RPS unveils 2025 award winners

The British-based Royal Photographic Society has announced the recipients of its 2025 Awards, the world’s longest-running and most prestigious honours dedicated to photographic excellence. Now in its 147th year, the RPS Awards celebrate individuals shaping the landscape of still and moving image across art, science, education and photographic culture.

The Society’s highest accolade, The RPS Centenary Medal, is awarded to Susan Derges HonFRPS, recognising her extraordinary contribution to the art of photography. Based in Devon, Derges is celebrated for her experimental, camera-less approach. She uses the landscape, water and natural processes (top image) to create deeply atmospheric and widely collected photographic artworks. Her practice stands as a singular exploration of nature, perception, and photographic possibility.

The RPS Award for Achievement in the Art of Photography goes to Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop, whose work spans fine-art portraiture, fashion and conceptual storytelling. Diop’s internationally exhibited practice, often featuring self-portraiture, blends African histories, identity and visual performance.

Reflecting the scientific foundations of photography, the Progress Medal is presented to astronomer and photographic innovator David Malin FRPS, whose pioneering imaging techniques revealed new celestial detail and helped transform modern astrophotography. The vast “Malin 1” galaxy bears his name.

In the realm of scholarship and curation, Charlotte Cotton receives The RPS Award for Photography Curatorship, Criticism or Research. Through her influential exhibitions and writing – including The Photograph as Contemporary Art, now in its fourth edition and translated into fourteen languages – Cotton has played a defining role in championing photography as a major contemporary art form.

Among the newly appointed Honorary Fellows is British photographer and educator Richard Billingham, celebrated for Ray’s A Laugh, his groundbreaking 1996 study of family, class and poverty that remains one of the most important works of British documentary photography.

In keeping with the RPS’s commitment to recognising the full spectrum of image-making, the 2025 awards span multiple specialisms. Honourees include:

• Tami Aftab – Achievement in the Art of Photography (Under 30)
• Mónica de Miranda – Achievement in the Art of the Moving Image
• Raghu Rai – Editorial or Documentary Photography
• Amak Mahmoodian – Photojournalism
• Anand Varma – Scientific Imaging
• Professor Sabine Süsstrunk – Imaging Science
• Ragnar Guðni Axelsson – Environmental Responsibility
• Vivienne Gamble – Eastlake Medal
• Janice McLaren – Photography Education
• Juliette Buss – Photography with Young People
• 10×10 Photobooks – Photography Publishing
• Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora – Social Impact
• Additional Honorary Fellows: Rhiannon Adam, Martin Oeggerli, Eileen Perrier, Janine Wiedel and Marc Wilson.

Sir Brian Pomeroy CBE ARPS, Chair of the judging panel, said the recipients “reflect the diversity and breadth of the international photographic community,” praising their ability to “make complex issues both relatable and urgent.”

RPS President Simon Hill CPhot HonFRPS added that the Awards highlight “creativity, innovation, technical mastery and a deep commitment to sharing knowledge,” demonstrating photography’s growing importance as both an art form and a way of understanding the world.

Find out more information at rps.org