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Vision of an environment-friendly future city.
A kindergarten in Chernobyl.
A woman sleeps on a dirty riverbank in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Some homeless people spend the night sleeping on bridges.
Gasoline puddles look spectacular, but their beauty is dangerous: can a puppy drink this beautiful water?
Several dolls lie in an abandoned Chernobyl nursery.
A girl sleeps on a desk inside her schoolroom. Extreme rains have tripled in the Sahel in the last 35 years and there were 70 episodes of torrential rains in the last decade. At the same time the region suffers severe episodes of drought.
A boy plays with a plastic bag. About 380 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide each year. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic find their way into our oceans.
The marine corridor between Ecuador and the Galapagos has the highest concentration of sharks in the world. Intense fishing is endangering the shark population.
The habitants off the Bandar-e Khamir (Iran) suburb are nomads. To make some shadow, they put their torn clothes on a dried tree.
Silt makes for a lovely landscape, but it's a nightmare for crossing during monsoon season.
Every year, the Ganges river collects 20,000 tons of plastics and carries it to the Bay of Bengal. A recycling process has been started to remove the pollution.
500 vessels used to transport goods are either being built or are docked for maintenance work in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Millions of people are going home to celebrate Eid alFitr. Bangladesh is a river country, so lots of people use a launch for the journey.
Suburb of Kathmandu Valley (also known as Badbhanjyang) at sunrise.
Poor environmental policies from the Turkish government of are hurting Turkey cities. Located in the east of Istanbul, the Gulsuyu district was completely covered with concrete ceilings.
Hands of green are demanding the world to create a pollution free future.
The large waste dump at Ganey Hadas-Dudaim, Israel. Numerous pieces of garbage are caught on the fence by the wind, while black kites hover above and enjoy the trash food.
Laos, a mother baths her children. The well is also used for drinking water. There is a lack of drinking water in the region, despite considerable rainfall.
Fire by the Boraldai River, Kazakhstan.
The surface tension of the water droplet keeps the tiny spider from falling from the melting ice.
Thin ice formes on the surface of puddles in meadows, trapping insects. The first rays of the sun free the prisoners.
Mexicali was one of the most contaminated cities in the world because of its geographic location, industry, and cars.
The community of Bangui Ilocos Norte in the Philippines developed a windmill farm. They are setting a trend in renewable energy and pioneering wind turbines in Southeast Asia.
City waste is deposited at the Arefin Nagur yard in Chittagong. Many children work there.
Charcoal workers labour in difficult conditions.
A woman collects fresh drinking water through a pothole in the dried riverbed.
An aerial image over a recently bushfire ravaged bushland area of the Pilbara in Western Australia. This region is sparsely habited by people only a main highway shows human interaction except when someone discards a lit cigarette which causes a fire to rage through.
An aerial view over Lake Dumbleyung, Australia. The white gum trees died from decades of farming, resulting in salt rising up to the surface.
An aerial view over Lake Dumbleyung, Australia. The white gum trees died from decades of farming, resulting in salt rising up to the surface.
Plastic can directly and indirectly harm your health.
Photographing trees with a long shutter speed isn't easy, the tiniest amount of wind will blur the canopy.
Conveyors at a brown coal mine.
Hambach Forest (Germany) was nearly 12,000 years old when it was bought to dig for brown coal. Only 10 percent of the forest remains.
A bucketwheel excavator is active at a brown coal mine.
Duisburg, Germany. A water purification plant.
Rangers rest on a fallen tree midpatrol. They are among 44 men tasked with protecting Bamingui Bangoran National Park (Central African Republic) where poaching and civil war have decimated animal populations.
An abandoned gas station in Armenia.
A frigatebird tries to steal freshly caught fish from a fisherman.
Freshly caught swordfish.
Moldova. This picture questions the place of Man on Earth and his relationship with Nature, aiming to wake our consciousness.
France. This picture questions the place of Man on Earth and his relationship with Nature, aiming to wake our consciousness.
