The competition is all about the art of shooting a strong series, making a critical selection, determining the right order, writing captions and an appealing title. And it’s about the impact that a photo story has on the audience. The submitted photo stories will be judged by an international panel of industry professionals. Viewbook PhotoStory is a public online event that everyone can be part of. Every visitor to this site can comment and vote on their favorite photo story. The first price winners receive international publications & lifelong subscriptions with a value exceeding $12,000. There are special prizes for the public winners. Every year the best photo series get published in the annual Viewbook PhotoStory book.

Viewbook PhotoStory is open for pros and emerging talents alike at no cost. All participants can easily create and submit their online gallery by signing up for a free, no-obligation, 60 day Viewbook Pro account.

Viewbook PhotoStory is initiated and organized by Viewbook.com in association with GUP magazine, backed up by Blurb, Workbook and many supporters.

Categories

Viewbook PhotoStory has choosen two categories that represent the most fundamental forms of photography. The kind of photography that captures what is going on with us on our wonderful but dramatic planet, and the photographic discipline of capturing unimpeded artistic expression.

Documentary photography
With the category ‘documentary photography’ we like to see contemporary photographic narratives and essays that tell us what is going on with us and our planet. Unveil real world phenomena, people, issues and cultures. Photo narratives that marvel or confront us. In this category we are searching for the finest contemporary photojournalism.

Conceptual photography
The conceptual catagory is about true free artistic expression, about everything that is made up of idea’s, concepts, stage, make-believe. In the conceptual category we are on the lookout for the photo series that truly inspire us to free our minds, series that make an unimpeded political statement, or make us fall of our chairs from laughter. Submissions can vary from pure art, fashion photography to portraiture and everything in between.

PRIZES
THE JURY

Requirements

Every photographer, pro or emerging talent above 18 years old can enter the Viewbook PhotoStory contest. Also a representer can submit the work for a photographer. Every photographer is allowed to submit one photo story per category. You are free to submit already produced work or newly produced work.

You are free to choose your amount of photographs in your photo story. Obviously it needs to be a series and less might be more. All entries must fit in one of the categories; documentary or conceptual and need to be of enough creative and photographic quality to pass the pre-selection. At entry we ask you to give us the title and a description of your photo story.

Specifications
Upload 1000 pixels wide, 12 quality .jpg’s, 72 dpi, sRGB
Ad “© name photographer” in the left bottom corner of each image. Use Arial 14 pt. Copyright © will be mentioned on the Viewbookphotostory.com website. Title and description of max 200 words.

Key Dates

Submissions open at 20 June 2009. All photographers can upload, edit and submit their works until the closing date of 1 October 2009. We encourage you to submit your work as soon as possible to get the most out of the public voting and get your photo story seen by as many people as possible.

Submissions open: 20 June 2009
Submissions closed: 1 October 2009
Announcing winners: 15 October 2009

Official website: http://www.viewbookphotostory.com

AWARDS
The 13 contest winners will receive official certificates of merit. The winning photographs will also be featured in the UNESCO Bangkok and UNGEI (EAP and SA) combined “Gender in Education Calendar 2010″, which is to be distributed widely throughout Asia and beyond. The winning photographs will also be posted on the organizers’ respective websites.

CONTEST CRITERIA AND CONDITIONS
Photographs should depict gender equality in action in the contestant’s country, featuring photos that: – show either sex, of any age, participating equally in various educational/recreational activities, such as computer repairs, ICT training, cycle maintenance, cleaning the classroom, caring for younger siblings, sharing household chores and involvement in various community activities, etc; …

Photographs must be individual prints in colour, or black and white and must be submitted with the original negatives or slides. Size: maximum 21 cm x 29 cm; minimum 20 cm x 25 cm.

For digital photographs, files must be in a TIFF, EPS or JPEG format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Digital photographs must be submitted on a CD-ROM, accompanied by A4 paper size prints (21 cm x 29 cm).

