Find out how you can win a cash prize as the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards return

Entries have opened today for the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards with cash prizes available for the best images across six separate categories.

The Liverpool City Region Photo Awards, delivered by Open Eye Gallery with the support of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, is seeking photographs depicting celebration, connection, futures, shared spaces, movement and care.

Winning entries chosen by a panel of independent judges will be displayed as part of the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards 2025 exhibition at Open Eye Gallery in November, where an image from every single entry will be featured in a Digital Window Gallery.

Category winners will be awarded £500, while those commended receive a prize of £100.

With its varied landscape, dynamic communities and urban areas, Liverpool City Region is a paradise for photographers with the last competition attracting hundreds of entries from across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

Councillor Mike Wharton, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Business, Investment and Trade said:

“There is such power in a photograph. It can tell a story, communicate beyond language, and connect instantly. We’ve already seen this in action with our Cultural Events Programme this year, which involves six diverse groups including refugees and asylum seekers, members of the LGBTQI+ community and D/deaf and BSL users working with socially engaged photographers.

“Photography is a great tool for successful community cohesion and bringing people together, and I hope that will be one of the benefits of the competition.”

This year’s categories support that cohesive theme. Images can be taken anywhere at any time, but entrants must currently live in the Liverpool City Region. They will then be considered by arts and industry professionals who will shortlist the winners.

Declan Connolly, Liverpool City Region Photo Awards Lead at Open Eye Gallery, said:

“After the success of the first Liverpool City Region Photo Awards in 2023 and the 380 local artists we exhibited, we’re over the moon to be running awards again and hoping to see even more people submitting work this second time around.

“Over the summer, we will have opened exhibitions in Halton, Sefton, St Helens, Wirral and Knowsley in the lead up to this open call and it’s been incredible to see the work of brilliant local photographers that we are somehow only meeting for the first time.

“Photographic talent is very much alive in the Liverpool City Region and happening every day and in every postcode – in group chats, in home darkrooms and on the street. That is what the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards are all about. We want to see it all.”

Entry to the competition is free for anyone living in the Liverpool City Region.

Pictured can be submitted here until 14 September 2025.

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