Event Photography Awards 2025 celebrates talented winners & stunning shots

The eleventh annual Event Photography Awards 2025 were a truly fantastic celebration of talent. PA Life joined 250 guests on Wednesday 28 May at 66 Portland Place, the home of RIBA, just a few days before the venue closes for a multi-million-pound renovation. Graham Hill, Competition & Event Director, who’s been the driving force behind the awards since its inception, recounts the highlights of the evening…

The evening started with the audience taking in and casting their votes on the over 130 short-listed photos whilst enjoying the sumptuous catering provided by Blue Strawberry. A special mention is also due for Visions Group, who brought the photos to life on large prints, and also seamlessly oversaw the event production.

The competition was founded to highlight the importance of great photography to the sustenance of the events industry by Philip Atkins, CEO of staffing agency Off To Work. This year’s awards attracted over 2,300 images of events held all around the world from photographers in over 30 countries.

Overall Winner: Singularity by Luke Dyson

Black & white ‘Behind the Scenes’ shot claimes the The Overall Winner shot

The prestigious Overall Winner trophy and a cheque for £1,000 was won by Luke Dyson, who is the first person to win the award twice. His stylish ‘Behind the Scenes’ category winner proved popular with both the many industry leading judges on the panel, as well as trade and photography magazine editors. Entitled ‘Singularity’, the image shows a lighting engineer for Barcelona-based event managers, Vision Factory, testing the visual displays for the MDLBEAST Soundstorm festival in Riyadh late into the night before the opening day, thereby highlighting the commitment, attention to detail and technological investment required to successfully produce impactful events.

Missed Birthdays by David Parry

Overall Runner-Up

The much-admired and emotionally provocative Overall Runner-Up shot came from the increasingly important Brand Activation & Experiential Events category. It was captured closer to home at Westfield White City London by David Parry for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). The suicide prevention charity unveiled their Missed Birthdays installation made up of 6,929 ‘balloons of hope’, representing a real young life lost to suicide in the past decade. Although the colourful yet moving image missed out on the ‘big one’, it did win the Peoples’ Choice Award which is voted for by guests attending the awards event.

It was a draw for the Highly Commended

The two Overall Highly Commended images showed great moments at contrasting music events. Victor Frankowski’s image has an exuberant Fatboy Slim leading the dancing at his annual pool party during the All Back to Minehead Festival. In the image by Dutch photographer, Martin Hols captures huge flames erupting from towering structures at the Defqon.1 Festival in The Netherlands, casting a deep orange glow over the massive crowd.

Best Portfolio, Best Amateur and Royal Occasions deserve a special mention

The coveted Best Portfolio award was won by Andrew Billington, who was recognised after being runner-up in no less than three of the eighteen core categories, as well as winning the Christmas Parties & Seasonal Events class with a fun shot of a camel.

For the second year running, Andrew Pountney, picked up a Best Amateur trophy, but this year he shared the accolade will an equally excellent Anthony Black. While Jack Boskett went one better, by winning the popular Royal Occasions category for the third year in a row.

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, which itself is an increasingly important element in marketing budget, let alone economies and society as a whole!  It was generally agreed amongst the judges that the competition was the toughest yet to adjudicate, as a plethora of inspiring, amusing and moving images encapsulated the importance and impact events.”

Competition & Event Director, Graham Hill, commented: “As ever, especially as a not-for-profit exercise, we owe huge debts of gratitude to our sponsors and event partners for making the competition possible and awards event enormously enjoyable. Also, to our array of judges, who had well over 500 photos to review across the eighteen core categories. The competition continues to go from strength to strength and is becoming increasingly international, so with both quality and quantity in mind, we look forward to EPA 2026 with great anticipation.”

The judging of Event Photography Awards 2025

The judging is facilitated through the SurveyLegend online system by a panel consists of over 60 event industry leaders, augmented by editors of trade and photography magazines, who congregated in London and Birmingham for group sessions, or cast their votes remotely. The ‘Overall’ winners are then selected from all the category winners.

EPA 2025 is the 11th edition of the not-for-profit exercise and again attracted well over 2,000 entries from more countries around the world than ever before.

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: 66 Portland Place – The Home of RIB
• Catering: Blue Strawberry
• Printing & Production: Visions Group
• Display Kit: X-Hibit
• Trophies: Aford Awards
• Badges: Outstand
• PR: Triggerfish
• Photography: Splento
• Voting Platform Survey Legend
• Judging Laptops One World Rental
• Industry Sponsors Awesome Events. GL Events, Keith Prowse, The HAC
• Association Partner PSA – Production Services Association

For more information, images, comments and quotes, please contact:

Graham Hill, EPA Competition & Event Director

0771 204 5602 graham@eventphotographyawards.com