Deadline: 23-Apr-23
Submissions for the 10th Annual Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is now open for entries.
Photography is a powerful medium to convey a feeling or a message. This open and free photo competition seeks to inspire the creation of imagery capturing the beauty, the challenges and the importance of the ocean and humankind’s relation to it, hoping to contribute to actions to preserve this vital resource.
The UN World Oceans Day Photo Competition is hosted by the United Nations, curated by Ellen Cuylaerts and a jury composed of world-renowned individuals.
Categories
- No Time to Waste
- Both human and naturally inflicted stressors on the ocean are driving the urgent need for stakeholder action. From out of control algal blooms to red tides and discarded fishing gear, images of damage inflicted on the ocean or how ocean stressors are being mitigated/solved. Submissions for this category require a set of three images
- Putting the Ocean First
- Exploration, discoveries, and initiatives prioritizing the health of the ocean for now and for the future, including innovation and sustainable solutions
- The Wonderful World of Tides
- Images that explore the wonderful worlds of tides, and how nature adapts to changing environments, evident in tides and their daily (as well as sometimes multi-daily) rise and fall. Tides are a thin line between land and ocean that provide images topside or underwater, macro or wide angle
- Ocean is Life
- From seagrass creating oxygen to sustainable fisheries providing food. This category captures the known, the unknown, and the overlooked. Any image depicting the connection of the ocean to sustaining all life on Earth. Oceans as a lifeline.
- Big and Small Underwater Faces
- Portraits of marine life underwater that feature faces big and/or small to help personalize the world beneath the waves
- Underwater Seascapes
- Awe-inspiring underwater seascapes of the ocean’s splendors, from life in the ocean to ecosystems and exchanges they don’t typically see, anything that inspires beauty, promise, or potential. A minimum of 50% should be taken underwater, also allowing half-above water and half-below water shots
Benefit
- Winning images will be recognized at the United Nations on June 8th during the United Nations’ event marking World Oceans Day 2023.
- Recognition and diffusion of the winning images and finalists will be widely exposed throughout the contest websites, the media and the informational materials related to subsequent competitions. Winning photos have been printed for exhibitions around the world.
General Rules
- The contest is open to entrants of all skill levels.
- Photo contest staff and judges are not allowed to enter the contest.
- Winners will be announced on Thursday, June 8th, 2023 in New York, during a hybrid UN World Oceans Day event, hosted by Oceanic Global as strategic partner for the day, and published on shortly afterwards.
- Entries may have been taken from any camera, digital or film (as scanned slides).
- Conservation rules will be strictly observed. Flora and fauna should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries suspected of involving the following behavior will be disqualified:
- Photographers visibly damaging the environment (e.g., gear dragging or kicking up sand, divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control)
- Animals with signs of stress (e.g., puffed puffers, inking octopus)
- Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location
- Marine life being touched or placed (e.g., nudibranchs, coral polyps, seahorse tails)
For more information, visit United Nations.