Application Deadline: April 15th, 2022 at 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST).
In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly decided that, as from 2009, June 8th would be designated by the United Nations as “World Oceans Day.” We recognize that our oceans are essential to securing food and survival of all life on planet Earth. They power our climate and they are a critical part of the biosphere. Even when people all around the world are dealing with the unprecedented measures to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic, our oceans are still taking care of us!
World Oceans Day encourages you to make a difference in your life, in your community, and in the world by taking action to protect our ocean—for present and future generations. Despite the huge challenges facing the world’s oceans such as plastic pollution, overfishing and climate change, by working together we can achieve a healthier ocean that will provide for the billions of humans, plants and animals which depend on it every day.
Requirements
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 photo competition has six thematic categories open for submissions:
- NEWRevitalization
- Above Water Seascapes
- Underwater Seascapes
- NEW Nature-Based Solutions & Ocean Exploration
- NEWOcean Critters
- NEWCoastal Communities
Contest 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 Wednesday, June 8th, 2022 in New York, during a hybrid UN World Oceans Day event, hosted by Oceanic Global as strategic partner for the day, and published on www.unworldoceansday.org 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)
Benefits
- Winning images will be recognized at the United Nations on June 8th during the United Nations’ event marking World Oceans Day 2022. 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.
Photo Submission Guidelines
- Entries must be saved in JPEG format and should be sized to be between 2,000 and 6,000 pixels in the longest dimension. Please limit your images to a maximum file size of 5,000KB (5MB). Images will be viewed on a large monitor and should be in the AdobeRGB 1998 or sRGB color space.
- Please do not include any watermark or borders on your images. These elements will detract from the image’s impact. It’s not that we don’t want you to protect your images; it’s just hard to appreciate an image with a watermark over it. (We will keep the display of winning images consistent, and when your image is displayed, it will be clearly labeled as your image.)
- The same image can only be entered into one category.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the United Nations World Oceans Day Photo Competition 2022