CONTEST SCHEDULE
All entries must be received at the UNESCO Bangkok office by 31 July 2009.
Judging will take place in August 2009 at UNESCO Bangkok.
The 13 winning photos will be announced at the end of September 2009.

PLEASE SUBMIT ENTRIES TO
UNESCO Bangkok APPEAL Unit
Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building
920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong
Bangkok 10110, Thailand
E-mail: gender@unescobkk.org

download PDF

Official website: http://www.unescobkk.org/en/education/appeal/programme-themes/gender/

If so then we want you to send us between eight and 10 photographs with captions for presentation as a gallery on the In Pictures page.

Photos:

Ideally, you should aim to take a variety of photographs – it’s a good idea to plan the story before you start. A good first photo would be one that introduces the subject to the readers.

Make sure you take some close-up photos as well as some wider pictures to show the subject’s environment, but remember to include something in the foreground to add impact.

When you take the picture, remember to look up or down to see what is around you. You might get a better shot if you kneel, or find a position to look down from.

The completed photo essay will have no more than 10 photographs, but you can send us more to choose from.

Make sure you have permission from anyone pictured before submitting the photographs.

Words:

Each picture will need a caption.

Who, what, why, where and when is a good place to start when gathering information for the caption, but where possible quotes from those pictured and a description of how you are feeling will help bring the essay to life.

We don’t need many words – no more than 40 per picture.

How to submit a picture

If you think you have an interesting set of photographs, send it to the BBC News website

If you want to e-mail it to us, send it to yourpics@bbc.co.uk

Don’t forget to include your name and some background information and please put “My Portfolio” in the subject heading as this will increase your chances of selection.

* Copyright: In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. It’s important to note, however, that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News and that if your image and/or video is accepted, we will endeavour to publish your name alongside it on the BBC News website.
* Eligibility: Anyone
* Entry fee: Free
* Entry deadline: Ongoing

Official website: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6742087.stm

The inaugural theme for the award is Communities.

Criteria for Evaluation

* Excellence & inventiveness in building a photographic narrative.
* Singularity of vision and compassion for the subjects.
* Ability to produce a thought-provoking visual presentation.

Prizes
The winner of the Magnum Expression Award will receive an HP Designjet Z3200. Photo Printer and a package of media supplies provided by HP. The winner will also receive a $10,000 cash prize to support continued work on the winning project; the opportunity to produce a multimedia essay of the winning entry in collaboration with Magnum’s Magnum in Motion team; sponsorship for the production of exhibition prints on an HP Designjet Z3200 for a solo exhibition of the winning entry; a $3000 credit for production of the winning essay in book form on HP Indigo printers in collaboration with Blurb.com; a customizable PhotoShelter pro account and website for one year; and advice and mentorship from a Magnum photographer regarding the continuation of the winning project.

* Each entrant may submit from 8 to 15 images to illustrate a single photographic essay.
* Entry images must be electronic and must be uploaded to the Host Site, which will require creation of a PhotoShelter account. (The Host Site will provide instructions.)
* Entry images must be submitted at, or be available at, sufficiently high resolution so that they can be printed at a standard acceptable for display in printed media.
* Entry images must be numbered in the order that you wish them to be presented, with the number coming first in the file name (to ensure the correct sequence please use two digits, example: 01, 02, 03) followed by the entrant’s last name (e.g. 01Smith, 02Smith, 03Smith etc.). Please do not use any spacing in the file names.

* Copyright: Magnum and/or its Competition Partners will credit the artist as the author and copyright holder of his/her photographs. By entering the competition, Participants grant Magnum Photos and its Competition Partners an irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide royalty-free license to reproduce, publicly display, distribute, publicly perform and create derivative works from their Submitted Materials, in all media, solely in connection with the administration, judging and promotion of the Magnum Expression Award, including, but not limited to, on the Magnum, HP, Blurb.com and PhotoShelter websites.
* Eligibility: Participation in the Magnum Expression Award competition is open to all photographers over the age of 18.
* Entry fee: Free
* Entry deadline: 30 September 2009

Entries must be made online using the instructions provided at http://expression.magnumphotos.com