INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 2024
“H20 – The Nature of Water”
PREMISE
Water is life, water is creation, destruction and regeneration, water is power, water is responsibility, it is hydrogen that embraces oxygen, water is apnea and breathing, water is a right and a responsibility… water is the thread that unites men and passions from the source to the mouth.”
“H20 – The Nature of Water”, a theme that aims to give space to an undisputed value such as water, in all its forms, to document at a national level the territory of the River Po, from the source to the Delta, and the entire area of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, but not only, it aims to involve photographers from all over the world, to document at an international level the 738 Biosphere Reserves distributed in 134 countries, of which 20 in Italy. (https://www.unesco.org/en)
The three promoting Reserves, Delta del Po, Po Grande, and Appennino Tosco-Emiliano with this project address a national and international audience of photographers to obtain images related to the proposed themes, whose winning ones will become part of a traveling exhibition that will lead to the dissemination of the Mab program, and related cultural events (conferences, artistic events, visits to significant places) related to the themes of science, climate, art, spirituality, human uses, biodiversity.) for the diffusion of knowledge of the value of water and the mission of the Biosphere Reserves.
The Program MAB (Man and the Biosphere) is an international recognition initiated by UNESCO in the 1970s with the aim of improving the relationship between man and the environment, promoting sustainable development and reducing the loss of biological and cultural biodiversity.
The water:
– It's a chemical compound in which two hydrogen atoms are bonded to the oxygen atom.
– It's among the main constituents of the ecosystems and is the basis of all known life forms.
– The same is also due to it origin of life on our planet.
– It covers 71% of the planet's surface.
– Takes more shapes in nature; solid, gaseous, liquid.
– It can be in the form of fresh or salt water.
– It represents approximately 65% of the human body mass.
– It goes through a continuous cycle (the so-called water cycle), a continuous exchange of water between the atmosphere, soil, surface water, deep water and living beings.
– It covers 70.8% of the Earth's surface.
– 1,360,000,000 km3 ,The estimated volume of water on Earth.
– Approximately 97.3% of the total are marine waters.
– Approximately 0.02% of the total is fresh water.
– It's food, hygiene, agriculture, industry, energy source.
– It's life and destruction.
– It's “a universal and fundamental human right” enshrined for the first time in resolution UN, 28 July 2010.
REGULATION
ART 1 - ORGANIZATION
The International Photographic Competition “H20 – The Nature of Water” is conceived, organized and promoted by:
Po Delta Regional Park,
Authority of the Po river basin
Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park
ART 2 - DESCRIPTION
The competition is a tool to enhance the cultural and natural heritage of all the MAB-UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (MAB Program Man and Environment – Man and Biosphere).
The contest starts on DECEMBER 20, 2024 and it ends MARCH 30, 2025.
The competition is open to all free.
ART 3 - CATEGORIES
The Competition includes 6 different categories:
TO)H20 and…Nature of Emilia Romagna
Natural life: Animals, plants, environments.
No human presence or man-made constructions are allowed (e.g. cities, roads, electricity pylons, people, etc.).
The images must be taken in the three promoting MaB Biosphere Reserves: Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Po Delta and Po Grande.
The water element, in any form (water, fog, rain, ice, etc.) must be present but not necessarily the protagonist.
B)H20 and…Nature
Natural life: Animals, plants, environments.
No human presence or man-made constructions are allowed (e.g. cities, roads, electricity pylons, people, etc.)
Images can be made anywhere but special emphasis will be given to images made in 738 Biosphere Reserves distributed in 134 countries (https://www.unesco.org/en).
The water element, in any form (water, fog, rain, ice, etc.) must be present but not necessarily the protagonist.
C) H20 ..People of Emilia Romagna
All human activities related to water.
Fishermen, working outdoors in the fields, a child drinking from a fountain, a bottle of water in the hands of an elderly person, anything can be WATER and…
The images must be taken in the three promoting MaB Biosphere Reserves: Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Po Delta and Po Grande.
The water element, in any form (water, fog, rain, ice, etc.) must be present but not necessarily the protagonist.
D)H20 ..People
All human activities related to water.
