The AOP Students Awards were launched in 1981 to recognise and highlight the emerging photographic talent existing in colleges and universities across the UK. Nearly thirty years later the competition has gone from strength to strength and is now regarded as one of the leading photographic awards programmes for students around the UK and Overseas, attracting over 3,500 entries every year.



The AOP Students Awards play an important part in the photographic calendar and entering the competition is essential for anyone studying photography. Being selected is regarded by many as the first step on the career ladder as a photographer: previous winners of the AOP Students Awards have gone on to win both the AOP Assistants Awards and also the AOP Photographers Awards.



There is no brief, just four categories, - Lifestyle & Portraiture; Fashion & Beauty; Landscape, Interiors & Exteriors and Still Life. We want students who enter the competition to consider what they are submitting, to think about what they want to do and to execute it in a professional way. We would like students to challenge themselves, to push themselves that bit further and to put their creative flair and technical ability to use as best they can.



This book showcases the standard of photography currently being produced at photographic colleges around the UK and Overseas. We are very proud of the AOP Students Awards and hope you enjoy these examples of what the photographers of tomorrow are doing today.