Wakefield Civic Society, with support from Wakefield Camera Club invites you to submit entries for our free-to-enter 2025 Architectural Photography Competition.
The Wakefield has a wealth of architectural treasures – from medieval to modern – but we don’t always make enough of what we have. As a Civic Society, architecture and built heritage are subjects that are close to our hearts and we want to share our passion for the subject with a wider audience. You can help us to do that by entering our new competition to celebrate the best of Wakefield’s architecture.
There are cash prizes and your photo(s) could feature in a digital exhibition at Wakefield Exchange to take place during Heritage Open Days which this year runs from 12th to 21st September 2025.
Wakefield Civic Society is a registered charity (No 236034) and, as such, we have an ‘area of benefit’ (see map here). We are asking for photographic entries from across this area of benefit, which is basically the City Centre and surrounding villages (but not the other towns in the district, some of which have their own Civic Societies).
We want to you to capture the full diversity of Wakefield’s architecture, be it Medieval or Modern, Georgian, Victorian, Art Deco or Brutalist, be it beautiful, quirky or…just interesting.
You may choose to enter with a photograph of a particular detail of a building, one complete structure, or a whole street or area. We’re looking for a wide variety of entries to showcase the full range of Wakefield’s architectural forms. We know that people like old buildings, but we want to get people thinking about which buildings might become the cherished heritage of the future, so we’re encouraging you to take photos of including new buildings as well as buildings that have been around for a while.
Categories
While we welcome (and, indeed, expect) photos of certain key buildings such as the Town Hall, County Hall, and Cathedral, we want to encourage you to explore other aspects of Wakefield’s built environment. We are therefore inviting entries across three distinct architectural categories:
- Wakefield City Centre
- Architecture of the Suburbs (ie, buildings outside the city centre)
- Rural (out in the countryside – residential, villages, farm buildings and so on)
You can, of course, submit entries across all three categories – but there is a limit of one photo per category per entrant – so a maximum of three photographs per person.
Prizes
Judging will be undertaken by a panel of judges appointed by Wakefield Civic Society. Prizes of £100 will be awarded for each of the photos selected by the judges in the three categories considered across three age groups (so nine prizes in total):
- Adults – aged 26 and above
- Young Adults – ages 18 – 25
- Under 18s (entries must be submitted via a parent, guardian or teacher)
In addition, from the nine prize winners, we will select one overall competition winner – the best overall photographic entry without regard to category or age – and the winner will be presented with a cash prize of £250.
All suitable entries will be displayed digitally at a rolling exhibition to be projected at Wakefield Exchange during Heritage Open Days 2025, running from Friday 12th to Sunday 21st September.
Projection will be via a digital projector onto the walls of Wakefield Exchange with images displayed in landscape (using a widescreen 16:9 ratio – with a display resolution of 1920 pixels wide x 1080 pixels high). Photos that are submitted in portrait format will still be subject to this landscape projection ratio.
Anyone over the age of 18 who submits an entry, and who is not already a member of the Society, will be offered free associate membership of the Society from September 2025 to December 2026. In January 2027, entrants will be given the option of joining the Society as a full member in exchange for an annual subscription (currently £15 a year/£12 concession) or allowing the membership to lapse. (For entrants under age 18, a parent or guardian can take up the offer of membership.)
Results Event
Prize winners will be announced at a special event being hosted by Wakefield Civic Society at Wakefield Exchange on Thursday evening, 18th September, starting at 7pm. More information about this event will be available nearer the date.
Please note that we will be taking photographs at this event, particularly of those who are presented with prizes. Photographs taken at the event may be used by the Society on-line (on our website and social media) and in our publications and presentations. We will also use photographs taken at the event in press releases to be sent to the press and other media outlets. By entering the competition, you agree to us taking photographs and their being used for the purposes described.
Copyright
As well as promoting Wakefield’s architectural beauty, the Society also wants to use the competition to promote the work of the Society and to attract new members.
All entrants will retain the copyright of their images and will be free to use the images in future. However, by entering the competition, you will give Wakefield Civic Society copyright permission to use your images without the expectation of any payment or reward however we use the images – be it on-line, in presentations, in print and/or in publications produced by the Society. We will, of course, always acknowledge the photographer in any such use.
