“Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads” Photo Contest 2024

The UNESCO Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads photo contest, part of the Organization’s Silk Roads Programme of the Social and Human Sciences Sector, promotes photography as a tool for encouraging cultural interaction, fostering mutual understanding, and promoting peace among the people living in the regions connected by the Silk Roads.

As the visual arts, and in particular photography, are so often used by today’s youth as a powerful tool for communication and self-expression, images have the potential to play a significant role in raising awareness of the key issues facing the contemporary world and help promote peace and understanding. The photo contest provides an opportunity for young people to connect with one another in a digital space and share their creativity and vision for the future.

Themes

• Life Celebrations
  • This theme is more relevant than ever in the current global landscape marked by escalating conflicts, economic instability, and the climate crisis, where young people are facing unprecedented levels of discouragement. Visually capturing and celebrating life also aims to engage youth in positive and hopeful paths and create a digital space to foster this mindset.
  • Through visual arts, these rituals can be portrayed  through a singular angle and perception, and the sixth edition of the “Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads” photo contest will therefore encourage young girls and boys  between 14 and 25 years of old to capture and showcase the elements of the shared legacy within through following fields:
    • Birth and Naming ceremonies.
    • Baptisms
    • Anniversaries
    • Rites of Passage
    • Engagement Ceremonies and Weddings
    • Transition of the seasons (Spring or Autumn Festivals, Nowruz, etc.)
    • Religious Observances and Celebrations
    • Traditional Funeral services

Award Information

• 1st Award: A professional digital single-lens reflex camera equipped with 18-55mm lens
• 2nd Award: Semi-professional digital camera
• 3rd Award: Digital camera

Content of Photos

• The photographs must represent the theme “Reveal the Silk Roads” through ‘Life Celebrations’.
• Only minor modifications to the photographs will be accepted (e.g. dodging and burning, aperture, cropping, colour balance) and must be clearly indicated in the image’s description.
• Each photograph must not contain any personal information that identifies the photographer.
• All participants must be able to provide a high-resolution image that, if selected, can be printed on different media for exhibitions.
• The Organizer reserves the right to remove any photograph that does not meet the criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

• The photography contest is open to everyone between 14 and 25 years old, regardless of his or her country of residence, except employees of UNESCO and the donor, China World Peace Foundation, and their family members (parents, children, siblings and spouses).
• There will be two categories:
  • 14 to 17 years old
  • 18 to 25 years old
• No minors’ participation will be accepted by the Organization without their written permission.
• To confirm participation, each participant will have to follow the following instructions:
  • Upload a maximum of 20 photographs:
    • Include a caption for each photograph or series of photographs, in digital format (JPEG or JPG)
    • The quality of the photographs must be at least 1,500 pixels wide for horizontal images and 1,500 pixels tall for vertical images.
• To participate, entrants must have access to the Internet.
• Participation is strictly personal and the entrant cannot enter the contest on behalf of another person.
• Participation in the photography contest implies full acceptance of these rules and all of their provisions. Non-compliance with the rules will result in disqualification of the entrant.

For more information, visit UNESCO.