The city's top photographers are being urged to exhibit their work as part of a new competition.

The UK Urban Photographer of the Year, created by property firm CB Richard Ellis, is open to both amateurs and professionals over the age of 16 and challenges photographers to capture the country's towns and cities at work during a typical 24-hour day.

The overall winner will be the person who in the eyes of the judges fulfils the brief by capturing an image that powerfully illustrates the concept of cities at work in the UK.

Julian Shellard, CB Richard Ellis chairman of regional business, said: "The Urban Photographer of the Year Award has been designed to inspire and capture a fresh, visual interpretation of 24 hours in the work life of towns and cities across the UK.

"In Birmingham it might be traders setting up their stalls at the wholesale markets in the early hours of the morning, street sweepers cleaning up after a busy weekend on Broad Street or office workers on Colmore Row getting their morning coffee ready for the day ahead."

The competition will be judged by a panel chaired by international photography consultant Martin Grahame-Dunn, who is a director and principle of the International Academy of Professional Photography and past national president of the United Kingdom Master Photographers Association. In addition to chairing the competition, he will also act as a mentor for entrants and will provide regular photography tips and hints on the competition website.

Other judges include Debbie Allen, editor of Digital Photographer Magazine ; Lyn Bryant, managing director of Arcaid Architectural Photography and Graham Fink, executive creative director at M&C Saatchi.

The panel will choose a winning picture for each hour of the day. The 24-hour prizes will be announced in early 2008. The overall winner will receive a photography safari holiday for two in Marrakech and have their best images featured in Digital Photographer Magazine. Second place will win a week long one-on-one course at Mr Grahame-Dunn's Academy of Photography in Seville and third place will receive a Wacom Cintiq 21-inch Graphics Panel.

A special environmental award will also be presented to the photographer who best reflects a city or town's progress towards a "greener" working life.

All winning photographs will be presented as part of an Urban Photography of the Year exhibition at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool.

Further information about the competition can be found at www.citiesatwork.co.uk. Deadline for entries is December 14.