This year\u2019s competition will be judged by a star-studded panel spanning music, photography and film, led by photographers Rankin and Platon alongside Nile Rodgers, Raye and M\u00e5neskin frontman Damiano David.<\/p>\n
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Since launching in 2022, the MPAs have grown into one of the industry\u2019s most visible platforms for emerging music photographers.<\/p>\n
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The Sex Pistols live at Cain’s Ballroom, 1978 (Image credit: Roberta Bayley (courtesy of Abbey Road Music Photography Awards))<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something incredibly powerful about music photography,\u201d said Abbey Road managing director, Sally Davies. \u201cThose images stay with us and often become part of how we remember music itself.<\/p>\n “For me, the Music Photography Accelerator is about making sure we\u2019re giving equal recognition to the creatives behind the lens.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2026 awards include categories covering live music, portraiture, festivals, behind-the-scenes photography and underground music scenes, alongside a guest category celebrating 50 Years of Punk.<\/p>\n Images entered into the open categories must have been taken during 2025, while the punk category is open to photographs from any year.<\/p>\n Winners will be revealed during the official ceremony at Abbey Road Studios in September, with shortlisted photographers also gaining exposure through exhibitions, workshops and networking opportunities thanks to the Accelerator Programme.<\/p>\n \n Blondie singer Debbie Harry (left) and photographer Roberta Bayley (right) in 1980 (Image credit: Roberta Bayley (courtesy of Abbey Road Music Photography Awards))<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Icon Award will be presented to Roberta Bayley<\/a>, whose photographs helped define the visual identity of New York\u2019s punk movement during the 1970s. Bayley, known for documenting artists including Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Ramones, said she was \u201cvery honored\u201d to receive the recognition.<\/p>\n Alongside the awards, Abbey Road will also launch its first Music Photography Festival in New York later this month, featuring exhibitions, workshops and portfolio reviews designed to support photographers working across music culture.<\/p>\n Entries for the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards 2026 are now open, with photographers from around the world invited to submit images across eight open categories. For more information and to enter, visit the official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n You might also like\u2026<\/p>\n Take a look at the best cameras for music videos<\/a> and check out these tips to photograph live music<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abbey Road Studios has opened entries for the 2026 Abbey Road Music Photography Awards (MPAs), marking the fifth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-591487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FMfCNr5XQ8NURH9VcwDM27.webp\")
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