The British Press Photographers’ Association has opened its annual exhibition, Assignments 2023 – The BPPA Exhibition, on London’s South Bank.

The event shows a curated selection of the top 100 photographs from BPPA members, providing an insight into the current state of press photography.

Five industry figures were selected as curators this year: photojournalist Phil Coburn, Talar Kalajian from Agence France-Presse, The Telegraph‘s Matthew Fearn, photojournalist Alan Crowhurst, and Freddie Sloan of Hello magazine.

They have put together a collection of images that capture stories from July 2021 to spring 2023, covering a wide range of subjects, from sports and entertainment to politics and protests, as well as portraits of royals, celebrities, and depictions of global events.

The BPPA, founded in the mid-1980s, says its mission is to uphold the highest ethical, technical, and creative standards within the industry, and that Assignments 2023 – The BPPA Exhibition reflects this continuing commitment.

The exhibition, which began on May 19, runs until Sunday.

Updated: May 23, 2023, 12:00 PM

Photographer James Hand snaps a photo in Thornton Park on Sunday, May 14, 2023. (VICTOR TAN)

Film photography is here to stay; in fact, the visual arts medium is thriving and has a resounding presence in the Central Florida area. It has, however, faced its fair share of trials. Whether it’s with the advent of digital photography via a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) or a smartphone, or equipment prices dramatically increasing over recent decades, film photography has oftentimes been pushed to the wayside.

Thanks to local shops, labs and photographers, though, a local movement is keeping the art form alive.

Colonial Photo & Hobby General Manager Jacob Rausch said that over the last several years, he has seen film-photography sales doubled year over year. (VICTOR TAN)

Jacob Rausch is the general manager at Colonial Photo & Hobby, one of the few bastions for film-photography enthusiasts in Orlando. When he first started as a seasonal employee in 2003, he noticed the popularity of film photography was waning. In 2023, he has seen film-photography sales double each year for the last few years.

“It’s hard to say for sure what really is motivating [increased sales],” Rausch said. “I think, largely, it’s that film photography, in general, gives you a more limited set of pictures to work with, right? So, you have to stop and think about what you’re doing with each shot in a world where either your phone or even your digital camera creates a situation where you can kinda just take as many pictures as you want. It actually gives you something that you get a little bit more of a sense of worth out of it.”

For Hector Soto Molina, who works at Colonial Photo & Hobby in the film department, Orlando and its galleries can enhance the film-photography community by taking more risks.

“We got a lot of places that are sponsored by Orlando, so they’re limited on what they’re allowed to show,” Molina said. “… I think we do need more independent art galleries. Like, show a little bit more international, local — just a whole mixture … They need a fire [lit under them].”

That fire could be coming in the form of a new generation of film photographers who are starting the hobby at a time when film photography is undergoing its own renaissance. Photographer James Hand is encouraged by seeing new photographers opt for the more mechanical approach, as they carry the proverbial film-photography torch.

For Hand, who was born and raised in Orlando, the Central Florida photography scene is different from other cities. There’s a community that has served as a foundation for some of his friendships.

“I think Orlando is definitely growing, and everyone kinda supports each other, which is good because I think a lot of other cities may not be as supportive of other people’s work,” Hand said. “I have friends that I’ve known for six years or so that I wouldn’t have known them without dropping off my film [at Colonial Photo & Hobby] or just happened to run into them when we both had cameras.”

The much-anticipated second and final phase of the V&A Photography Centre in London will open its doors on 25 May 2023, becoming the largest space in the UK to house a permanent photography collection. 

Phase One of the museum’s Photography Centre was unveiled in 2018, with three galleries designed by David Kohn. This month sees the completion of the centre with an additional four galleries, designed by Purcell, and Gibson Thornley Architects. Two of the new rooms will be dedicated to global contemporary photography and commissions in rotating displays, while another space will focus on photography and the book, and a further, interactive gallery will explore the history of photography and the camera, spotlighting various approaches to process and presentation. 

