Arctic Council Photography Contest

December 18, 2024

Call for photograph submissions, open until 31 December 2024

The Arctic Council will launch the second edition of its biennial magazine, ‘Pathways: The Arctic Council Magazine’, at the 14th Arctic Council meeting in Spring 2025. The Arctic Council is looking for photos that illustrate life in the Arctic, and photos that relate to the ‘Pathways’ title of the magazine.

Are you an enthusiastic hobby photographer living in, working in or visiting the Arctic? Enter our photo contest by 31 December for a chance to win prizes and have your photo featured in a spread in the magazine.

We are accepting photo submissions in four different categories:

Pathways

This category includes photos that visually express the title of the magazine. It could be photos of anything or any concept that showcases ‘pathways’ in the Arctic.

Landscapes

This category includes photos of natural Arctic landscapes such as fjords, mountains, beaches, tundra, glaciers and more.

Life in the Arctic

This category includes photos that depict life in the Arctic. This could be everyday life, sports, research, hunting, fishing, workshops, meetings and more. If any identifiable people appear in the photo, please be certain that you have permission from the people in the photo before submitting it to the contest and provide the names of each identifiable person and where they appear in the photo.

Plants and animals

This category includes photos of flora and fauna in the Arctic. You must identify the animals and plants in the photos, to the species level if possible.

Contest instructions

This contest is intended for hobby photographers. You may submit up to 2 photographs in each category.

For all submitted photographs, it is required to include where the photo was taken and when. Participants must be the sole authors of their work.

All photos submitted for the magazine must be in .jpg format and should be a minimum of 2272 x 1704 pixels in size with 300 dpi resolution. Winners will be notified by 31 January.

Send your high-resolution photos by 31 December to media@arctic-council.org using “Photo Contest Entry” in the subject line of the email.

Prizes

One first prize winner from each category will have their photo and caption featured inside the magazine and receive a photography book and the printed magazine with an Arctic Council gift pack.

Second and third place winners will be selected for each category and receive a copy of the printed magazine with an Arctic Council gift pack.

Jury and judging

The contest will be judged by the Arctic Council Secretariat in cooperation with the Norwegian Chairship of the Arctic Council. Any decision that the jury makes is final. They have the right to reject photos due to low quality, late submission, offensive content or breaking the contest rules. Winners will be notified by 31 January.

Copyright information

Photographers retain full copyrights to their submitted photographs.

By submitting photos to the contest, entrants allow the Arctic Council and the Arctic Council Secretariat a world-wide, royalty-free and non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, adapt, transmit, communicate, publicly displace and create compilations and derivative works from any submitted photographs. In addition, entrants grant the Arctic Council and the Arctic Council Secretariat the right to deposit the photographs in their archives for safekeeping and to use the photographs for their own education and non-commercial use. Photographers will always be credited by name when their photo is used in any context.

Use of AI

Generally, AI-generated images are not allowed. In recognition that photo editing programs integrate AI-powered editing tools, minor edits that utilize AI technology may be permissible in some cases. See below for details.

If there is reasonable doubt that a photograph has been generated or significantly altered by AI, the Arctic Council Secretariat may request additional information or evidence from the participant to validate the entry’s eligibility.

Prohibited use of AI:

All entries submitted to this photo contest must be the result of direct human effort and creativity.

AI-generated or significantly AI-altered photographs are not eligible for submission.

AI programs or aspects of programs that use text to generate or alter an image is not allowed.

Acceptable AI assisted editing that is allowed:

AI tools or software to enhance or retouch entrant-captured photographs are permissible, as long as the primary creative input remains with the photographer.