Competitions · Research and innovation · RMSP Photo Contest
The RMSP High School Photo Contest has been discontinued.
The Rocky Mountain School of Photography stopped running its high-school contest after 2023. Anything you read inviting entries for a later year is out of date - and even while it ran, it was open only to students resident in the United States or Canada.
Current status
Two reasons this is not a route you can take.
Both are worth knowing, because the second one applied even before the contest closed.
Discontinued from 2024
The organiser’s own material carries the notice. Any page still announcing an opening date for a later year is describing something that will not happen.
And it was never open from China
Eligibility was high-school students aged 14 to 18 resident in the United States or Canada. Home-schooled, privately educated and temporarily out-of-school students qualified - students at schools in China did not.
The published dates were already muddled
The source gives the deadline as 1 January, an entry-revision window running to 28 April, and judging beginning on 1 March. Those cannot all be right, which is another reason not to plan from them.
There are alternatives
Photography and visual arts competitions open to students in China exist, and an advisor can point you at the ones that fit a portfolio.
For the record
What the contest was.
Kept here for anyone researching it - a student who entered before 2024, or a family who has read about it elsewhere and wants to know what it was.
- Organiser
- The Rocky Mountain School of Photography, an independent family-run trade school teaching photography through intensive in-person training
- Status
- Discontinued from 2024
- Who could enter
- High-school students aged 14 to 18 resident in the United States or Canada
- Categories
- Four - People, Nature, Miscellaneous and Smartphone
- Entries
- A student could enter one category or all four
- Revisions
- Submissions could be changed at any point before the contest closed
- Judging
- Around 400 images were selected from tens of thousands, then four guest judges - one per category - chose the category winners, with a grand prize awarded from those four
- Honourable mention
- The top 100 in each category
- Copyright
- Retained by the entrant. Images were held only for judging, though the top 100 might appear in the organiser’s own promotion
- Prizes
- Camera bodies and lenses including a Canon R6 Mark II with a 24-105mm f/4L IS, a Sony A7C with a 28-60mm, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens and a Profoto A10 flash, plus a fine-art printing credit for every winner
What it did well
Worth remembering, because good competitions borrow from it.
If you are choosing a photography competition now, these are the features to look for elsewhere.
Judged by working photographers
Each category was judged by a professional who actually worked in it - a wildlife and documentary photographer for nature, a portrait and commercial photographer for people, a lifestyle and editorial photographer for the open category, a travel and mobile specialist for smartphone.
A smartphone category, treated seriously
A student without a camera could compete on equal terms. Very few photography competitions do this, and it is the first thing to check when choosing one.
Entries could be revised
A student could replace a submission with a better photograph right up to the close. That turns a deadline into a season of shooting rather than a single decision.
And entrants kept their copyright
The organiser was explicit that entrants retained copyright and that images were used only for judging. This is the term to read most carefully in any competition you enter instead.
Talk to an advisor
Hanlin does not coach RMSP Photo Contest. Ask what it does coach.
The services below are real, but not for this competition. An advisor will say plainly whether there is a route here and what is worth entering instead.
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Briefly answered.
What people ask when they find this contest.
Is the RMSP High School Photo Contest still running?
No. It has been discontinued from 2024. Pages announcing an opening date for a later year are out of date.
Could a student in China have entered it?
No. Eligibility was restricted to high-school students aged 14 to 18 resident in the United States or Canada, so it was closed to students at schools in China even while it ran.
What was it?
An annual photography contest for high-school students run by the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, with four categories - People, Nature, Miscellaneous and Smartphone - judged by working professional photographers.
What should I enter instead?
The MILSET STEAM Photo Contest is open to students in grades 7 to 12 worldwide, including in China, and judges photographs on how well they communicate a scientific phenomenon. It is the closest live equivalent to what RMSP offered.
What should I check before entering any photography competition?
Whether you keep your copyright, whether the organiser can use your images beyond judging, whether there is a category for phone photography, and whether students at your school are eligible at all. The last one is easy to assume and expensive to get wrong.
Related
Where to look instead.
Competitions that are currently running.
Photography competition enquiries
Tell us what they shoot and we will find something open.
This contest has closed, and it was restricted to the United States and Canada in any case. The MILSET STEAM Photo Contest is open to students in China and judges photographs on the science in them - it is the closest live equivalent. Tell us what the student photographs and an advisor will map an entry.