The opening displays will include recent acquisitions shown at the museum for the first time, among them works by Liz Johnson Artur, Sammy Baloji, Vera Lutter, Tarrah Krajnak and Vasantha Yogananthan, as well as a monumental photographic sculpture by Noémie Goudal. Highlights include Jo Spence’s seductive, snake-like Hoover, Vinca Petersen’s flaming Riot Girl (1998), Hoda Afshar’s extraordinary landscapes, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s ever-intriguing explorations of the relationship between subject and camera. 

Two major new commissions will also be unveiled, with a photographic series by Indian artist Gauri Gill, and work by British media artist Jake Elwes, the first in a series of commissions supported by the Manitou Fund. The first themed exhibition ‘Energy: Sparks from the Collection’, explores how all photographs require some form of energy to exist, and a smaller display, ‘How Not to Photograph a Bulldog’, features dog photography manuals from the Royal Photographic Society Library. 

The V&A’s relationship with photography dates back to the 1850s, when early pioneers in the medium were shown. Since then, it has amassed one of the largest and most varied collections in the world, holdings which will now be on public view within the completed centre. ‘Photography lies at the heart of the V&A. The museum has collected photography since 1852 and continues to acquire the best of contemporary practice,’ commented Marta Weiss, V&A senior curator of photography and lead curator of Phase Two of the Photography Centre. ‘As photography plays an ever-increasing role in all our lives, the expanded Photography Centre will be more relevant than ever. We look forward to welcoming visitors to explore the medium’s diverse histories and enjoy our world-leading collection.’

The completed V&A Photography Centre will be open to the public from 25 May 2023. vam.ac.uk

The last 12 months were again difficult for the camera industry as it contended with the various fallout effects of the Covid-19 pandemic – particularly parts and staff shortages that resulted in serious supply chain issues for most manufacturers. In many ways then, the winners in this year’s TIPA World Awards – especially those who collected multiple accolades – are an indication of who coped best with the circumstances and were still able to come up with worthy products.

As we’ve noted on a number of occasions recently, the supply chain issues saw a shift more towards higher-end cameras which are not only important flag bearers for a brand, but also deliver greater profits. The list of heavy-hitter mirrorless cameras that arrived during the period of eligibility for this year’s TIPA World Awards is a long one – Canon EOS R7 and EOS R6 Mark II, Fujifilm X-H2 and X-H2S, plus the X-T5, Sony A7R V and Panasonic Lumix S5II. It wasn’t until Canon unveiled the EOS R50 and EOS R8 in early February that we saw a return to more affordability. 

Of course, over the last few years there has been a conscious shift in the market to higher value cameras as a way of offering more compelling alternatives to the ever more photographically-capable smartphone. Whether this is an effective strategy remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely we will ever see truly budget-priced digital cameras again, especially fixed-lens compacts (with the exception of the few ruggedised ‘tough’ models which continue to sell well). However, there’s still a need for a cohesive and convincing advertising campaign to sell the many virtues of a ‘real’ camera compared to a smartphone, which is perhaps something that TIPA, with its global membership, could consider initiating.

Whatever the issues, we were still treated to a veritable smorgasbord of lenses throughout the period of eligibility, again presenting a challenge to TIPA’s Technical Committee – of which the editor of Australian Camera magazine is a member – when it came to narrowing down a very long list of appealing candidates to those most likely to win an award. Tellingly, there is a total of 11 lens categories in this year’s Awards, an indication of how the mirrorless camera market is rapidly maturing with expanding lens systems that are increasingly including many more specialist optics (macros, supertelephotos, etc.), as well as upgrades of earlier models that deliver further improvements to performance and capabilities.

Traditionally, the TIPA World Awards has always comprised 40 categories, but this year it was initially felt that this should be pared down partially to serve as a sign of the times, but also to avoid simply ticking boxes because we thought had to. However, as Technical Committee discussions and debates continued, we soon found ourselves back at 40 categories which, if nothing else, is an encouraging sign that market recovery is well under way. As always, the Awards categories are tweaked and tuned to reflect the changes happening in the industry and so, this year, there are some brand new 14 entries while other category titles have been changed to adopt the usage of new terms and descriptors… particularly in the video world where, for example, “vlogging” and being a “content creator” are now common things. However, the core categories for cameras, lenses, monitors, imaging software and lighting are constants.

