The WARS Photography Award is proud to announce a new call for photojournalists who cover wars and conflicts. After the successful editions of 2019 and 2021, the WARS Photography Award is once again seeking to support photojournalists from around the world who work in hostile environments to offer critical information on the impact of conflicts on communities.

After the judging process, the winners will be announced on the WARS Photography Award website and social media platforms. The first-place winner will receive a cash prize of 2000€, and two runner-up winners will receive a cash prize of 1000€ each. The winning entries will also be featured in a touring exhibition which will open in Mantova in September 2023. All submitted works will be reviewed by a panel of experienced judges, who will select the winners based on the quality, creativity, and impact of the submissions. The judging process will be fair and impartial, and the decisions of the judges will be final.

The WARS Photography Award acknowledges the significance of visual storytelling in documenting the impact of wars and conflicts and seeks to support photojournalists who use their camera to inform the public about these realities. We look forward to receiving submissions that capture the raw and emotional impact of wars and conflicts, and to celebrating the winners of this year's award.

HOW TO ENTER

This year, the award will only feature one category, “War Stories” focusing on wars and conflicts. The objective of this category is to highlight the grueling realities of wars and portray the suffering of civilians caught in the middle of these conflicts. It aims to honor the work of photojournalists who have risked their lives to document these events and capture the impact on the people and communities affected by them. The entries in this category may show the physical destruction and devastation caused by war, as well as the emotional toll on individuals and families. They may also showcase the consequences of conflicts, such as displacement, poverty, and long-term effects on communities.

The WARS Photography Award is accepting photo-reportages for its single category this year. Each reportage should consist of 12 to 20 photographs on a single subject related to wars and conflicts, and must have been taken after February 1, 2022. Both published and unpublished stories are eligible for submission.

RULES

Art.1 - Terms and conditions

The photos submitted for the contest must accurately represent reality and should not be staged or manipulated. Portraits are allowed, but it must be clearly indicated in the photo captions (IPTC). The deadline for submission of photos is July 15, 2023 through Picter. Both digital and analog photos are allowed (scanned and saved as specified in Article 3). Basic post-production is acceptable, but the meaning of the photo must not be changed through digital post-production software. Photos can be in color or black and white, but files altered to sepia tones will not be accepted.

Subjects or objects cannot be added or removed from the images, and photos must not be distorted. Only single exposures are permitted, and photomontages are not accepted. In case of any doubts regarding the authenticity of the images, the contest organizers reserve the right to request the original files (RAW) from the candidate. Failure to provide the original files within four days of the formal request may result in disqualification from the contest.

Art.2 - Photography Specifics

The photos submitted must be saved in .jpg format with a minimum resolution of 3000px on the long side, and a maximum size of 5MB. For color images, it is recommended to use the Adobe RGB color profile, while for black and white images, the grayscale Gamma 2.2 is recommended.

The photos must not contain any identifying information about the photographer, such as their name, agency, or publication. Instead, all relevant information should be included in the image's metadata (IPTC). Each photo should be accompanied by detailed journalistic information in English, answering the Five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. These questions are essential for providing basic context and information about the photo.

Art.3 - The Jury

Maral Deghati
Philip Blenkinsop
Rodrigo Abd

As in every edition of the award, the jury is composed of prominent figures in the international photojournalism landscape, including esteemed editors, internationally recognized photojournalists, and recipients of prestigious awards. This year, the three-member jury consists of Maral Deghati, Getty Images Managing Editor; Philip Blenkinsop, Photojournalist from VII; and Rodrigo Abr, Photojournalist from the Associated Press.The photojournalist Fabio Bucciarelli serves as the Artistic Director of the prize and exhibition, working alongside the board of The WARS Award Direction to oversee the evaluation of competitors' admission criteria and ensure the jury's impartiality. All applications will be reviewed and assessed equitably by the jury.

Art.4 - The Award

After the judging process is complete, the winner and the names of the two runners-up will be announced on the website www.atlanteguerre.it during the first week of September. The winner will receive a cash prize of €2,000 and the runners-up will each receive €1,000. The cash prize will be transferred to the winner within sixty (60) days of the announcement by the association "46 Parallelo”. The awarded projects will be featured in a touring exhibition which open in Mantova in September 2023 during the Literature Festival. The winner and the two finalists will also be published in the coming issue of the Atlas of War 2024.

Art.5 - Rights and Duties

The photographer must be the author and copyright owner of the submitted images. The photographer will maintain the ownership of the copyright of the submitted photos. The winner and the two runners-up agree to grant the association "46 Parallelo" non-exclusive rights to use the images for communication on all media, including social media, online and paper, and for the traveling exhibits, the "Atlas of Wars and Conflicts," and all promotional activities without remuneration. The association "46 Parallelo" guarantees to always credit the author of the photographs and will not give others the right to use the images outside the contexts and publications mentioned above. The finalists of the WARS award commit to providing high-quality images to the association "46 Parallelo" no later than August 15, 2023 to allow for large format prints for the traveling exhibition.

Additional information

The association "46° Parallelo" was founded in Trento in 2008 by a group of journalists and reporters engaged in documenting conflict zones. In the last fifteen years, the association has been involved in several projects in schools, universities, and museums, including talks, lectures, photography exhibitions, films, and documentaries. "46° Parallelo" is the publisher of the annual publication, "The Atlas of Wars and Conflict," a map of conflicts around the world, in collaboration with Amnesty International, UNHCR, and MSF. For more information, please visit atlanteguerre.it. The WARS Photography Award is a project in partnership with Montura, Fondazione Trento, and Intersos NGO.

Previous Winners

The winners of past editions are as follows: In WARS 2019, the first prize went to Laurence Geai for her poignant work on the Mosul conflict, capturing images of civilians trapped in clashes with ISIS. The runners-up for that edition were Manu Brabo, a Spanish photojournalist, with his work on the Ukrainian conflict, and Dar Yasin, whose work on Kashmir was also recognized with a Pulitzer Prize.

In the WARS 2021 edition, there were two sections: one dedicated exclusively to the pandemic and its effects, and the other, as always, focused on works developed in conflict zones. For the COVID section, the winner was Michele Spatari with "No Place Like Hope: the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa." The two runners-up were Rodrigo Abd with "Naked Peru" and Yan Boechat with "Death in the Amazon." In the War Stories section, the winner was Giles Clarke with "Yemen; Conflict+Chaos," and the two runners-up were Finbarr O'Reilly with "Tigrai Crisis" and Stepanov Anatolii with "War in Ukraine."

https://www.atlanteguerre.it/winner-2019/