Fishermen, working outdoors in the fields, a child drinking from a fountain, a bottle of water in the hands of an elderly person, anything can be WATER and…
Images can be made anywhere but special emphasis will be given to images made in 738 Biosphere Reserves distributed in 134 countries (https://www.unesco.org/en).
The water element, in any form (water, fog, rain, ice, etc.) must be present but not necessarily the protagonist.
AND) H20 and…climate change in Emilia Romagna
Energy source, innovation, weather events, floods, droughts, …
The images must be taken in the three promoting MaB Biosphere Reserves: Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Po Delta and Po Grande.
F) H20 and…climate change
Energy source, innovation, weather events, floods, droughts, …
Images can be made anywhere but special emphasis will be given to images made in 738 Biosphere Reserves distributed in 134 countries (https://www.unesco.org/en).
SPECIAL PRIZES
G)H20 and…PUBLIC AWARD
The image most voted by the public. This judgment will be independent of the technical jury and will be decreed by online voting open to all (see ART8 of the regulation).
H) BEST WILDLIFE PHOTO
I) BEST REPORTAGE PHOTO
L) BEST PORTRAIT PHOTO
M) BEST BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO
N) BEST PHOTO Po Delta Biosphere Reserve
OR) BEST PHOTO Po Grande Biosphere Reserve
P) BEST PHOTO Tuscan-Emilian Apennines Biosphere Reserve
TOTAL 38 AWARDED WORKS
(1st, 2nd and 3rd prize + 2 works awarded ex aequo for the ABCDEF sections and the individual special prizes)
ART 4 - PREPARATION OF FILES -
Images must be in JPEG format, sRGB color profile, with any aspect ratio (2:3, 4:3, square, panorama) with minimum dimensions on the longest side of 2500px and a weight not exceeding 2 Mb.
If these limits are not respected, the system does not allow the upload of images.
The file name is not important, as to guarantee the complete anonymity of the images and the objectivity of the judgment, at the time of upload, the files are automatically renamed by the system, according to a random alphanumeric code, so as to make them completely anonymous also for the competition secretariat that evaluates their admissibility.
The identification data of the participant will be recovered only at the end of the vote by the jury and thus the paternity of the awarded works can be disclosed only following the decisions of the jury.
Images must not contain graphic elements such as frames, dates, names, logos, exif data or any other additional information. The presence of such elements will result in the exclusion of the image.
Digital post-processing applied to the image should be limited to saturation and exposure correction, with moderate unsharp masking and clipping no greater than 30%.
HDR, B&W and panoramic photos (Photomerge) are allowed.
Images generated with AI (Artificial Intelligence) software will not be accepted
In case the jury finds excessive post-production or artifacts, the original unprocessed file (raw/jpeg sequence) will be requested.
ART 5 - PARTICIPATE
The competition is open to amateur, amateur and professional photographers from all over the world, who have reached the age of majority (18 years). Persons (and their families) belonging to the organization and the jury cannot participate.
Each participant can submit a maximum of 3 images for each category, for a maximum of 18 images.
Participation in the Competition is only possible ONLINE by filling out the appropriate form, accessible from the website http://www.MABPHOTO.it.
- By clicking on PARTICIPATE the participation panel will open:
- 1 – CHOOSE THE THEME
- Select the section or sections you wish to participate in
- Click on Following.
- How many photos?
- Please enter a number between 1 and 3 (one, two or three photos).
- Select the photo you want to insert via Select files.
- A message will appear informing you that the photo has been successfully uploaded.
- Below the image the button Basket, allows you to delete the image and upload another one to replace it.
- Continue uploading up to a maximum of 3 photos for each ABCDEF section, for a maximum of 18 photos total.
- Enter the title.
- Select the country (Nation) where the photo was taken from the drop-down menu.
- Select the location (UNESCO MAB site) where the photo was taken.
- If the location is not listed, select OTHER and manually enter the location.
- Click Following.
- Fill out the “Participation Form”, entering your name and surname, e-mail, complete address and telephone number.
- By pressing SEND the uploaded data and images become definitive.
IT WILL NO LONGER BE POSSIBLE TO MODIFY THE IMAGES INSERTED.
You will receive a confirmation email containing the data entered for each image and a message that the upload was successful.
