What if a photograph could do more than capture a moment?
What if it could make you stop, feel, question and see the world differently?
That is the challenge behind ORMS x Canon: The Art of Photography, the seventh edition of the Sea Point Promenade Photographic Exhibition Competition.
For the past six years, the initiative has transformed one of Cape Town’s most recognisable public spaces into an open-air celebration of photography. Now, the competition is back, inviting South African photographers to move beyond simply documenting what is in front of the lens and reveal something more personal: how they see the world.
The competition launched on 19 August, opening the door for photographers to submit work for the chance to have their images displayed as large-scale artworks along the iconic Sea Point Promenade.
And this year, the question at the heart of the competition is deceptively simple:
When does a photograph become art?
Beyond the Photograph
Photography can freeze a person, place or moment in time. But according to the thinking behind this year’s theme, a photograph does not have to stop there.
The Art of Photography explores what happens when the photographer becomes the artist.
That means there is no single subject the competition is searching for.
A submission could be portraiture, landscape, still life, architecture, abstract photography, conceptual work or something that exists somewhere between those categories.
The subject matters, but so does the photographer’s interpretation.
This year, ORMS and Canon are looking for images that demonstrate a clear creative point of view. Composition, light, colour, perspective, subject, timing and editing can all become part of that visual language.
The finished photograph might communicate an idea. It might create emotion. It might tell a story. It might establish an atmosphere.
Above all, it should feel intentional.
The challenge is to look beyond the obvious, experiment with perspective, reinterpret the everyday and discover beauty where others might overlook it.
In other words, the camera is not simply being used to record the world.
It is being used to show the world through your eyes.
From the Screen to Sea Point
The opportunity extends far beyond winning photographic equipment.
Twenty photographs will be selected to leave the digital world behind and become large-scale artworks along the Sea Point Promenade.
Displayed together, the 20 selected works will form an outdoor exhibition featuring 20 different perspectives.
The result will turn one of Cape Town’s most iconic public spaces into a celebration of South African photographic creativity, allowing thousands of people moving along the promenade to encounter the work in a completely different setting.
For the photographers selected, it is a chance to see their work experienced beyond a screen or traditional gallery wall.
For the public, it is an opportunity to encounter photography as part of the everyday landscape.
R100 000 in Prizes
The seventh edition also comes with R100 000 in prizes across the top three positions.
The first prize, valued at R65 000, includes a Canon EOS R8 Body with an RF 28–70mm f/2.8 lens, along with a R10 000 ORMS Print Room voucher.
The second prize, valued at R20 000, includes a Canon EOS R50 Creator Kit and a R5 000 ORMS Print Room voucher.
The third prize, valued at R15 000, includes a Canon PowerShot V1 and a R5 000 ORMS Print Room voucher.
But the competition offers something that cannot be measured by a prize value alone: the opportunity to have your work become part of a public photographic exhibition.
Six Years of Capturing Different Perspectives
The competition’s seventh edition arrives with an impressive history behind it.
Across the previous six exhibitions, the ORMS x Canon Promenade Exhibition has featured 120 photographers, received tens of thousands of entries and awarded more than half a million rand in prizes.
Each edition has explored a different corner of the photographic spectrum.
Themes have included Birds, Wildlife and Movement, as well as Landscapes, Macro and Black & White photography.
Together, those exhibitions have created a collection of different perspectives, styles and interpretations of the world.
Now, The Art of Photography adds another chapter to that story.
Your Camera. Your Perspective. Your Art.
The competition is ultimately asking photographers to consider what photography means to them.
What can you communicate through an image that words cannot?
Can an ordinary moment become extraordinary?
Can light change the meaning of a scene?
Can a different perspective make us question something familiar?
Can a single frame tell a story without saying a word?
Those are the questions photographers are being encouraged to explore.
The strongest image may not necessarily be the biggest, most dramatic or technically complicated photograph.
It may simply be the one that makes someone look twice.
The one that changes how an ordinary moment feels.
The one that reveals something that was there all along, but had never been seen quite that way before.
Show us how you see the world.
How to Enter the ORMS x Canon Competition
Entries are unlimited, giving photographers the opportunity to submit five images at a time as many times as they wish.
There are, however, specific submission requirements.
Only landscape-format images will be accepted. Photographs must be submitted in JPEG format, with each image no larger than 5MB.
If selected as a finalist, photographers will be contacted through the email address supplied during entry and asked to provide high-resolution files in TIFF format.
Those files will be used to produce the large-scale A0 exhibition artworks.
Final prints must also be free of watermarks.
Entries opened on 19 August 2026 and, according to the supplied competition information, close on 16 September 2026.
Meet the Judges
The final selection will be considered by a panel bringing together expertise from photography, business and the visual arts.
The judging panel comprises:
- Jason Ormrod, Managing Director, ORMS
- Roger Machin, Business Development Manager, Canon
- Shani Judes, Founder and Curator, SJ Artists
- Tayla Hollamby, Curator and Exhibitions Manager, Norval
Their task will be to identify the photographs that best embody the spirit of The Art of Photography.
A Chance to Change the Way People See
The Sea Point Promenade has already become part of the competition’s identity.
For six years, it has provided a setting where photography can step outside traditional exhibition spaces and meet people where they are.
Now, the seventh edition is challenging photographers to go one step further.
Not simply to capture.
Not simply to document.
But to interpret.
To experiment.
To find beauty in the unexpected.
And, perhaps most importantly, to reveal something about themselves through the way they photograph the world.
Because sometimes the difference between a photograph and a work of art is not what stands in front of the camera.
It is what the photographer sees.
ORMS x Canon: The Art of Photography is now calling on South African photographers to show the world exactly that.
Entries close on 16 September 2026, according to the supplied press release.
