NME and Nikon take music photography awards sponsorship into fourth year

Leading music brand NME and camera manufacturer Nikon have announced the launch of the 2013 Music Photography Awards, the competition that champions new talent and seeks out the UK's best music photographers.

Images shot by amateurs are accepted in categories including live, portrait, documentary, festivals and under-18s, while professionals compete for the Photographer of the Year award. As part of the competition, Nikon and NME will also announce the winner of this year's Outstanding Contribution to Music Photography award.

One of last year's category winners, Matt Richardson, recently carried out work experience at NME and has since been signed up as an NME photographer following his win. Winner of the 2011 live category, Andy Ford, saw huge success following the competition, with NME running a photo-led feature on his personal project, "independent state of mind" - a photo essay on the punk scene in the south west of England. Andy is now an NME photographer, shooting features for the music brand, going on the road and recently shooting for NME's coverage of Download festival.

NME editor Mike Williams commented: "Every year NME is proud to launch the NME and Nikon Music Photography Awards. It's an incredibly important competition to us, allowing NME to seek out fresh photography talent and celebrate some of our most iconic shoots from NME's past. The standard of entrants continues to improve every year and provides new blood with a phenomenal platform to showcase their work. The exposure has allowed past winners to go on to achieve brilliant things, including shooting professionally for NME. We're really looking forward to assessing the entrants this year!"

This year's category winners will each receive a Nikon 1 J3 camera kit and will also see their imagery appear in a London exhibition later in the year, alongside NME's Outstanding Contribution to Music Photography winner and the work of the professional photographer category winner, who will walk away with a Nikon D600 digital SLR kit worth over £2,400. Entries will be judged by a specially selected expert panel. Last year's Outstanding Contribution recipient, Roger Sargent, will join this year's judging panel, alongside NME editor Mike Williams and picture editor, Zoe Capstick.

Entrants also have the chance to be voted as the Reader's Choice winner by NME.COM users, and win a Nikon 1 J3, plus £250 of Nikon kit. Voters on NME.COM also have a chance to win a prize, with each voter being automatically entered into a draw to win one of three Nikon COOLPIX S9500 cameras.

NME Creative Media manager Matthew Chalkley, who organised the deal with Nikon, said: "We're really pleased to be working with Nikon again having worked so well together in the past. The traction and enthusiasm for these awards is growing every year and we're excited to be able to offer prizes to voters this year as well as photographers. This campaign offers both amateur and professional photographers a chance to get their work seen by some of the biggest names in music photography, and we're expecting even more great things this year".

All winning amateur entries are also in with a chance of winning the Grand Prix category and receiving £500 of Nikon camera equipment.

A picture gallery on NME.COM will showcase some of the best photography on a co-branded competition microsite - www.nme.com/photoawards2013 - which will be promoted via social media.

Jeremy Gilbert, group marketing manager at Nikon UK Ltd, added: "The partnership with NME has gone from strength to strength over the last few years - we really value the competition as an excellent platform to showcase the work of both undiscovered and established music photographers. It's a great opportunity to inspire people to take pictures and document their experiences, ahead of the festival season - whether you are a keen photographer or music fan".

The competition is open for entries now and voting will take place until mid-September 2013, when the competition closes. The overall winner will be announced in October 2013.