Terms
Official Rules & Submission Guidelines
Participation Eligibility
The 12 Awards welcomes global entries from photographers aged 18 and older. We accept submissions regardless of professional status, background, or location.
To preserve a fair and impartial judging process, staff members of the organizing body, jury members, individuals directly involved in the administration of the competition, corporate partners involved in the operation of the awards, and immediate family members of the foregoing are not eligible to enter.
By registering and submitting an entry, you confirm that you have read and accepted these Terms and Conditions in full.
Image Creation & AI Policy
There are no restrictions on the capture or creation date of submitted works. Images from any time period are welcome.
AI-generated and AI-assisted images are permitted. This includes photographic, hybrid, and AI-created works, provided that the entrant holds the necessary rights to submit the work and that the submission does not infringe the copyright, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party.
The 12 Awards reserves the right to request supporting materials to verify authorship, ownership, or rights of use where reasonably necessary. Depending on the nature of the work, this may include original files, layered files, RAW files, source files, generation records, or other evidence sufficient to confirm the legitimacy of the submission.
Content Restrictions
To maintain a widely accessible and professionally curated environment, explicit nude photography is not accepted. The organizer reserves the right to reject work deemed unlawful, abusive, defamatory, exploitative, excessively graphic, or otherwise inconsistent with the spirit of the competition.
Submission Process
To participate, please complete the following steps at 12awards.com:
- Create a Profile: Register your official participant account.
- Upload Artwork: Submit your images and include optional descriptions.
- Complete Entry: Pay the corresponding entry fee. A confirmation email will be sent upon successful processing.
There is no limit to the number of images you may submit. A single image may be entered into multiple categories. Furthermore, photographs that have won previous awards or are currently entered in other global contests remain fully eligible for the 12 Awards.
Submission of an entry constitutes full acceptance of these rules. Entrants are responsible for ensuring that all submitted information is accurate and that all required rights, permissions, and clearances have been obtained before submission.
Technical Requirements
- Accepted Formats: Images captured via film, digital cameras, mobile phones, or AI-based workflows are accepted. Files must be saved as JPEGs using sRGB or Adobe RGB profiles (8-bit). Minimum of 2000 pixels on the longest side. Individual files must not exceed 4 MB.
- Orientation & Tone: Square, portrait, and landscape orientations are permitted. Sepia-toned photographs are exclusively accepted within Black and White categories.
- Clean Entries: Do not include watermarks, signatures, or decorative borders on your images.
- File Naming: File names must be clean and not include special characters (e.g., @, $, #).
- Authenticity of Submission Materials: If requested, entrants must provide adequate supporting materials within a reasonable timeframe. Failure to do so may result in disqualification.
Entry Fees & Phases
| Phase & Dates | Single Entry | Series (5 Images) | +Cat (Single) | +Cat (Series) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Bird March 30 – April 29, 2026 | $15 | $25 | +$10 | +$15 |
| Standard April 30 – May 29, 2026 | $20 | $30 | +$12 | +$15 |
| Late Entry May 30 – June 29, 2026 | $25 | $35 | +$15 | +$17 |
Intellectual Property & Copyright
Ownership: You retain complete 100% copyright ownership of your work. We will never sell your images, and any commercial inquiries regarding your photographs will be forwarded directly to you.
Usage Rights: By participating, you grant 12 Awards and its media partners a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to display high- and low-resolution versions of your submitted or selected images across our website, social media, digital publications, printed materials, exhibitions, press features, and promotional materials solely for purposes directly related to the competition, its winners, its exhibitions, its archive, and its promotion. No additional remuneration is required.
No Sale to Third Parties: 12 Awards does not sell submitted images to third parties. Any commercial interest received by us regarding an entrant’s work may, at our discretion, be referred directly to the entrant.
Entrant Warranty: By submitting work, you represent and warrant that the work is either created by you or lawfully controlled by you to the extent necessary for submission, and that its submission and permitted use by 12 Awards will not violate the rights of any third party.
Please note: The 12 Awards and its media partners are not liable for any unauthorized misuse of your images by external third parties once published online.
Rights, Permissions & Responsibility
Entrants are solely responsible for obtaining any permissions, licenses, consents, or releases that may be required in connection with submitted work, including but not limited to permissions relating to identifiable persons, private property, copyrighted elements, artworks, trademarks, or other protected material appearing in the image.
Any legal responsibility arising from copyright infringement, privacy claims, publicity rights, unauthorized use of third-party materials, or similar disputes remains exclusively with the entrant.
Judging Process
Entries are evaluated by the nominated jury on a category-by-category basis through an anonymous judging process intended to preserve fairness and impartiality. The organizer reserves the right to structure judging in one or more rounds as deemed appropriate.
The prestigious title of Photographer of the Year will be awarded to the visionary whose combined portfolio achieves the highest cumulative score across the entire competition. Meanwhile, individual category winners are determined by the highest single-image scores.
All decisions made by the 12 Awards are final and binding; appeals will not be accepted. Official winners will be publicly announced 30 days following the final submission deadline.
Disqualification & Rule Violations
12 Awards reserves the right to reject or disqualify any entry that, in its reasonable judgment, violates these rules or compromises the integrity of the competition.
- Submitting work without sufficient rights of use or ownership
- Providing false, misleading, or incomplete submission information
- Refusing or failing to provide supporting materials when reasonably requested
- Submitting unlawful, infringing, or prohibited content
- Attempting to undermine the fairness, administration, or judging process of the competition
Where a violation is identified, 12 Awards may remove the entry from consideration, withdraw nominations or awards, revise published results, and restrict future participation where appropriate.
Privacy & Personal Data
By registering or submitting work, you consent to the collection and use of your registration and submission data for the administration of the competition, participant communication, payment processing, winner notification, and related operational purposes, in accordance with the 12 Awards Privacy Policy.
If selected, shortlisted, or awarded, your name, country, submitted work, and other relevant competition-related details may be published on 12 Awards platforms and promotional materials for the purpose of announcing and promoting the competition and its results.
Personal data is handled in line with our Privacy Policy. By using the site and entering the competition, you acknowledge that such processing is necessary for the operation of the awards.
Data Retention
Awarded, shortlisted, nominated, or otherwise selected images may be retained in the 12 Awards archive for record-keeping, promotional, editorial, and historical purposes related to the competition.
Non-selected submissions and related materials may be retained for a reasonable administrative period and may thereafter be deleted, removed, or archived at the organizer’s discretion.
Liability & Technical Issues
Participants are responsible for the accuracy of their submissions, the completion of payment, and the successful upload of their files. 12 Awards is not responsible for failed uploads, corrupted files, payment interruptions, technical malfunctions, internet failures, platform outages, or other issues beyond its reasonable control.
The organizer shall not be liable for losses, damages, or claims arising from participation in the competition except where such liability cannot be excluded by applicable law.
Competition Modifications
12 Awards reserves the right to amend these Terms, revise procedures, extend deadlines, postpone announcements, or cancel all or part of the competition where necessary due to technical, legal, operational, or other unforeseen circumstances. Any such changes will be reflected on the official website or otherwise communicated through official competition channels.
Final Agreement
By entering the competition, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and Conditions in full, and that you are bound by the final decisions of the organizer and jury.