The 2019 fire in the Nambiyugua mountains (Mexico) killed plant species and hurt biodiversity. Thousand of hectares of forest are lost every year.
The daily life of a nomad lady: milking the sheep in the morning before herding them up the hill, when her husbad takes the milk to the local market.
London. People are protesting to save the environment.
Salt evaporation ponds are shallow artificial ponds designed to extract salts from sea water. Variable algal concentrations create vivid colors.
Bauxite is a mineral found mostly around the equator. This photo shows a mining site from above. The iron gives bauxite the deep red color.
Once upon a time this was a healing pool, but sulfur sources used in the treatment of many diseases are disappearing.
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Workers unload coal from light vessels.
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Workers unload coal from light vessels.
The stream used to flow freely, but years of negligence eventually killed the creek.
This creek floods badly during monsoon season. Still, Estero de Magdalena (Manila, Philippines) is home to the families living along its banks, no matter how others see it.
La Oliva Casas housing development in Fuerteventura, Spain. The housing complex has been abandoned since 2008.
A Buffalo shepherd baths and washes his buffalo in Gawir Lake, Indonesia.
This family's newly made house is destroyed by the Cyclone Fani, which was one of the most powerful cyclones formed in the Bay of Bengal since 1999.
This oil refinery in Chittagong, Bangladesh for extends miles after miles. It sits within 100 to 200 meters to the sea. Thousands of trees have been cut for the space.
It is unusual for a photographer to attend a dehorning. It is not easy to watch but this is a last ditch attempt to keep rhinos safe from poaching.
On the Faroe Islands it rains 300 days of the year, so in the 14th century the settlers of Saksun introduced grass roofs to protect from the rain and provide thermal insulation.
The people of Vsrsana, India are celebrating holi. Red gulal contains mercury sulfide, which can cause loss of eyesight, skin cancer, and partial paralysis. The metal content in gulal can be deposited in the kidney, liver, and bone.
Workers dig wells to find water at a depth of about 30 meters. Each bucket of soil needs to be lifted accurately for the workers' own safety.
A woman collects fresh drinking water through a pothole in the dried riverbed.
The people of Vsrsana, India are celebrating holi. Red gulal contains mercury sulfide, which can cause loss of eyesight, skin cancer, and partial paralysis. The metal content in gulal can be deposited in the kidney, liver, and bone.
Ananda Bazar is a huge dumping area for Chattagram, Bangladesh. People make a small living from the recycling and waste management business.
Two young girls play in the ruins of an abandoned home in the Tuvaluan capital Funafuti. Due to environmental and social pressures many of the islanders have migrated to other countries.
Fallen trees lie on a beach on the Funafuti lagoon in Tuvalu. Land erosion problems are intensifying as sea levels rise, inundating the coastline more frequently.
Mumbai, India: a high tide wave hits a man outside his house as the seawater enters the shanty town near Bandra bandstand. He was rescued by fellow fishermen.
A local boy throws a bucket of water on the slum which sparked fire due to the high temperatures.
Since 2000 India has had three serious droughts. The World Bank has estimated that the 2012 drought reduced the country's GDP by half a percentage point.
Sulphurous smoke rise from fissures in the earth around the edge of a coal seam. According to the WHO, 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India.
The sales boom of large vehicles limits progress towards a cleaner planet despite advances in fuelsaving technology and hybrid or electric vehicles.
A man works in the streets of Lava, India.
This image was taken at the Cooch Behar brick field in India.
This image shows the daily life of the people of West Bengal.
Mother is everything, she is not an object to throw. Two sons were crossing the Fulchuri dry river during winter season to get their mother to hospital. Their local hospital closed due to erosion by the river.
In India, waste is dumped on open land, causing land, air and water pollution. Children join the waste-picking industry to earn, but become ill from the toxic wastes and viruses in the area.
Coal is perhaps the most important energy resource in India. Jharia is the most significant coal mine. People die here as a result of underground fire, poisonous gases in the air, pollution, etc.