Judging
Judging will be performed by a panel made up from members of Wakefield Civic Society and Wakefield Camera Club, together with guest judges from outside the membership of either organization. Judges will award marks based on architectural content, technical merit and visual impact. Judges will not know who has submitted the entries at the time of judging.
The decision of the judges will be final and no further correspondence will be entered into.
Closing date for entries
The closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday, 29th August 2025. Entries submitted after this date will not be considered.
How to enter
Please complete a GoogleForm for your entry by following this link: WCS Photography Competition Entry and then following the instructions for how to submit your photo(s).
Entries are by digital files only, in jpg/jpeg format, with a maximum file size of 4Mb. We recommend that files are a minimum of 1Mb to ensure that they are of high enough resolution to be capable of clear projection.
Any questions about the competition should be addressed to bendavison@wakefieldcivicsociety.org.uk
DEFINITIONS / RULES / GUIDANCE /
Definitions
In the following “WCS” is Wakefield Civic Society, “WCC” is Wakefield Camera Club and “Entrant” refers to anyone submitting photographs as part of the “competition” being The WCS Architectural Photography Competition. Entries being the photographs entered into the competition.
This guide provides the rules that Entrants must follow when entering the Competition and the information needed to submit competition entries.
Judging & Scoring
All photographs entered should be taken within the area of benefit of WCS, a map of which is shown below (and can be viewed on our website here). The area of benefit is broadly the area covered Wakefield City and the surrounding areas and is shown in grey on the map.
Entrants must identify the location of the building(s) featured in each photograph by providing an address, including post code, or other detailed explanation of the location.
Entrants submitting work for the Under 18s category should provide their date of birth.
Please state which category (or categories) your photographs are being submitted for.
WCS will exclude any entries considered by us not to meet the published criteria or to not be suitable or appropriate for consideration or exhibition.
The competition will be Judged across a selection of criteria which take into account both the artistic merit of the photograph and the interest of the architectural subject.
Judges will be made up of a panel representing both WCS and WCC and other organisations and individuals of the Society’s choosing. Judging will be done with judges having no knowledge of the identity of the Entrant other than the age group and category for which the work has been submitted.
In taking your photograph(s), you should not trespass onto private land or enter private property without the consent of the owner/occupant.
Please avoid capturing recognizable individuals in your photographs. Similarly, please avoid capturing the registration plates of private motor vehicles (alternatively, remove/cover the number plate wherever appropriate to avoid identification of the vehicle’s owner).
Legal Rights
Entrants shall retain the copyright over all images, but in submitting an Entry, you agree to give permission to WCS to publicly exhibit those photographs entered and to the use of those photographs on-line, in presentations and publications as we see fit without the expectation of payment or other reward,
WCS will acknowledge the photographer where photos are used by the Society in future.
Entries
All images submitted to competitions must have been photographed by the entrant and should not have been published elsewhere. Images generated using AI are not acceptable.
For a composite image, all the elements that contribute to the construction of the image must have been photographed by the entrant.
All image post-processing and editing must have been carried out by the entrant. The following rules apply in respect of post-processing manipulation (“Photoshopping’).
- No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted.
- Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking, dodging/burning and correcting verticals/horizontals.
- Techniques that remove elements added by the camera, such as dust spots, digital noise, and film scratches, are allowed.
- All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Colour images can be converted to greyscale monochrome.
- Infrared images, either direct captures or derivations, are not allowed.
Manipulation of an entrant’s image by others is not permitted.
Submitting Entries
You should first complete a Googleform – WCS Photography Competition Entry – and then follow the guidance on how to submit your photo(s) at the end of the form completion.
The largest file size that can be uploaded is 4Mb. We recommend a minimum file size of 1Mb.
Where an entry is being submitted on behalf of someone in the under 18 age group, the entry must be submitted by a parent or legal guardian (or teacher where the entry is being submitted via a school) who must provide their contact details.
Download
You can download a pdf file of the text on this page here.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Wakefield Camera Club for the advice and support they have provided to the Society in helping to organise this competition and also Wakefield Council for enabling us to use Wakefield Exchange for our September exhibition and prize event.
Wakefield Camera Club
Find out more about Wakefield Camera Club on their website here.