Classic behind the scenes shot wins Event Photography Awards

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Event Photography Awards 2024 honoured some of the best event images of the year at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) headquarters, 66 Portland Place, on Wednesday 5 June.

Some 250 guests perused an extensive gallery of more than 130 short-listed shots while enjoying catering by Company of Cooks. The not-for-profit competition has 20 categories and attracted 2,500 images. It was founded in 2014 by Philip Atkins, CEO of Off To Work, to highlight the importance of great photography to the sustenance of the events industry.

The prestigious Overall Winner trophy and a cheque for £1,000 was won by Netherlands-based photographer, Benjamin Arthur, whose stylish and classic ‘Behind The Scenes’ category winner proved popular among the panel of judges.

Entitled ‘Set-up Symmetry’, the image highlights the attention to detail required for successful events and pride staff take in delivering them. It was captured at the Felix Meritis venue in Amsterdam just prior to a pre-conference dinner for the European Society of Cardiology.

Set-up Symmetry - Benjamin Arthur

Painted Hall in Greenwich - Cath Dupuy.

Barry Rooms at The National Gallery - James Everett

Penny Father Christmas - Paul Nicholls

The Painted Hall in Greenwich was the venue for the Overall Runner-up shot, captured by last year’s Best Amateur award-winner, Cath Dupuy. The space regularly features in the Venues category of the competition, but this time it won through in Cultural Events, as the image captures Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' installation – both directly and reflected onto a glass table that sits in the venue’s Upper Hall.

This year’s winner of the Venues category showed the set up for a dinner in the Barry Rooms at The National Gallery, captured by James Everett. The image was also one of the two Overall Highly-Commended entries, alongside Gloucestershire-based photographer Paul Nicholls’ pleasing image ‘Penny Father Christmas’, which won the Seasonal Events category.

The coveted Best Portfolio award was won by Alistair Veryard, who also won the Brand Activation & Experiential Events trophy with his all-action wrestling shot ‘Catapult’, captured at a Domino’s product launch for the Ultimate Chicken Mexican pizza. The year’s Best Amateur was gig specialist, Andrew Pountney, who also won the new Music Events – Audience category with his shot of a manic crowd surfer ‘Luvvin it’!

The popular Royal Occasions category threw up a surprise when Jack Boskett and Chris Jackson were declared joint winners. The competition’s SurveyLegend judging system is used empirically, so perfectly level scores can occur – as they also did with the 2022 Weddings category.

Competition founder, Philip Atkins, CEO of event staffing agency Off to Work, commented: “Photography does so much to amplify, justify and sustain the events industry, so it’s heartening that the competition has not only reached its 10th anniversary, but is also now attracting so many entries, some 2,500 this year, as investment in quality photography is given increasing importance. The competition was the toughest ever and the images entered encapsulated the impact, both societal and commercial, of a durable and effervescent events sector.”

Competition and event director Graham Hill added: “We owe huge debts of gratitude to our sponsors and event partners for making the competition and awards event possible. Also, to our array of industry leading judges, who had over 500 photos to review. The competition has been a great success, and we are very excited about marking the 10th Anniversary with the Best Ever EPA competition in the autumn which will see mass online judging across the events industry - through trade media, associations and sponsors - of award-winning images from the past decade.”

Louis at Trooping The Colour - Chris Jackson

Princess Royal through Doddie Tartan - Jack Boskett