In the old city of Howrah, India drainage patterns are not strong enough to support the growing population.
After a huge chemical explosion in Dhaka a burn car on the street. in this incident 70 people died.
During the flood season the children use the bamboo bridge to cross the flooded are to go to school.
Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, Ireland.
As fish stocks decrease, fishing methods become increasingly extreme. Destructive fishing with small hole nets devastate the marine environment.
A woman seemed to sink when she sewed a huge net in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam. This mesh fishing net eradicates aquatic resources but it is the traditional fishing method of fishermen all over the world.
540 million people depend on fisheries as a source of food and income. The effects of climate change cause unpredicable fish behaviour and decrease fish populations.
At the Sisdol landfill near Kathmandu in Nepal wastepickers rummage through garbage looking for materials to sell. Supposed to be temporary, this landfill has been in operation since 2005 and is running out of capacity.
A woman is drying incense sticks. The incense must be soaked with chemicals so that the incense does not break. Many workers cannot tolerate the toxics and must quit their job.
Fire sparked in a wooden house in Murmansk, Russia.
All photos were selected and approved in line with the 2019 competition’s rules and selection criteria.
Before entering, please read the Rules and Guidelines and Digital Specifications & Digital Adjustment Guidelines carefully as all entrants have to acknowledge acceptance of them during the online registration process.
· Entries must be received by 16.00 BST on Wednesday 31 July 2019 (‘the Closing Date’).
· Each entrant may enter up to ten (10) still photographs.
· All photographs entered must have been completed since 01 January 2018.
· Entries must be submitted as digital files only. For initial entry, all still photography images must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high quality level, with a maximum file size of 5MB. SEE DIGITAL SPECIFICATIONS SECTION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
· If shortlisted, entrants must be able to supply images as RAW files or original JPEGs. SEE DIGITAL SPECIFICATIONS BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
· Entrants must be the sole author and owner of the copyright for all the entries they submit, or they must have obtained permission from the copyright holder to submit the entries on their behalf. A copy of any such written permission must be supplied to the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) on request.
· The photographer retains the copyright to all their entries into the Environmental Photographer of the Year. The photographer will be credited. The photographer agrees that CIWEM will not be liable to the photographer in the event of inadvertent omission of the credit.
· Do not add a signature to any entry as judging is done anonymously and entries with overlay signatures will be rejected.
· It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that all the necessary permissions are obtained from people featured in the entry.
· All entries, should be a faithful representation of the original scene and localised adjustments should be used appropriately. Some digital adjustment or editing is allowed, but entrants should understand that the objective is to remain faithful to the original experience, and to never deceive the viewer or misrepresent reality. SEE DIGITAL ADJUSTMENT GUIDELINES SECTION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
· Each entrant agrees to participate in related publicity and to the use of their name and entry for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity of the competition and exhibition without additional compensation.
· By entering the Competition, you grant CIWEM a non-exclusive licence to reproduce, publish and communicate your entry to the public by exhibiting your entry through all media throughout the world in relation to the Environmental Photographer of the Year competition and CIWEM’s charitable activities. This includes but is not limited to: the competition judging process; an exhibition and tour; inclusion in an Environmental Photographer of the Year Exhibition catalogue or book; online galleries; promotional, press and marketing materials associated with the Environmental Photographer of the Year and CIWEM’s charitable activities and public benefit remit; and associated merchandising. CIWEM is allowed to pass on any entry to online and print publications to be used either for editorial or image based promotion only in relation to the Environmental Photographer of the Year, with full credit given to the photographer. CIWEM’s use of the photographs may include third party licensing to generate revenue which will be used for the promotion of the Environmental Photographer of The Year and other charitable activities undertaken by CIWEM. Commercial opportunities, such as third-party licensing, may exist for photographers to benefit from the use of any selected entry. Where such a commercial benefit is likely to arise, permission will be sought by CIWEM in advance.
