The Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition welcomes both published and unpublished work to be entered within each category listed under the three main genres.

You may enter a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 images per category, and may enter as many categories as you wish, however you cannot enter the same series or images into more than one category. You may highlight a single “signature image” from each series. Judging will be based on the series of images entered for each category.

The Sony World Photography Awards support Pro-Imaging in order to protect the image rights of photographers.

1.1 By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that WPO is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information will be used by WPO in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

1.2.1 The Competition is free to enter.

1.2.2 The Professional Competition is open to all Photographers entering a body of work.

1.3 All entrants must be over 18.

1.4 By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions.

1.5 Entries must be submitted by 11.59:59pm (GMT) on Wednesday 5th January 2011.

2. To enter, You must upload Your image via the following website: www.worldphoto.org (the "Website"), following the on-screen instructions carefully.

2.1 Published work may have been taken at any point in history, but must have been commissioned or acquired first published between the dates of January 1st and December 31st 2010. Eligible publications include magazines, newspapers, or other on-line and print editorial as well as commissioned gallery exhibitions. Un-published work entered into the competition must have been taken between the dates of January 1st and December 31st 2010. Once unpublished work has been entered, it cannot be entered again as published work in the future year of the awards competition.

3.1 Entries will be judged by the World Photographic Academy (the “Academy”) between the 6th January 2011 and the 31st January 2011.

3.2 A shortlist of up to ten photographers from each category will be selected and announced in February 2011.

3.3 The three finalists in each category, the individual category winners and the overall winner of l’ iris d’Or, SONY World Photographer of the Year will be voted for by the Academy. The finalists will be notified by email. The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in London on Wednesday 27th April 2011.

3.3.1 The winner of each category will be notified by email and will receive return flights to London (economy class) and hotel accommodation for two consecutive nights including the Awards night of the Wednesday 27th April 2011.

3.4 The decision of the Academy and the WPO is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.

3.5 You may enter a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 images per category, and may enter as many categories as you wish, however you cannot enter the same series or images into more than one category. You may highlight a single “signature image” from each series.

3.5.1 Judging will be based on the series of images entered for each category.

4.1 WPO reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:

4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of each Entry

4.1.2 You have the right to make Your entry available to the Competition

4.1.3 Each Entry does not contain personally identifiable information about You or any other person(s)

4.1.4 Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content

4.1.5 Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law

4.1.6 Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, and Your Entry does not include:

4.1.6.1 trademarks owned by third parties

4.1.6.2 copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions)

4.1.6.3 names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead

4.1.7 Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of WPO.

4.1.8 Entries containing screen credits

4.2 You agree to fully indemnify WPO in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.

4.3 You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.

5.1 If You are under 16, You have Your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to participate in the Competition.

5.2 If WPO does not receive a valid signed parental or legal guardian consent form for any winner under the age of 16 within 7 clear days of the contestant being declared a winner (excluding the day on which such declaration is made by WPO) WPO will be entitled to select an alternative winner from among the contestants.

6 WPO may run an online rating process whereby members of the public may vote for a favorite photograph. If there is sufficient evidence (in WPO’s sole discretion) to suggest malpractice and manipulation of the rating process, then WPO has the right to remove the relevant Entry or Entries and, if necessary, award the prize to a different contestant. WPO’s decisions are final.

7. WPO recognizes You, the author of the image, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.

7.1 All entrants understand that any image submitted to the competition may be used by WPO, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of the event only, for a maximum of three years after the awards ceremony on 27th April 2011. You hereby grant WPO a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of the SWPA event and/or competition, including, but not limited too:
(a) judging the Competition
(b) displaying the winning entries and runners up at public exhibitions promoting WPO and organised by WPO
(c) inclusion within the Website, a World Photography Awards book, magazine or similar
(d) inclusion within any materials promoting of the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by WPO, in the promotion of the WPO
(e) inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by the WPO or any third party following the individual agreement by the author
(f) sub-licencing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition
(g) allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.

8. Any photograph used by WPO shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as WPO uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.

9 You acknowledge that it is Your responsibility for protecting any Entry against image misuse by any third party, for example, but not limited to the insertion of a watermark. WPO and its Event Partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse.

10. WPO assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and WPO assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. WPO assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. WPO is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to WPO on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, WPO assumes no responsibility.

11. In no event will WPO, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.

12. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.

13. All entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in media and an exhibition should the image be required.

14. There are no cash alternatives available for prize winners.

15. Winners will be announced online.