This invention provides a network management apparatus for appropriately managing a photographing network. A plurality of apparatuses including a master apparatus that issues a control command to control a photographic operation and a slave apparatus that executes the control command belong to the photographing network. The network management apparatus preferentially determines, out of the plurality of apparatuses belonging to the photographing network, a master apparatus as a candidate apparatus that becomes a new network management apparatus in a case that the network management apparatus is disconnected from the photographing network managed by the network management apparatus itself.