Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads 2025 Photo Contest – Capture Shared Heritage Through the Lens

Introduction / Background:

UNESCO invites younger photographers to discover and categorical their understanding of the wealthy and numerous cultural heritage of the Silk Roads in the seventh version of the “Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads” International Photo Contest. This international initiative goals to spotlight the distinctive views of younger people whereas fostering mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue, and peace.

Visual storytelling by images has develop into a robust medium for immediately’s youth to convey advanced concepts, feelings, and cultural narratives. By combining inventive expression with historic consciousness, the contest offers a platform for significant engagement with the shared historical past of the Silk Roads. Participants from throughout the world are inspired to submit compelling photographs that reply to the 2025 theme, “Women, Guardians of Silk Roads Heritage.”

About the Silk Roads:

The Silk Roads embody an in depth community of maritime and land routes that traditionally related East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Russian steppe, the Iranian plateau, and the Arabian Peninsula. These routes additionally stretch throughout North and Northeast Africa and into Eastern and Southern Europe, reaching so far as France and the Iberian Peninsula. For hundreds of years, the Silk Roads facilitated not solely the trade of products but in addition the switch of data, tradition, concepts, and beliefs which have profoundly formed human civilization.

About the Photo Contest:

Launched in 2018 by UNESCO below its Social and Human Sciences Sector, the Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest empowers younger folks aged 14–25 to seize the shared legacies of the Silk Roads by their cameras.

For the 2025 version, the contest runs from 26 May to twenty July 2025, and submissions should align with the central theme: “Women, Guardians of Silk Roads Heritage.” The contest highlights the important roles ladies have performed in preserving, transmitting, and shaping the cultural heritage and traditions alongside these historic routes.

Eligibility and Age Categories:

Participants should be between 14 and 25 years outdated and may enter in certainly one of two age classes:

• 14 to 17 years outdated

• 18 to 25 years outdated

Participants below the age of 18 should present written consent from a mother or father or authorized guardian.

Submission Guidelines:

• Each participant might submit as much as 20 images by way of the contest’s official website.

• Photographs should be in JPEG or JPG format.

• Images should be a minimum of 1,500 pixels extensive for horizontal photographs or 1,500 pixels tall for vertical photographs.

• Each picture ought to be accompanied by a caption in English.

• Only minor digital modifications are allowed (e.g., cropping, mild changes). Use of synthetic intelligence for producing or enhancing pictures is strictly prohibited.

Awards and Recognition:

The contest affords prestigious prizes in each age classes:

• First Place: Professional digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) digicam with 18-55mm lens

• Second Place: Semi-professional digital digicam

• Third Place: Standard digital digicam

Approximately 60 high entries will likely be featured in UNESCO’s skilled photograph album, “Youth Lens on the Silk Roads.” These images may be showcased in worldwide exhibitions, together with at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and in nations alongside the Silk Roads.

Judging Criteria:

Entries will likely be evaluated by a committee of worldwide specialists based mostly on:

All selections of the committee are remaining.

Participation Terms:

• Participation is freed from cost.

• Entrants should be the sole copyright holders of their images.

• By submitting their pictures, members grant UNESCO the proper to make use of the photographs in exhibitions, publications, and on-line platforms for non-commercial functions, with correct credit score to the photographer.

Important Dates:

• Contest Opens: 26 May 2025

• Submission Deadline: 20 July 2025 (23:59 GMT+1)

• Winners Announced: September 2025

Conclusion:

The Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest is greater than a contest—it’s a celebration of youth creativity, cultural trade, and shared historical past. Through their lenses, younger photographers have the energy to spotlight the voices and tales of girls who safeguard heritage, transmit traditions, and contribute to neighborhood resilience alongside the Silk Roads.

This initiative is a name to motion for younger folks throughout the globe to mirror on heritage, construct cross-cultural connections, and take part in shaping a extra inclusive and peaceable future.

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