European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 is now open for entries!

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 : The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) is looking for the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 and invites professional and non-professional photographers from all over Europe to join this year‘s competition.

➜ Short description

The German Society for Nature Photography invites all amateur and professional photographers from all over Europe to take part in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 competition.

The European Wildlife Photographer of the Year celebrates a milestone this year: 25 years of showcasing the diversity, innovation, and emotional power of contemporary nature photography.

The competition aims to illustrate the high quality and specific style of European wildlife photography through excellent pictures from Europe and all over the world. It also seeks to promote awareness for nature conservation through the means of photography.

There are 11 categories:

➜ Birds
➜ Mammals
➜ Other Animals
➜ Plants & Fungi
➜ Landscape
➜ The Underwater World
➜ Man and Nature
➜ Nature‘s Studio
➜ Young Photographers
➜ Rewilding Europe Award
➜ Fritz Pölking Prize and Fritz Pölking Junior Prize – story and portfolio

The winning images will go on tour as part of an exhibition following the awards ceremony at the International Nature Photography Festival (October 24–26) and will be showcased across Germany and Europe for three years.

➜ Submission requirements:

➜ Image size – longest side 1920 pixels (may be moderately sharpened)
➜ High resolution files – must be suitable for large format printing (e.g. 70 x 100 cm) and must have Adobe RGB or sRGB colour space. Do not interpolate data. Please sharpen only moderately.

➜ Who may enter?

The competition is open to photographers living in Europe.

➜ Prize:

➜ European Wildlife Photographer of the Year – 3,000€
➜ Fritz Pölking Prize – 2,000€
➜ Fritz Pölking Junior Prize – 1,500€ and merchandise voucher worth 500€
➜ Rewilding Europe Award – 1,000€
➜ Winners of categories 1-8: 1st place – 800€; 2nd place – 500€
➜ Young Photographers category: 1st place – 200€; 2nd place – 100€

The winning images will go on tour as part of an exhibition following the awards ceremony at the International Nature Photography Festival (October 24–26) and will be showcased across Germany and Europe for three years.

➜ Entry fees:

The entry fee is 35€. For the Young photographers category entry is free.