Event Photography Awards 2024 winner is a classic ‘behind the scenes’ shot

PA Life was pleased to be supporting the Event Photography Awards 2024 on its 10th anniversary year. As media partners, plus our editor being one of the industry judges, we attended the fabulous awards celebrations in central London on June 5th. The event took place at the at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) magnificent headquarters, 66 Portland Place. Some 250 guests perused an extensive gallery of over 130 short-listed shots while enjoying particularly tasty catering by Company of Cooks. Let’s take the look at who the Event Photography Awards 2024 winner of the Overall category and all the other categories are…

The not-for-profit competition has 20 categories and attracted 2,500 images. The Event Photography Awards were founded in 2014 by Philip Atkins, CEO of Off To Work, to highlight the importance of great photography to the sustenance of the events industry.

The Event Photography Awards 2024 Overall Winner took home the trophy with a ‘behind the scenes’ shot

The prestigious Overall Winner trophy and a cheque for £1,000 was won by Netherlands-based photographer, Benjamin Arthur. His stylish and classic ‘Behind The Scenes’ category winner proved popular amongst the many all-too-knowing event industry leading panel of judges. Entitled ‘Set-up Symmetry’, the image highlights the attention to detail required for successful events and pride staff take in delivering them. It was captured at the Felix Meritis venue in Amsterdam just prior to a pre-conference dinner for the European Society of Cardiology.

The Painted Hall in Greenwich was the venue for the Overall Runner-up shot, captured by last year’s Best Amateur award-winner, Cath Dupuy. The iconic space regularly features in the Venues category of the competition, but this time it won through in Cultural Events, as the image captures Luke Jerram’s ‘Museum of the Moon’ installation – both directly and reflected onto a glass table that sits in the venue’s Upper Hall.

Who won the Catering, Venues and Seasonal Events categories?

This year’s winner of the Venues category showed the set up for a dinner in the Barry Rooms at The National Gallery, captured by James Everett. The image was also one of the two Overall Highly-Commended entries, alongside Gloucestershire-based photographer, Paul Nicholls’ pleasing image ‘Penny Father Christmas’, which won the Seasonal Events category.

The coveted Best Portfolio award was won by Alistair Veryard, who also won the Brand Activation & Experiential Events trophy with his all-action wrestling shot ‘Catapult’, captured at a Domino’s product launch for the Ultimate Chicken Mexican pizza. The year’s Best Amateur was gig specialist, Andrew Pountney, who also won the new Music Events – Audience category with his shot of a manic crowd surfer ‘Luvvin it’!

Joint winners for Royal Occasions

The popular Royal Occasions category threw up a surprise when Jack Boskett and Chris Jackson were declared joint winners. The competition’s SurveyLegend judging system is used empirically, so perfectly level scores can occur – as they also did with the 2022 Weddings category.

This year’s Weddings category was won by Austrian photographer, Barbara Weber, who along with the overall winner, travelled to London for the ceremony, as did short-listed entrants from Sweden, Slovakia and Shetland!

Competition founder, Philip Atkins, CEO of event staffing agency Off to Work, commented: “Photography does so much to amplify, justify and sustain the events industry. It’s therefore so heartening that the competition has not only reached its 10^th Anniversary, but is also now attracting so many entries. We received some 2,500 this year, showing how investment in quality photography is given increasing importance. The competition was the toughest ever and the images entered encapsulated the impact, both societal and commercial, of a durable and effervescent events sector.”

Congratulations to all the winners!

Look out for 10th Anniversary Best Ever EPA in the autumn!

Competition & Event Director, Graham Hill, commented: “We owe huge debts of gratitude to our sponsors and event partners for making the competition and awards event possible. Also, to our array of industry leading judges, who had over 500 photos to review. The competition has been a great success, and we are very excited about marking the 10^th Anniversary with the Best Ever EPA competition in the autumn which will see mass online judging across the events industry – through trade media, associations and sponsors – of award-winning images from the past decade.”

More about the Event Photography Awards

Event Photography Awards were founded in 2014 by Philip Atkins, Managing Director of premier event staffing agency Off to Work, to celebrate the (often unsung) photographers who contribute so much to the validity, sustenance and marketability of the events industry.

The judging is facilitated through the SurveyLegend online system by a panel consists of over 70 event industry leaders who congregated in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh for group sessions, or cast their votes remotely. The ‘Overall’ winners are then selected from all the category winners.

EPA 2024 is the 10th edition of the not-for-profit exercise. The anniversary will be marked later in the year with a Best Ever EPA competition encompassing all past category winning images.

Some 2,500 shots were entered – up 45% on EPA 2023 and a record for the competition.

The awards are open to both professionals and amateurs who are judged against each other.

Key Event Partners, Suppliers, Supporters & Sponsors

• • Organisers & Staff:Off to Work
  • Venue: RIBA at 66 Portland Place
  • Catering: Company of Cooks
  • Printing & Production: Visions Group
  • Display Kit: X-Hibit
  • Trophies: Aford Awards
  • Badges: Outstand
  • Drinks: Glass Half Full & NOAM Beer
  • PR: Triggerfish
  • Photography: Splento & The Photography Foundation (Associated                           Charity)
  • Videography: AMMP
  • Voting Platform: SurveyLegend
  • AI Workshop: Neurapix
  • Christmas Parties: Awesome Events
  • Conferences: GL Events
  • Exhibition: International Confex
  • Sporting Events: Keith Prowse
  • Music Events: The Roundhouse
  • Judging Event: The HAC
  • Judging Laptops: One World Rental

All the winning and shortlisted photos will be live on the Event Photography Awards website soon.