The Nippon Camera Photo Contest has a long history as a part of Nippon Camera magazine, which was launched in 1950 and has been published monthly since 1951. A prominent photographer judges the contest entries submitted during the year, and selects winning photos in various categories for publication each month. At the end of the year, annual prizes are awarded based on point scores (in the Beginner category there is a Best Photo Prize).

There are five contest categories: Monochrome Print, Color Print, Beginner, Web, and Student. There are so many entries in the various categories that prizes for Monochrome Print and Color Print cannot be obtained without winning in the annual average of the scores. The quality of the prizewinning photos is therefore very high, and represents the finest work by amateur photographers in Japan.

The 2019 contest drew 56,000 entries which were reviewed by five judges: Masato Seto (Monochrome Print), Shinpei Asai (Color Print), Takehiko Sato (Beginner), Mariko Yamamoto (Web), and Yuki Mizota (Student).

This exhibition presents the outstanding photos from each category. They are the original photographs that were submitted by mail, and in the case of web submissions, silver salt prints made by Shashinkosha.

Editorial Department of Nippon Camera

[Above photos (from left)]

“Remote Past”

Color Print CategoryFebruary issue Gold PrizeToshiko Hasegawa (Tottori)

“Living Alone”

Color Print CategoryApril issue Gold PrizeNobuo Miyake (Hirakata)

“Couple”

Monochrome Print CategoryJune issue Gold Prize / Annual Best Picture AwardHiroshi Hosokawa (Toyama)