55 images maximum, including black slides.

Rules about images and multimedia in more than one category

• A single photograph can only be entered in one single image category (categories 1-7 and 8 if entered as a single).

• However, a single photograph may be entered in one single image category (1-7 and 8 if entered as a single), one multiple image category (8-12) and a portfolio category. (For example, a single image may be entered in General News, Domestic Picture Story and Portfolio, but not in both the General News and Portrait categories.)

• A story may only be entered in one multiple picture category (9-12). However, this story can also be entered in the Portfolio category entry. (For example, a story can be entered in International Picture Story, and as part of Portfolio, but not in both International Picture Story and Documentary Photographic Project.)

• All photographs entered in still photography categories must be taken and credited to a single photographer.

• Multimedia entries can only be entered in one of the following categories: 16-18. However, a video entered in 16-18 may be part of an entry into category 15, Multimedia: Online Storytelling.

Advisor Verification

After the September 16 deadline, CPOY will begin to review entries. If we have questions about your student or professional status, we may reach out to the faculty or advisor you listed to verify your eligibility.

Use of Submitted Material

By entering this competition, you declare that you meet the eligibility requirements stated in the rules of the competition and that you are authorized by the holder of the copyright (or the right to copyright) to submit photos and multimedia entries to the College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) competition. You grant permission to College Photographer of the Year and the Missouri School of Journalism and POY programs (including CPOY's parent program, Pictures of the Year International) to use your submitted entries in exhibitions, in publications, and in promotion of the competition itself, and for educational, research, and historical purposes concerning College Photographer of the Year and Pictures of the Year International. This usage includes print and electronic and online platforms such but not limited to the CPOY, POY or MU websites, social media, books, slides/tapes, television broadcast/film/tapes, DVDs and CDs. Winning entries become a part of the permanent CPOY and POY archive.

CPOY History

For 79 years, our mission has been to recognize the best in collegiate photojournalism and set the standards. Each year, most of the roughly 600 students from over 160 colleges, universities and educational institutions worldwide who enter CPOY hope to win a prestigious award and have their work recognized. However, our greatest value is educational, as it encourages still and multimedia photographers to evaluate their best work and share it with their peers and the esteemed working professionals who judge the contest each year.

The College Photographer of the Year competition was founded by Cliff and Vi Edom in 1945. The University of Missouri administers the contest with support from its co-sponsor Nikon Inc., whose generosity allows CPOY to offer free entry to students in educational institutions worldwide. We thank them for their 17-year dedication.

Juror information

CPOY hosts separate judging panels for Still Division and Multimedia Division entries. Juror information, including names and affiliations, will be announced shortly before judging. Please see www.cpoy.org/announcements and @collegephotog social media for details.