· By entering the competition you accept that your entry may be exhibited by CIWEM or other exhibitions organised or attended by CIWEM as part of the Environmental Photographer of the Year. CIWEM reserves the right to reproduce any entry for exhibition purposes.
· CIWEM cannot accept liability for the misuse of entries and or failure of any third party to comply with the Environmental Photographer of the Year’s credit guidelines.
· The sponsors of the Environmental Photographer of the Year (detailed on this website) reserve the right to reproduce any entry from the exhibition in their own marketing and publications, in relation to the competition and exhibition only.
· Judges appointed by CIWEM will choose the exhibition and winners. The judges’ decision on all matters relating to the competition is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. During judging the judges reserve the right to move entries from one category to another where appropriate and not award any entry within a category.
· CIWEM reserves the right to cancel this competition at any stage.
· CIWEM reserves the right to amend, remove or introduce additional judging categories at any stage during the competition.
· The competition is open to all international photographers, both amateur and professional, and of all ages.
· It is the responsibility of each entrant into the competition to ensure they have read and abide by the General Rules. By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the General Rules, that their entry complies with the General Rules, and that they will be liable to the Owners and their licensees in respect of any damages or losses incurred as a breach of the General Rules by the entrant.
· Any entrant found to not comply with the General Rules at any stage of the competition will be disqualified and any prizes will be forfeited.
· The decision of CIWEM on all matters relating to the Competition is final and binding.
· Anyone born on or before 31st July 1998 can enter this category. Only photographs taken by photographers within this age range can enter this category.
· Proof of date of birth may be required upon request.
· For entrants under 18 parental written permission must be received from the parent or guardian of the photographer upon request from CIWEM.
The following guidelines explain the required specifications for each category at the different stages of the competition. Please ensure that your entries adhere to these guidelines. If any further queries, please check the HELP & FAQs section or contact CIWEM by email.
· Initial entry: all still photographs must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high quality level with a maximum file size of 5MB. Each image file must be named with your surname, first name and brief title e.g. SmithJohn_Title.jpeg. Whilst image titles may be too long to be used as image names, a section of your title would be adequate.
· Proof of authenticity: original digital camera RAW files will be required if your image is shortlisted. Digital images captured as JPEG are allowed, providing the original un-retouched JPEG is available for inspection. Any work created from more than one original (e.g. stitched images), must be declared as such,
and the original captured images should be available for inspection when requested.
· Printing: for printing in all media and for inclusion in an exhibition, a high-resolution image (preferably TIFF) will be requested if your image is selected.
· Mobile Category: This includes images shot on any mobile phone or tablet. Images should still be no smaller than 1MB in order to enter them, and a higher resolution version may still be required.
The following digital adjustments are not allowed:
· adding or removing animals, parts of animals, plants, distractions, people etc.
· composites and sandwich shots that add elements.
· images that have been digitally manipulated outside of the allowed adjustments.
The following digital adjustments are allowed:
· removal of sensor dust spots and chromatic aberration
· levels (in moderation)
· curves (in moderation)
· colour (in moderation)
· saturation (in moderation)
· contrast work (in moderation)
· shadow and highlights (in moderation)
· sharpening (including selective sharpening) in moderation
· cropping in moderation and as long as a suitable high-res TIFF file can be supplied for printing a large exhibition display
· dodging, burning and toning (in moderation)
· neutral density gradients (in moderation)
· removing lens vignetting
· panoramas i.e. panoramas created from several images that have been taken from the same location and at the same time, and then combined or stitched using digital techniques, and resulting in a wider view than can be achieved with most wide-angle lenses. (NB: stitched panoramas must be declared in caption information.)
· multiple exposures are only allowed if this is a feature of the camera and the result is one single file. Entrants must state in the caption if their image is a multiple exposure
· The personal data of entrants will be managed by CIWEM in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018
· CIWEM will collect personal data about entrants (and when applicable parents/guardians) at the time of entry, and as otherwise provided in order to administer the competition and its associated activities onl