Open to all photographers, the 2011 European Publishers Award for Photography is the result of a collaboration between five European publishers - Actes Sud in France, Apeiron in Greece, Dewi Lewis Publishing of Great Britain, Kehrer Verlag in Germany and Italian Peliti Associati.

Photographers are invited to submit a "substantial, completed and unpublished photographic book project," which, if selected, will be published "in book form simultaneously by each of the publishers in their own country."

This year, Actes Sud will act as project leader, with the jury meeting in France. The winner, who will receive a €5000 advance on royalties for the first 5000 copies sold, will be announced at this year's Rencontres d'Arles festival in July. He or she will also receive 10 copies of each edition and 6% in royalties for all books sold beyond the initial 5000 first print order.

Last year, Christophe Agou won the award for his In The Face of Silence book, which is "a powerful and moving portrait of the hard lives of French family farmers living and working in the Forez region, on the eastern side of the Massif Central."

For more information and instructions on how to enter the award, visit the Dewi Lewis website.