Hyderabad to host IPF-Photographer of the Year awards, Raghu Rai to be chief guest

The nominees were selected through a blind process in which none of the photographers’ names were revealed to the jury.

Hyderabad: The Indian Photo Festival – Photographer of the Year (IPF-POY) Awards will be held in the city on Saturday at the State Art Gallery in Madhapur. Hyderabad is the first Indian city to host these awards, with over 4,000 photographers from 85 different countries sending their entries for the awards.

A month-long showcase, which began on August 19 as part of the ‘Swatantra Bharatha Vajrotsavalu’ (75th anniversary of India’s Independence celebrations), featured the shortlisted 40 nominations across eight categories — photojournalism, documentary, travel and nature, wildlife, street, portrait, wedding, and mobiles. The winners will walk away with prizes worth Rs 25 lakh.

---

The nominees were selected through a blind process in which none of the photographers’ names were revealed to the jury. The event will feature the most sought-after names in the photography industry, including the event’s chief guest, Raghu Rai Chowdhry, widely regarded as the “Father of Indian Photography”, as well as MAUD special chief secretary Arvind Kumar.

Along with Raghu Rai, the jury includes Dominique Hildebrand, a photo editor at ‘National Geographic’, California-based nature and landscape photographer Sapna Reddy, National Geographic photographer Prasenjit Yadav, street photographer and Leica Ambassador Vineet Vohra, portrait and fashion photographer Manoj Jadhav, artist and photographer Photriya Venky and photo blogger Gopal MS.

Apart from the IPF-POY Award, winners in each category will also be announced at the ceremony that begins at 5pm today. However, the exhibition will be on view till September 19.

The IPF began seven years ago as an annual event in Hyderabad, with talks by artists, workshops, masterclasses, portfolio reviews and exhibitions. The 2022 edition will begin mid-November as an on-ground event and prior to that, the IPF was keen to launch the POY award. The POY award was announced in January 2022 and entries came in from more than 85 countries.