2021 Sponsors & prizes

An update about pizes & sponsors for the 2021 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition

UPY is not offering any prizes for our winners in the 2021 contest.

We know that winning prizes is a major motivation for entering photographic competitions and we are really proud that UPY has given out so many prizes down the years. In the 2020 contest we awarded 49 different prizes to winning photographers, donated by many of the best brands in diving.

However, nobody needs reminding that 2020 has not been a normal year. Many resorts and liveaboards have been unable to accept guests for months, travel and diving activities have been curtailed and sadly, lots of people have been out of work across our industry. UPY has always been built on community, the community of underwater photographers and the wider diving community. We do not think that this is an appropriate time for photographers to be asking the wider diving industry for prizes for our pictures.

Many of our sponsors have told us that they would be happy to offer prizes, but out of respect for all of them, we prefer to make this call across the board. All the underwater photographers we have spoken to agree with us that this is the correct decision to support our valued diving industry in these times.

We intend to work harder than ever to ensure our winners get the phenomenal international media coverage that UPY is famous for – and this ‘prize’ that money can’t buy remains a valued reward for entering UPY 2021. We expect that we will be able to offer a full roster of prizes again for UPY 2022.

Alex Mustard on behalf of the UPY team.

Additional Notes

The British Waters Living Together category will continue to have cash prizes in 2021, since these were agreed several years ago.

UPY 2021 will have the same entry fees. The entry fee for UPY, is considerably lower than most underwater photography contests, and helps to cover some of the running costs of the contest and display of the winning images.

A-Z list of last year's sponsors