February – The Beauty of Nature
An image taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures.
March – Abandoned
All entries in monochrome.
A subject, perhaps in a state of decay or isolation, which has been abandoned.
April – Circles
An image in which circles feature as the main design element. This can be any circular object, or a formation in which circular objects feature prominently.
May – Action / Motion
An image in which a sensation of movement is the primary focus, and the animation of the subject is clearly evident.
June – Triptych
Three images presented as one, bringing together either a story, similar compositional elements, colours, or similar subject matter – anything that draws the pictures together as a group.
July – Table top / Still life
An image depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically able to be accommodated within the confines of a tabletop and embracing a wide range of objects arranged in a visually pleasing or creative manner.
August – Architecture / Urban spaces
All entries in monochrome.
Images that capture scenes within a city or town that capture the essence of the location rather than simply a record of location. The image can be a picture of one or more buildings or structures, or a smaller portion of a building. Human figures may be included.
September – Faces and Characters
An image a single person, or group of people, providing some insight into their personality, interests, occupation or chosen lifestyle. An illustration of the person as an individual rather than simply as a photographic subject.
October – Fire, smoke or steam
An image in which fire, smoke, steam or a combination of these elements is a dominant feature of the image.
November – Series
A series of art / photography is a unified, cohesive, coherent and related body of work which involves creating multiple works of art around any of the same- Idea / Concept; Theme / Topic; Story; Philosophy; Issue; Subject Matter or Technique
Images in the series are to be submitted as one image with all images arranged within a single canvas at the standard competition size of 1920×1080, less than 2 mb
Ideas for the series can be found in Emma Gilette presentation How to Create a Photographic Series – Emma Gilette (23MB PDF). Ideas can also be found on the Photographic Society of America website where a series is presented as a portfolio of work. FIAP also have a similar honour as the MFIAP is awarded following submission of a portfolio of 20 works. NOTE: these sites may be slow to load.
