1. The Imbayah International Photography Awards (IIPA) 2023 competition is open to all Filipino and foreign students, amateur and professionals visiting Banaue, Ifugao from April 15, 2023 to November 30, 2023. There is no registration fee required to enter the competition.
2. Photographers must submit an all original and unpublished photo essay with minimum of three (3) and a maximum of five (5) photos. A participant can only submit one (1) photo essay as an entry. By joining the Competition, the participants agree and accept the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy of Imbayah International Photography Awards.
3. Photo series must all be taken within Banaue, Ifugao from April 15, 2023 – November 30, 2023 with the theme "Find Yourself In Banaue". Entries must capture the essence of Banaue as a living cultural site and home of the world-heritage rice terraces.
4. Images with 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 aspect ratio from conventional digital cameras, action or drone cameras, and high-resolution smart phones or combination maybe submitted to the competition. All entries must be in sRGB color profile with EXIF data intact. Post processing is allowed but limited to global adjustments only. Image editing, compositing or image manipulation including "text-to-image" or ArtificiaI Intelligence generated photos are prohibited.
5. Submission of entries will start in April 30, 2023 at 11:59 PM PHT and will end by November 30, 2023, at 11:59 PM PHT via Imbayah International Photography Awards website www.imbayah.org. Images should be JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) format without watermarks and borders; no smaller than 1MB and no larger than 5MB in file size each. A duly accomplished model release and waiver are required for each photo entry that involved persons, talents or actors with recognizable face or likeness.
6. A technical working group will be formed to review and screen the Entries for technical qualities and compliance to the Competition Rules. Photo essay will be judged as a body of work with the following criteria:
Creativity and Visual Impact (33.3%)
Story Telling (33.3%)
Relevance to the theme (30.3%)
Shortlisted photo series must be able to supply a high-resolution image (300 dpi) suitable for printing publication. In the event of dispute, photographer must be able to present untampered RAW file of the photo in question showing the camera information, date and GPS location.
7. Competition jury is composed of professional photographers, creative artists, representatives from Banaue LGU, related national or local agencies and co-presenters. Judge’s decisions are final and unappealable.
8. Ten photographers will be shortlisted as finalists and will be announced online on March 31, 2024. From these, Top Three (3) entries will be selected as IIPA 2023 Competition winners to receive cash prizes as follows:
- Grand Prize - $1000 USD
- 1st Runner Up - $500 USD
- 2nd Runner Up - $300 USD
Philippine residents’ winners will receive cash prize in the local currency with fixed rate 1 $ US = 55 Philippine Peso. For overseas winners, cash prizes may be subject to minimal finance/ transaction fees.
Finalists will be notified via email and will receive digital certificates from the competition.
9. The Imbayah International Photography Awards recognize the photographer as the "Artist" and retains full ownership of the copyright of each Entry. All participants understand that any image submitted to the Competition grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable license for the Municipality of Banaue and its event partners for marketing, promotional, publication and exhibition purposes featuring the IIPA (Competition), the photographer (Artist), Imbayah (Event) and Banaue Tourism (Destination) for a period not longer than 36 months from the time of announcement of winners. Any images from the submitted entries that will be used by Imbayah International Photography Awards; Banaue Tourism shall carry a credit line bearing the photographer’s name.
10. The Imbayah International Photography Awards reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements:
• Each entry does not infringe copyrights, trademarks, or violate any person’s rights to privacy
• Each entry does not contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other
than that of Banaue culture, people, heritage, and landscapes.
• Each entry does not contain or depict false, misleading, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory,
obscene, pornographic, or profane content.
• Each entry does not contain any material that could constitute criminal offense or harm to humans
or animals including wildlife, properties and landscapes.
Competition Rules Version 1.4 - Last updated: March 8, 2024.
