Narrative Sequence
Photography that tells a story through emotion, action, or progression. The focus is on narrative over aesthetics, drawing the viewer into a moment that suggests what’s happening and what comes next. If you’re not sure whether your image is a photo or a screenshot from a movie, this is the right category.
Category Rules
- Submissions must consist of 3-5 photographs arranged in a single vertical sequence that tells a cohesive story.
- Single-image submissions are not accepted as well as more than 5 photographs stacks.
Jury
BLACK SHEEP
A Tokyo-based photographer and visual storyteller specializing in cosplay and narrative imagery, blending cinematic composition, emotional realism, and character-centered worlds.
Jury of Categories
Dizzy
Filipino cosplay photographer based in northern Italy, blending creativity and character insight to create polished, story-driven images. Their work highlights the artistry of cosplay through expressive, collaborative shoots.
Jury of Categories
RomaiLee
Swiss photographer focused on blending cosplay with landscapes, bringing characters to life. Thoughtful color grading, atmospheric moods, and carefully chosen locations are the key elements of her visual storytelling.
Jury of Categories
Chris Kon Photo
Athens-based visual storyteller focused on composition and narrative, treating photography as expressive images shaped by intention, emotion, and visual balance.
Jury of Categories
Lievka
German cosplay photographer and long-time cosplayer specializing in natural-light photography, creating atmospheric, film-like images with dynamic angles, dramatic contrast, and mood-driven visuals.
Jury of Categories
Sponsored by
Retouch4me
Retouch4me builds AI retouching plugins that do the boring half of the job so you can spend your time on the half that matters. Founded in Tallinn by Oleg Sharonov, the developer behind 3D LUT Creator, the company grew out of eight years of retouching work and two years of deep learning research, and now serves over 300,000 photographers and retouchers in more than 120 countries. Their neural networks handle skin healing, dodge and burn, backdrop cleanup, fabric, dust and color matching, each as a separate plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One, with video versions for DaVinci Resolve. Everything runs locally on your own machine, the output stays on layers you can still edit, and the models are trained in-house on professional retouching examples rather than on customer photos. TIPA named their portrait editing software the best of 2024.
Prize
This goes to the winner of this category.
200 Retouch4me cloud retouches
Two hundred retouches in the Retouch4me cloud, and you get to spend them on anything in the range! Skin healing, dodge and burn, mattifier, skin tone, eyes, teeth, glasses glare, fabric, backdrop cleanup, the whole toolbox sits in one Apex panel, inside Photoshop or as a standalone app, with a live preview while you tune each step. The heavy lifting happens on their servers, so it flies even on a modest laptop, and you still hold every slider yourself. Save the recipe as a preset, point it at a whole folder, and every frame comes out matching. Try every tool, keep the ones you love!
Perks
These are not part of the winner prize. They either go to everyone who enters, or they pay for the awards themselves.
For every participant
20% off Retouch4me
Everyone who enters gets 20% off Retouch4me plugins, plus free cloud retouch credits if you take out a subscription. Not just the winners, everyone! The discount covers the entire range, so Heal, Dodge & Burn, Color Match, Clean Backdrop, Fabric, Dust and the rest of them. Every one runs on your own machine and hands the work back on layers you can still edit, which means you keep all the control and only lose the tedious part.