Architecture’s biggest photography competition is back! Architizer is thrilled to announce that the 2nd Annual One Photo Challenge is still open for entries, with a Late Entry Deadline of April 16th. You can read the full competition brief below, but the challenge can be summed up as follows: Submit a single architectural photograph that communicates a powerful story about the built environment and those that inhabit it.
With two Top Prizes of $2,500 (for one student and one non-student), as well the opportunity to have your image published and celebrated by millions within the Architizer community, the One Photo Challenge is THE competition to enter this year. Register and get started on your submission by clicking the button below:
Note: We have updated our system, and you must now use your Architizer login credentials to access your One Photo Challenge account. For those that entered last year’s One Photo Challenge, you will need to create a new account to submit your photo for this year’s program.
“Guangzhou Opera House” by Stephane ABOUDARAM, WE ARE CONTENT(S), Finalist in the 2020 One Photo Challenge
Competition Brief
The One Photo Challenge celebrates architectural photography that captures the essence of a place, revealing something new or unexpected about our surroundings and communicating a larger story about the meaning of home, city or country. The competition is open to everyone, including both professional and amateur photographers — to enter, all you need is a phone or camera and a keen eye for the world around you.
Submissions call for one photograph that powerfully communicates a certain atmosphere or mood that is created by an architectural structure or space. The photo can be captured anywhere in the world, and its subject matter can be at any scale. It can be taken from a wide angle or close up, show a whole building or just a detail. As long as your photo portrays part or all of a building or group of buildings, it is eligible.
Remember, the challenge is to tell a story with your image, so think about what narrative your photo communicates. We encourage participants to submit photographs that depict architecture’s relationship with local cultural, social, political, and economic conditions. Images with a strong sense of time and place stand the best chance of success. Your photograph should be accompanied by a short description, no more than 150 words.
Left: “The Glow of the City” by Edwin Watkeys; Right: “75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising” by Jeremy Hosking, Finalists in the 2020 One Photo Challenge
Top Prizes
Prizes for the two top winners (one student, one non-student) include:
- $2,500 prize money
- Coverage on Architizer Journal and social media promotion
- An exclusive interview discussing your work published in Architizer Journal
Ten additional runners-up will feature in the Winners’ Announcement and receive extensive coverage across Architizer Journal and all social media platforms. One hundred finalists in total (including the top winners and runners-up) will be published in our special feature “100 Photographs That Tell Powerful Stories About Architecture”, to be distributed to thousands of architecture firms and millions more via Architizer’s social media channels.
“Happytecture” by Anna Devís Benet and Daniel Rueda Cuerda, Finalist in the 2020 One Photo Challenge
The One Photo Challenge Jury
The 100 Finalists will be selected by Architizer’s team of in-house competition jurors. These finalists will then be scored by our expert jury, which includes practitioners and thought leaders from the worlds of architecture and photography.
Confirmed jurors include:
- Ema Peter, A+Award-winning architectural photographer.
- Hufton + Crow, world-renowned photographers Nick Hufton and Al Crow, whose clients include Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG and Heatherwick Studio.
- Ana Mello, renowned Brazlian architect and architecture photographer, featured in Architectural Digest’s “5 new latin architecture photographers“.
- Krista Jahnke, one of Canada’s leading architectural photographers.
- Sebastian Weiss, otherwise known as le_blanc — Instagram’s most popular photographer of minimalist architectural details.
- Paul Clemence, renowned architectural photographer and founder of the huge Archi-Photo community, home to almost 1 million followers!
- Aldo Amoretti, A+Award-winning architectural photographer who took the photo on the cover of 2018 “The World’s Best Architecture” compendium. Explore his Instagram @aldoamoretti.
Left: “Sensing the lines” by Tommaso Giuntini; Right: “Just make sure you noticed the collateral beauty” by Aude Marion, Finalists in the 2020 One Photo Challenge
The One Photo Challenge provides a compelling opportunity to illuminate the communicative power of both architecture as a discipline, and photography as a medium. As mentioned earlier, this competition is not limited to professionals; everyone with a passion for photography is invited to apply. If you have an eye for composition, light and shade, and visual narrative, your images may well be contenders for the $2,500 Top Prizes.
For more information, check out the FAQs, the Jurors Page and the Judging Criteria. We can’t wait to see your photographs, and share them with the world!
Note: We have updated our system, and you must now use your Architizer login credentials to access your One Photo Challenge account. For those that entered last year’s One Photo Challenge, you will need to create a new account to submit your photo for this year’s program.
Top image: “Surfing in the wave” by Ryan Tsui, Finalist in the 2020 One Photo Challenge