Ocean Art 2025 Underwater Photo Competition Announced

Los Angeles – October 14, 2025 08:00 AM PST – The Underwater Photography Guide is delighted to announce that it is accepting entries for the 2024 edition of the annual Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition – now in its 14th year!

The Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition remains the world’s most prestigious and respected underwater photography contests, offering over $60,000 in prizes. The competition attracts amateur to pro photographers across the globe. Fourteen categories ensure all photo disciplines and cameras compete fairly, while the 50+ winning images create a portfolio of the best underwater photos of the year.

Ocean Art prizes are provided by some of the world’s top scuba diving resorts, liveaboard dive yachts, and underwater photo gear manufacturers. Grand prizes include a wide range of strobes, lights, and accessories from Marelux, a 7 night liveaboard dive trip for two in Papua New Guinea with Walindi Plantation Resort; an 8 day, 12 dive adventure for two in Raja Ampat with Meridian Adventure; a 10 day dive trip with Mermaid Liveaboards in Raja Ampat or Komodo; an 8 night dive trip in Indonesia aboard the Coralia Liveaboard; an 8 night dive trip to Ambon Indonesia with Spice Island Divers; an Indonesian Dive Cruise for one + 50% off a companion aboard the SMY Ondina; an Ikelite DS 232 Strobe with a modeling light; and a variety of gift certificates from Bluewater Photo and Bluewater Travel. Premium travel prizes are provided by El Galleon/Asia Divers (Philippines), Atmosphere Resorts & Spa (Dumaguete, Philippines), Mexico Liveaboards (Sea of Cortez and Socorro, Mexico), Avalon Outdoor Cuban Diving (Cuba), Sea Saba (Saba, Caribbean), and Ultralight Camera Solutions.

Ocean Art 2024 consists of 14 categories total, with the top categories including Wide Angle, Macro, Marine Life Behavior and 3 corresponding compact camera categories, giving underwater photographers of all levels a chance to win a great prize. Unique categories include Black & White, Marine Life Portrait, Cold/Temperate Water, Blackwater, Underwater Conservation, and Nudibranchs. The Underwater Fashion and Underwater Digital Art categories provide two very different and unique art forms their own categories – with complete freedom in post-processing. This year, smartphones and action cameras are now included in the compact camera categories!

Winners from each category will be able to rank the prizes they would like to receive, making it more likely that each winner will receive a prize they desire.

This year’s judging panel features the return of renowned underwater photographers Tony Wu, Marty Snyderman, Mark Strickland, and Ipah Uid Lynn. Together, they bring decades of expertise and diverse artistic perspectives to the competition. Marty Snyderman is an Emmy Award–winning cinematographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic and other leading publications. Tony Wu is an acclaimed photographer and author of Silent Symphony, celebrated for his storytelling and natural history imagery. Mark Strickland is a published author, award-winning underwater photographer, and photo specialist at Bluewater Photo. Ipah Uid Lynn, an internationally recognized Malaysian photographer, is known for her creative and artistic underwater imagery that bridges fine art and marine life. The Ocean Art competition is organized by Nirupam Nigam of Bluewater Photo, Bluewater Travel, and the Underwater Photography Guide.

Photos must be submitted before the deadline of 23:59 PST on November 30, 2024.

We look forward to your participation. Information can be found on our Ocean Art Photo Competition page at http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/ocean-art.

For press inquiries, please contact:

Nirupam Nigam
Editor-in-Chief, Underwater Photography Guide
Email: info@uwphotographyguide.com 

The Underwater Photography Guide is the #1 visited resource worldwide for underwater photographers and scuba divers to learn and improve their underwater photography. It publishes highly-regarded tutorials, technique tips, in-depth gear reviews, underwater photo news, and organizes educational photography workshops around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.uwphotographyguide.com or follow on Facebook (facebook.com/underwaterphotographyguide), Instagram (instagram.com/uwphotographyguide) and Twitter (twitter.com/uwphotography).