For any problem write an email to: info@mabphoto.it
ART 6 - VERIFICATION
The candidate images, will be previously evaluated by the organizing secretariat of the competition, which will admit them to the competition and to the ONLINE gallery or exclude them (for all cases in which the image is not relevant and/or compliant with the regulations, see art.3 and art.4).
The accepted images will be visible ONLINE on the site within 24-48 hours.
ART 7 – IMAGE GALLERY
The images admitted to participation (See ART 6), will become part of an ONLINE gallery, visible on the FOTOGALLERY website page. The images will appear divided by category. The order of appearance will be random and independent of the application date: at each access the position of the photos will be different (RANDOM) to guarantee equal visibility for everyone.
ART 8 - VOTE
PUBLIC AWARD.
Through a special form, accessible by clicking on “VOTE PHOTO”, the public will be able to express 6 preferences, 1 for each category.
All votes will have the same weight in the final ranking; it will not be up to the individual voter to establish a ranking of merit (1st-2nd-3rd place), each vote assigned will have a value of 1 and will be added to the others received by the image.
No partial rankings for images will be published so as not to influence voters.
The website has a control and guarantee system on the votes that can be cast from the same email address to prevent multiple repeated votes.
Participating photographers can also cast their votes under the same conditions as other voters.
ART 9 - JURY
The jury is made up of:
President of the Jury
Milko Marchetti Professional Photographer
Aida Morelli President of the Po Delta Park
Cristiano Meoni Journalist
Fernanda Moroni Biodiversity Expert
Roberta Levet Communication Expert
Sergio Stignani Nature Photographer
Three prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for each of the 6 sections (ABCDEF), for a total of 18 prizes, to which will be added the “Audience Award” (G) and 7 Special Prizes (HILMNOP).
For each section, two additional images will be selected, deemed worthy by the jury and marked with WORK REPORTED, for a total of 38 prizes awarded.
Prizes cannot be combined.
The winning photos will be requested from the winners in high resolution so that they can be printed in 100×70 format on a 1cm thick forex panel, and will become part of a travelling exhibition, accompanied by information panels relating to Mab, Mab Rer, water, biodiversity, climate change, man/environment, etc.
JUDGMENT CRITERIA
The jury will evaluate the images for visual impact, composition, originality, technique, creativity, the ability to communicate a message, a feeling or an emotion ...
ART 10 - CALENDAR
Competition Start December 20, 2024 at 00.01 AM (UTC + 1.00 h) Rome-Italy
Competition Deadline March 30, 2025 at 11.59 PM (UTC + 1.00 h) Rome-Italy
Jury Meeting 05 April 2025
Award Ceremony April 19, 2025 at 16.00 PM (UTC + 1.00 h) Rome-Italy
ART 11 - AWARDS
Total prize money: over 6000 euros.
The prizes are expected in photographic material (tripods, backpacks, photo accessories, etc., but also local products, books, etc.)
ART 12 - AWARD GIVING
The awards ceremony will take place on 19 APRIL 2025
at the Sala dei Marinati in Comacchio (Ferrara), headquarters of the Po Delta Park.
The works awarded, reported and admitted to the competition will be screened.
The travelling photographic exhibition will be inaugurated “H20 THE NATURE OF WATER”
composed of the 38 winning images.
ART 13 – COPYRIGHT
All rights relating to the images entered into the competition remain the property of the author.
The organizers of the competition reserve the right to reproduce the images entered, for the purposes of promoting the event (publication on the website www.mabphoto.it and on websites linked to the contest; projection in audiovisual format during promotional events; preparation of the exhibition dedicated to the competition, and for anything else that is necessary for the promotion of the competition.
The photos sent will not be returned, only the admitted and awarded works will become part of the photographic archive of the promoters (Po Delta Regional Park, Po River Basin Authority, and National Park Tuscan-Emilian Apennines), such photos may be used for promotional purposes without profit, always citing the name and surname of the author, who remains the owner of the work.
The content of the images is the sole responsibility of the participants (e.g. possession of the necessary permits for the photographs entered, including releases and authorization from the copyright holders – if different from the photographer).
By completing the registration form, the participants accept the complete regulation of the competition.
The personal data of the participants will be used only for internal organizational purposes of the Competition, in compliance with national and international laws on privacy.
