The nominees have been announced for the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards 2025 alongside the opening of the public vote for the Music Moment of the Year category ahead of this year’s awards ceremony on 2nd October.
The Abbey Road Music Photography Awards are the only global music photography awards, championing, empowering and showcasing the worldwide community of music photographers.
Over 20,000 images were submitted this year from 30 different countries. Two new categories were introduced for 2025 – Portrait and Festivals, while this year’s guest category is Club Culture, the latter of which celebrates images from any year. Among the artists included within this year’s nominated images are Chappell Roan, Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX, Tyler the Creator, Pulp, The 1975, Maggie Rogers, Fontaines D.C., Doja Cat and Burna Boy.
Also announced is the return of the MPA partnership with Outernet London, to exhibit photos from the 2025 Music Photography Awards nominees, within London’s premier immersive entertainment district. The exhibition will be free to attend and runs across 19th to 23rd September, with all 40 images from the eight open categories on display in the Now Pop One space, adjacent to Charing Cross Road. Once again, visitors will be able to vote for their favourite photo in the Music Moment of the Year category via Outernet’s world-leading interactive screens.
Voting for Music Moment of the Year is also open on the MPA website from today until 23 September, giving fans across the globe the chance to participate in the awards, while expanding on the MPA aim to gain further widespread recognition of the art of music photography and those behind the lens.
Categories
In the open categories, the nominees for Portrait (new for 2025) include previous MPA nominee Alec Castillo (Adam Amran) and Lauren Luxenberg (Central Cee), while nominees in Festivals (new for 2025) include Jez Pennington (Enter Shikari) and Inès Ziouane (J Balvin). Kirby Gladstein (Lana Del Rey) is nominated in Music Moment Of The Year supported by Outernet, alongside Lauren Krohn (Pulp), while Martin (La Dispute) and Melissa Gardner (Lava La Rue) are nominated in Emerging Photographer of the Year, supported by adidas. Jordan Curtis Hughes (Matty Healy) and Lewis Evans (Inhaler) are nominated in Making Music, with Geoffrey Nicholson (Spunk) and Jen Amelia Veitch (Hidden, Manchester) are nominated in Underground Scenes. Previous MPA winner Greg Noire (Doja Cat) is nominated in Live, alongside Phoebe Fox (The Last Dinner Party), while nominees for this year’s guest category, Club Culture include Jason Palmer (Carl Cox) and Jeanie Jean (Slimelight).
In the Judge’s Choice category (chosen by the panel of judges), the nominees are Elliot Hensford (Doechii), Fanny Viguier (KARABA), Luis Perez (Tyler the Creator), Michael Drummond (Doja Cat), Phoebe Fox (Robert Smith), Platon (Nile Rodgers), Ronan Park (Lucia & the Best Boys), Pooneh Ghana with two separate nominations for her work with Fontaines D.C. and Reuben Bastienne-Lewis (Tom Misch).
Corbijn
MPA Head Judge, Rankin says: “This year’s MPA judging has been an incredible experience from start to finish. The standard of entries has been truly inspiring – from the creativity in the Festival category to the energy and innovation in the Club Culture submissions, several pieces completely blew me away. Portrait also stood out once again, with so many powerful entries. Across the board, the talent was exceptional, and it’s exciting to see such passion coming through.”
Mark Robertson, Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing & Creative adds: “The level of creativity, vision and storytelling made this one of the most inspiring years yet. We’re especially grateful to our shortlisting panel for reviewing every single image, to the judges who worked late into the night debating the final selection, and to our friends at Outernet London for giving the shortlisted photographers an amazing platform for visibility. Most importantly, our thanks to the incredibly gifted community of photographers who continue to impress with their work and prove that music photography is a genuine art to be celebrated and plays a vital role in shaping culture.”
See the full list of shortlisted images here.
Last month Abbey Road announced the legendary Dutch photographer, filmmaker, and music video director Anton Corbijn as the recipient of this year’s ICON award. Born in Strijen in 1955, Anton Corbijn discovered photography through his love for music while still at high school in the Netherlands. He used his father’s camera for his first photos at an open-air concert in 1972, before moving from stage photography to portrait photography, initially only portraits of musicians. Anton moved to London in 1979 to pursue his love of music and photography and is today widely regarded as one of the most influential photographers both in the world of music and in the world of portraiture photography.
See also: Sotheby’s Season Highlights
