Mother Earth provides everything we need to live including shelter, food and medicine. In this category we celebrate the gifts of the earth and food images, from the allotment to the wild medicinal herb, from the crops on which we depend to the home-grown tomato plant pot on the windowsill.

Judges will look for food images and wider images of natural produce that connect people to the earth and show the essential part that plants play in our world. This can be local or global – seed or paddy field – it's up to you to decide what to focus on. These scenes become more than just food images, they are scenes of meaningful human and botanic interaction.

Still life compositions and food images work well to portray Earth’s natural bounty and are often placed highly in this category. People also feature in this category more so than others and are an effective way to describe the nature of our relationship with agriculture and farming. The inclusion of people in garden photography and nature photography can be difficult, but when done right can create a powerful emotional connection to the image, which demands attention from judges.

Where once you may have seen just another field or another everyday fruit and vegetable, this category invites you to explore the importance of these natural products and the role they play in our everyday lives. Food images help to portray the importance of food production – the demand of which will only increase – so now is the time to build an appreciation of where these plants have come from, how they are grown and harvested and where we envision them to sit within a sustainable future. Food images play an essential role in generating this sense of global self-awareness.

Prizes

First prize:

By entering this category your image stands a chance to win the overall IGPOTY title and prize of £7,500! Please note - you cannot win this category prize and the overall prize.

£250 (GBP)
1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Ascent – read more about this prize

Second prize:

1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Launch – read more about this prize

Third prize:

1 x prize copy of IGPOTY Book 12
Signed individual certificate
Your image goes on tour in the travelling exhibition!
1 year subscription to ImageRights Pilot – read more about this prize

Entry benefits

Exposure, international press coverage, world's most prestigious photographic category for botanical food images, opportunities for growth and feedback, become a stakeholder in conservation, cultivate your skills, reinforce or launch your photographic career.

General rules:

• You may not submit watermarked images with your name or website visible on the photo. Please do not frame your images with borders.
• Entrants may submit a maximum of 4 images per single entry token and a maximum of 6 images per portfolio entry token.
• For free-to-enter competitions you should enter 1 image per token given, up to a maximum of 8 images (8 tokens).
• Entrants' images must be .jpg or .jpeg format and of high enough quality.
• We recommend all images are output to 1920px on their longest side at 72 ppi (ideally with an sRGB colour profile). Any larger than this and you are supplying images bigger than they will be seen or used by IGPOTY judges; your files will take longer to upload and/or download to judges and viewers’ screens.
• The absolute maximum for each image must not be more than 7MB in file size and no more than 3000px on their longest side.
• All entrants must be able to supply a high-res image (300 ppi) suitable for printing/exhibiting should the image be shortlisted. You may be asked for this when the time comes.

N.B.

• High-res source file/s need to be at least 3780 pixels (longest side) @ 300 ppi, ideally larger (and ideally with an Adobe RGB (1998) colour profile).

Full competition rules:

Please see the IGPOTY competition rules, which always prevail:
https://igpoty.com/igpoty-rules/

Category rules:

Please see IGPOTY competition rules.

Please purchase Single/Portfolio slots using the cart buttons above.

For help please visit our Frequently-Asked-Questions page: https://igpoty.com/igpoty-faqs/

For help please visit our Frequently-Asked-Questions page.