For the first time in three years, the TIPA members were able to meet in person for the judging, which took place in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Due to a family matter, Australian Camera magazine editor Paul Burrows was unable to attend, which was a real pity because beyond the to-and-fro of the voting sessions, the interaction with the editors of photo magazines from all around the world is always stimulating and educational.

The period of eligibility for the 2023 awards was from 1 May, 2022 to 30 April, 2023 with the key provisos that everything has to be available to buy in most markets by the closing date, and have been tested by one or more member magazines. In terms of the latter, TIPA partners with the French engineering company DXOMark Image Labs for the testing of cameras, lenses and smartphones. This provides us with comprehensive and, most importantly, fully independent evaluations of a product’s performance in many areas. Of course, we also have our own in-house product testing – as do many of the TIPA member magazines – to further guide us in the process of selecting worthy Award winners.

Our top 40 this year is pretty star-studded with some predictable winners – the products that were clearly something special the moment they came out of the box – and some less so, but all have the potential to enhance, extend or increase the enjoyment of what we love doing – photography.

2023 TIPA World Awards Winners

Best APS-C Entry-Level Camera – Canon EOS R50

Best APS-C Expert Camera – Fujifilm X-T5

Best APS-C Professional Camera – Fujifilm X-H2S

Best APS-C Vlogging Camera – Nikon Z 30

Best Full Frame Advanced Camera – Canon EOS R8

Best Full Frame Expert Camera – Panasonic Lumix S5II

Best Full Frame Professional Camera – Sony Alpha 7R V

Best Professional Content Creator Camera – Sony ZV-E1

Best Professional Video Camera – Canon XA70/XA75 Professional

Best Wide-Angle Prime Lens – Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG DN Art

Best Standard Prime Lens – Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 GM

Best Telephoto Prime Lens – Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM

Best Supertelephoto Prime Lens – Nikkor Z 600mm f/4.0 TC VR S

Best Portrait Lens – Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S

Best Macro Lens – AstrHori 28mm f/13 2X Macro Probe

Best Wide-Angle Zoom Lens – Sigma 16-28mm f/2.8 Contemporary

Best Standard Zoom Lens – Sony FE 20-70mm f/4.0 G

Best Telephoto Zoom Lens – Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VXD

Best Superzoom Lens – Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports

Best Content Creator Lens – Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD

Best Drone – DJI Mini 3 Pro

Best Storage Media – Lexar Professional CFexpress Type B Diamond Series

Best Enthusiast Imaging Software – Skylum Luminar NEO

Best Professional Imaging Software – DXO Photolab 6

Best Professional Photo Monitor – Viewsonic ColorPro 27-inch 4K HDR

Best Professional Video Monitor – Dell UltraSharp 34-inch Curved (U3423WE)

Best Video Accessory – Zhiyun Weebill 3 Gimbal

Best Professional Portable Flash – Elinchrom FIVE

Best Professional LED Light – Godox Bi-color LED Light MG1200Bi

Best Photo Service – CEWE Photobook 100% Recycled Digital Printing Paper

Best Photo Paper – Hahnemühle Photo Rag 188 LayFlat

Best Photo Cards – Hahnemühle FineArt Photo Cards

Best Frame Design – WhiteWall Design Edition by Studio Besau-Marguerre

Best Photo Lab – WhiteWall 3D Wall Art Configurator

Best Design & Technology – fotobuch.de | ColorScience Workflow | Fomanu AG

Best Consumer AI App – Picsart Photo Editor AI

Best Professional AI App – Neurapix

Best Photo Smartphone – Huawei P60 Pro

Best Workflow Provenance Concept – Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI)

Best Photo Event – PHOTOPIA Hamburg

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