Illustrative Photographer of the Year 2025
John & I were recently back in London for the annual gathering of photographers and were honoured to be asked to speak again at the Convention organised by Societies of Photographers,. The Convention is 4 days of Masterclass talks and Superclasses, a trade show, a 20×16″ print competition and an Awards Presentation evening.
As ever, it was a brilliant event and a great chance to catch up with our Convention Family, coupled with the odd day out exploring the sights of London, (this year it was a visit to Margravine Cemetery to chat with George Wimpey).
This year I entered 3 images into the 20×16 print competition and I’m over the moon to have won the title of “20×16″ Illustrative Photographer of the Year 2025” with my image titled Painted Lady!
20×16 Print Competition:
What is the 20×16 Print Competition and how does it all work?
The competition is made up of 17 different categories and you can enter as many images into as many categories as you want. Each image is scored out of 100 by a panel of 5 judges from all over the world. This part of the competition is done live with members able to sit in and watch the process and hear the comments the judges make. It really is interesting, so if at any point in the future you are able to then do go and watch, it’s well worth it.
The score categories are: Merit 80-84; Excellent 85-89; Outstanding 90-94; Exceptional 95-99; Flawless 100.
When the last image in the category has been judged the 10 highest scoring images go forward to meet 15 judges at the next stage; they are then whittled down to the top 3 and the winner is announced at the Awards presentation. The winning images from each category then go forward for selecting the top 3 places and Overall 20×16 Print Competition winner. This is all done behind the scenes so there are no spoilers on Awards night 🙂
This year (2025) there were 584 images entered for the Print Competition so I was competing with entrants from around the world.
How did I do?
I entered William Morris’s Muse and Midnight Siren into the Creative Portrait category with both images scoring a respectable 80.
I also entered Painted Lady into the Illustrative category and scored an amazing 92, placing it in the Outstanding score category, thank you Ramon, Sean, Damian, Richard & Duncan. Some of the comments received from the Judges were: an amazing piece of work, very creative, I’ve never seen anything done like this before, and compelling, particularly the lips and eyes!
John & I sat and watched as the Illustrative category was being judged, the standard of images was very high and I’m glad I didn’t have to select the winner.
I was chuffed to pieces the morning after the final judging to discover a “finalist” rosette sitting neatly on the corner of the mount of Painted Lady. This meant that I was in the running for “20×16″ Illustrative Photographer of the Year 2025” along with renowned photographers Andrew Hiorth from Canada and Tony Hewitt from Australia. I was even more surprised that evening to be announced as the category winner.
To say I’m still a little shell-shocked, but I guess now that after calling myself “an award-winning photographer” last year, I can safely say it’s wasn’t a fluke as now there are 2 nice pieces of glass sitting on my desk to remind me!
For those of you who like to know the nitty gritty details: The model was Roseanne, the shoot took place in the JMW Imaging Studio, the image was captured using my Fuji XT-3 and was printed on Permajet Photo Art Silk paper using a Canon Pro-10S.
The Illustrative category was sponsored by Praetego
A full list of winners and runner-ups, along with images, can be found here.