The Royal Photographic Society

Royal Society Publishing is pleased to announce our association with The Royal Photographic Society for our 2024 competition.

As part of the collaboration, category winners will receive a Royal Photographic Society certificate and one-year Royal Photographic Society Membership. Winning entries will also be showcased through the Royal Photographic Society’s networks, bringing science to a wider audience and fostering a deeper appreciation for the natural world.

The Royal Photographic Society is committed to bringing photography to everyone. They provide inspiration, recognition, knowledge to an international community, enabling more than 10,000 likeminded people of all ages and backgrounds to connect over a love of photography. Their vision is a world where everyone is inspired, empowered, and educated in the art and science of photography.

The Royal Photographic Society dates back to 1853 with a long history and heritage in imaging science. The Royal Society and the Royal Photographic Society have a long history of mutual members. Notably, on January 31, 1839, the Royal Society hosted the reading of Henry Talbot’s seminal paper, ‘Some account of The Art Of Photogenic Drawing, or the process by which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the artist’s pencil.’ This event came shortly after Britain’s first photographic exhibition at the Royal Institution on January 25, which also marked the world’s first known exhibition of photographs on paper, showcasing Talbot’s groundbreaking work.

Today the Royal Photographic Society has a dedicated Imaging Science group, a fully peer reviewed Imaging Science Journal, first published in 1920, and Imaging Science Qualifications providing recognition to those specifically in the field of imaging science. The Royal Photographic Society Awards recognise outstanding achievements in the Art, Knowledge and Science of Photography and Moving Image. Within the field of Science, the Progress Medal is the oldest and most prestigious award. It was instituted in 1878 and you can find out previous recipients. There are also Awards for Scientific Imaging, Environmental Responsibility, Technology and Photography Publishing.  

The Royal Photographic Society membership is open to anyone with an interest in photography. Find out more about the Royal Photographic Society and all the ways it can benefit photographers at every level at rps.org.