Announcing the UrbanLinks Photo Contest 2023!

Aerial view of Ho Chi Minh City in evening

CONTEST NOW CLOSED

The final date to submit to the Urbanlinks Photo Contest was July 30, 2023. Thanks to all submitters for your amazing photos! Keep an eye on this space for a winners announcement.

Do you have photos highlighting USAID’s work in the Urban sector? Share them now in our 2023 UrbanLinks Photo Contest!

USAID’s urban sector works with partner countries to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization across several regions. This includes strengthening municipal governance and accountability, increasing domestic resource mobilizations, and improving urban service delivery among other issues. We also work to address critical global challenges that are rooted in urban issues, such as ocean plastic pollution resulting from poor municipal waste management in rapidly growing cities of the developing world. Now we are looking for fresh, new, relevant, solution-oriented photos that tell a cohesive and compelling story about the work USAID does with urban populations!

Announcing the 2023 USAID UrbanLinks Photo Contest!
Your photos will be featured in USAID publications, websites, and social media.

Submission Guidelines

ELIGIBILITY: This contest is open to USAID staff, USAID implementers, and partners.

INSTRUCTIONS: Please send photos as email attachments to usaidurban@gmail.com, with the subject line “2023 UrbanLinks Photo Contest.” If your photos are too large to send over email, please upload them to Google Drive or Dropbox, and include links to the photos in your email.

DEADLINE: July 30th

Include the following information in the email—either in the body or in an attached file—for each photo submitted:

  • Name of photographer, email address, and project and/or organizational affiliation.
  • Name of copyright holder: If the photo was produced while under contract to USAID, USAID holds the copyright. (As such, it is  a U.S. Government work and the photo’s copyright is in the public domain.) If the photo was produced while under a USAID grant or cooperative agreement, the grantee, implementer, or their partners may be able to assert copyright. Personal photography receiving no funding from the U.S. Government or its agencies is the property of the photographer.
  • Location: Please include as much detail as possible. At the very least, this must include the city and country.
  • Caption: A description of who and/or what is in the photo and what is happening, in no more than 4-5 sentences. Please provide as much detail as possible; we encourage you to include quotes and statistics. In the description, please describe how the photo is a part of, or relates to, USAID urban programming.
  • Theme: Please indicate in your email one or more of the following themes that your photo illustrates:
    • Urban Communities
    • Air Quality
    • Ocean Plastics
    • Climate

For examples and ideas, check out the USAID Urban Flickr account.

Photos must meet the following technical requirements:

  • Photos must be original and depict USAID programming or results of USAID programming.
  • Photos must be submitted as a JPG or PNG file.
  • Please send the highest resolution photo possible (minimum width of 1920 pixels).
  • We will not accept a photo with an overlaid logo or text.
  • We will not accept a photo sent inside a Word document or PDF.
  • Submissions should capture USAID’s urban work. Examples of work with partners and beneficiaries are welcomed, provided that the caption describes the connection to USAID work. 

You have until July 30 to submit photos for the photo contest. Entries will be judged on relevance to the themes outlined above, as well as photo composition, originality, and technical quality. Winning photos will be announced in late Fall. We will feature winners here on urban-links.org, highlight them on our social media accounts, and publish all submissions to the USAID Urban Flickr account.

Disclaimer

You are granting USAID an unrestricted license to reproduce your photo in any format, including print products, on the web, and in social media. Please make sure you read the disclaimer below for full details.

By submitting a photograph to this competition you:

  1. Declare that you, your organization, or USAID own the copyright of the photograph and that it is your original work or that you are authorized to share these photos.
  2. Declare that you have permission to use the visual image of any identifiable individual in the photograph for entry into the competition and that the image may be published as stipulated in the photo contest guidelines. You may be asked to provide the standard release agreement (linked in previous sentence).
  3. Agree that USAID will not be responsible for the infringement of any third party rights in the photograph, moral or otherwise, that may arise as a result of your actions or omissions and that you indemnify USAID against all legal fees, claims, damages, and other expenses that may be incurred as a result of your breach of the contest rules.
  4. Grant reproduction rights for USAID use and in doing so, agree that USAID can use your photograph for the purposes of the competition and also for future reproduction in perpetuity on websites, literature, and any other materials at USAID’s discretion.