National Photography Competition

With the support of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Climate Centre for Cities at NIUA is organizing a “National Photography Competition” as part of pre-event activities leading to the ‘Smart Cities: Smart Urbanisation’ event at Surat, Gujarat.

We invite participants to submit photographs which are either focusing on the impacts of climate change on Indian cities and actions taken by individuals, communities or city authorities to adapt/ mitigate climate change. To participate in the competition, photographs should be submitted in across two categories:

• Climate Impacts in Cities
• Climate Actions in Cities

The selection of photographs will focus on the following criteria

Content: How relevant and attractive the content is to the theme. How well does the photo tell the external audiences about Climate Change. Does the content show something unique about Climate Impacts or Action taken? How well the participant has been able to identify the subject of the photograph.

Composition: How well has the photo been composed or framed? Does the composition adequately present the theme/subject or the content?

Technique: How well does the photo represent the photography technique? Lighting? Post-production?

To participate

• Send your pictures along with a short caption not exceeding 50 words (in English).
• There should not be any watermarks on the picture.
• The file should be named as follows: PREFIX_YOURNAME_CITYNAME. PREFIX=CI for Climate Impacts in Cities and CA for Climate Actions in Cities. For eg: For a person named Sujit Bose submitting a picture of New Delhi on Climate Actions in Cities will write the file name as CA_SUJITBOSE_NEWDELHI
• All submissions should be submitted through the below-mentioned google form. The form includes options for picture upload and captions.

To Submit

Important dates

• Extended date of submission : 27th February 2022 at 11:59 pm

Awards:

• 1st Prize : ₹25,000/- and certificate + all-expense paid trip to the Surat conference for each theme
• Runners-up : ₹15,000/- and Certificate (Two photographs for each theme)
• Special Mention – photographs : ₹5,000/- and Certificate (Five photographs for each theme)

Exhibition

• Award winning pictures and selected nominations will be exhibited at the Climate Pavilion during the ‘Smart Cities: Smart Urbanisation’ event in Surat, Gujarat.

Competition rules

• The photograph should be from Indian Cities only
• The prize money will be transferred to Indian bank accounts only
• Participation is open to individuals only (amateurs and professionals).
• Each entry should be at least 8 X 12 inches at 300 DPI (dots per inches) minimum size.
• The file size of the initial submission should be less than 20 MBs. Participants should be able to share the high resolution version upon selection within a day.
• The number of entries per thematic area is limited to one per person under each category
• All communications should be done only through email
• The entries will be adjudicated by an eminent panel of photographers and industry professionals.

Within the framework of digital image editing, the following is PERMITTED:

• Moderate adjustments of contrast, tonal values, gradation, white balance, colour, and saturation
• Moderate use of the shadow/highlight tool, dodging/burning and digital graduated grey filters
• Removal of sensor dust, marginal clean-up* if this does not change the statement of the image
• Moderate (selective) sharpening and (selective) noise reduction
• HDR images, stitched panoramas and images using focus stacking as well as in-camera multiple exposures (for all these techniques the requirement is that all images were taken at the same location at approximately the same time. With multiple exposures this means that the viewer should not be misled by the combination of two or more images).
• Removal of chromatic aberrations and vignetting as well as lens distortions
• Black & white and infrared rendering (incl. filter and tonal adjustments)

Within the framework of digital image editing, the following is NOT PERMITTED:

• Adding or removing objects (e.g animals, plants, people, items of civilisation and traces thereof)

Final Clause

• Submissions that do not any of the conditions of the competition will not be selected. The jury’s decision will be final. By submitting images to the competition the participant consents to the above competition rules and refrain from any legal proceedings

Copyright 

• By entering the competition, the photographer confirms that the entered photograph is his/her original work and the photographer is the sole owner of the copyright and there are no third-party claims
• Upon initial selection, the photographer is willing to submit a High Resolution Image of their photograph at short notice
• The photographer shall confirm that entries submitted for this competition can be used by the MoHUA and NIUA's for any of their official publications with due acknowledgment.

Selection Panel

Mr. Balan Madhavan

Balan Madhavan is one of the 5 Senior Fellows of the International League of Conservation Photographers (www.ilcp.com) from the whole of Asia. iLCP is the world’s top body of Conservation Photographers with around 100 reputed photographers using the power of the image to save our world. He is one of the most sought-after Architectural and Travel photographers in India. Balan is an Associate of the “Royal Photographic Society (ARPS)” of the United Kingdom and an “Artiste of the Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique (AFIAP)” of France. He is also a UN award winner in nature photography.

Mr. Parthiv Shah

Parthiv is a photographer, filmmaker, and graphic designer. He has made several documentary films, curated exhibitions, and has several photo books to his credit. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication (CMAC). He has been awarded a senior fellowship in Photography by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Charles Wallace Fellowship, UK, and Fulbright Lectureship award to teach photography at the UCLA, USA.

 

 

Mr. Parveen P Mohandas

Praveen is an accomplished nature photographer, who has traveled and photographed across the spans of India, photographing its rich flora and fauna. He has spent considerable time in the wild and has bagged his accolades, Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy award for photography in 2007, received special mention in RBS-sanctuary wildlife photography awards four times consecutively from 2007. He has been a finalist in BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards in 2009 and ’10. His images have appeared in numerous national dailies and magazines of repute. He holds position of Director of projects at Photomuse, Museum of Photography, Kerala, India.

Mr. Rishi Singhal Rishi

Singhal is the Lead of Photography Design discipline under the department of Communication Design at the National Institute of Design. He received his education at the Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology, Ahmedabad (1998), Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY (2002), and the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Syracuse University, NY (2005). Rishi has been practicing photography for 25 years and has served on the jury of several photography competitions.