“Captions play a big role in the judging process.”

Like our parent organisation POYi, POY Asia is fundamentally a journalistic endeavour. We believe that the word ‘photojournalism’ cannot be de-linked and therefore we always remind ourselves that we have responsibility as journalists to provide accurate information for our images.

In POY, captions are important and often decide if a picture progresses to the next stage or not. It will be the same at POY Asia.
By default, we prefer editorial captions.
We don’t want or need lengthy essays or thesis but accuracy is a must.
Whenever possible, people in a picture have to be identified if there are five or fewer individuals in an image.
Context is important; direct quotes are a bonus.
Over the next few weeks, we will interview editors and photographers and share their tips on how to craft a good caption.