Vallisneri Photo Contest. National call for scientific and naturalistic photos
21.07.2023
Funded by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the National Biodiversity Future Center places a call that brings focus to climate change as the most urgent problem of our time through the lens of photography.
With Biodiversità in crisi as the theme for the 2023 edition of the Vallisneri Photo Contests, the call is promoted and sponsored by the University of Padua Department of Biology (DiBio) in collaboration with the author photography agency Contrasto.
As a call to action, the competition entrusts photographers to unveil the crisis of biodiversity as a means of protecting Earth by raising public awareness.
The call is launched in connection with events of the UNIfest, which brings science and art to Padua’s Giardini dell’Arena. Participation is free and open to professional and amateur photographers, by inviting them to present works that focus on biological signals of climate change taken within the geographical landscape of Italy and within the Mediterranean basin.
Photographers are encouraged to explore a range of images from the microscopic lens of viruses to the macroscopic viewpoints of an entire ecosystem. Participants may submit one work through a single photograph, under the “Artificial Intelligence” category, or as a series of images for the reportage section. Images can be in black and white or in colour, provided that they are unedited and original. All images must be taken with a photographic device (camera, smartphone, tablet, action camera, or drone). Images submitted under the Artificial Intelligence category may be created through the use of special software.
Entries must be submitted to vallisneriphotocontest@contrastobooks.com by 15 January 2024.
Submitted works will be evaluated by a jury composed of researchers from the areas of visual arts, natural and life sciences, and experts from the world of photography.
Winners are eligible for various prizes, including 7 separate cash awards for single, reportage, and AI images presented during an award ceremony to take place in 2024 that coincides with the 40th anniversary of the University of Padua foundation of its Department of Biology.
Selected photos will be displayed in a temporary exhibition space at the University exhibition center. From there, the works will be permanently placed in the Interdepartmental Vallisneri Biology Complex of the University of Padua. The complex honours the great Antonio Vallisneri as the main exponent of the Galilean medical and naturalistic tradition between the 17th and 18th centuries.
More details are available at www.nbfc.it/vallisneriphotocontest
