Entries closed
Results are out
- Closed 11 DEC
- Fee $10/img
- Cats 14
- Prizes $60K
You're viewing a past edition. See Ocean Art 2026 →
Key dates
Final deadline
Results
Jan 2026
Entry fees
| Per photo, per category | $10 |
|---|---|
| Bundle of 11 photos (10 paid, 1 free) | $100 |
| Bundle of 22 photos (20 paid, 2 free) | $200 |
Each category submission is charged separately; an image can be entered in several categories but can place in only one.
Prizes
$60,000approx. total value
- dive trips
- gear
Most official pages cite over $60,000 in prizes (one older page says $55,000). Winners rank the available prizes and are allocated one based on points from all their winning images.
Categories
Wide Angle
Wide-angleMacro
MacroMarine Life Behavior
BehaviourPortrait
PortraitUnderwater Digital Art
OtherBlack & White
Black & whiteCold Water
Cold waterBlackwater
OtherUnderwater Conservation
ConservationNudibranchs
MacroUnderwater Fashion
OtherCompact Wide-Angle
Compact & mobileCompact Macro
Compact & mobileCompact Behavior
Compact & mobile
Who can enter
- Open to
- Open to all
Amateurs, semi-pros and professionals may all enter.
Rules at a glance
- Previously published images
- Allowed
No limit on when images were taken. Judging is blind (no titles or names shown); watermarked images are disqualified.
Your image rights
Standard licenceYou keep all rights. The organiser may use winning images to promote its contests and says it will not sell them or put them in a book.
- Licence
- Contest promotion only
- Duration
- Not specified
- Commercial use by organiser
- No
How "Standard licence" is decided
- Read carefully: the entrant grants an exclusive licence or transfers rights, or the organiser may use entries commercially (sell, license, use in paid products).
- Photographer-friendly: use is limited to promoting the contest, there is no commercial use by the organiser, and credit is promised.
- Standard: everything in between — typically a broad non-exclusive licence for marketing without commercial resale.
This is our plain-language summary, not legal advice. Read the official terms before entering: official rules & terms (opens in a new tab).
Judges
- Tony Wu
- Marty Snyderman
- Mark Strickland
- Ipah Uid Lynn
Research notes
The 2025 announcement page carried over a stale November 2024 deadline; the rules page gives 11 December 2025. Best in Show went to Steven Kovacs. Opening date not stated on the pages found. Direct page fetches were blocked in this research session, so official pages were read through search-engine extracts.
Provenance
Verified · 4 sources
- Ocean Art 2025 Underwater Photo Competition (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
- Ocean Art rules, judges, categories, prizes (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
- 2025 Ocean Art Contest Winners (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
- Ocean Art 2025 announcement (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
All editions
- Ocean Art 2026closes Sun 6 Dec 2026Open
- Ocean Art 2025closed Thu 11 Dec 2025Results out4 judges Results (opens in a new tab)