Overall Winner*
Winner Planet: Protecting our planet’s natural resources and climate for future generations

Photographer: Sylwia Kolenderska
Caption: Even a single small act can make a big difference

Winner People: Ending poverty and hunger in all forms and ensure dignity and equality

Photographer: Katja Phutaraksa Neef
Caption: Transparency and fair trade can reduce inequalities. As consumers, we predominantly are unaware of the origins of our products and the producers are not paid a fair share for their labour such as the Khmer farmer shown in the photograph.

Winner Peace: Fostering peaceful, just and inclusive societies

Photographer: Lingjun Leathwick
Caption: :Hazdistazí, a spectacular rock formation treasured by original inhabitants (the Navajos) and visitors alike

Winner Partnership: Implementing the sustainable development goals through strong partnerships

Photographer: Alysha Johnson
Caption: Volunteers and Defence Force Members clean landfill waste from Fox River in Operation Tidy Fox

Enter the Photography Competition and win a share of $2,250 to spend on camera gear! Entries close midnight on Sunday 25 August 2019.

Photo credit: Johnson Zhuang

Still photographs can tell stories, transport viewers to other worlds, evoke powerful emotions and challenge opinions. The organisers of the New Zealand Sustainable Development Goals Summit in Auckland on 2 September 2019 invite you to use the power of photography to show us which of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals resonate with you, and how.

Prizes and prize giving

This competition has three prize categories.

1. Theme prizes

The United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) fall into five theme categories. Photographs must be submitted under one of the following theme categories for judging:

• Planet: Protecting our planet’s natural resources and climate for future generations
• People: Ending poverty and hunger in all forms and ensure dignity and equality
• Prosperity: Ensuring prosperous and fulfilling lives in harmony with nature
• Peace: Fostering peaceful, just and inclusive societies
• Partnership: Implementing the sustainable development goals through strong partnerships

We will award $250 in camera store vouchers to the best photograph in each of these categories. The judging panel will have the right to assign a photograph to a different theme if they see fit.

2. Overall winner

Winners of the above theme categories will automatically be entered into the running for the overall prize. For this prize we will award another $500 in camera store vouchers, so the overall winner will receive $750 of vouchers in total.

3. People’s choice award

Photographs shortlisted by the judges will be displayed during the SDG Summit in Auckland on 2 September, located in the University of Auckland’s Business School. Summit registrants will be able to select their favourite exhibited image for a people’s choice award, which will be $500 in camera store vouchers.

Prize giving

The prize giving will be during the closing reception of the SDG Summit on 2 September 2019. The reception will be attended by Summit registrants and invitees, including shortlisted photographers.

Terms and Conditions

1. To enter you must be a student or staff member of the University of Auckland OR Auckland University of Technology OR be registered to attend the SDG Summit 2019.
2. Your photo can be of anything, or anyone, as long as it relates to at least one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The judges will be looking for thought-provoking photos that convey the aspirational nature of the goals and their interconnectedness.
3. Your image can be in colour or black and white; taken inside or out; landscape, portrait, close up, abstract or impressionistic – you choose. You can use a digital camera or mobile phone to take it, but note that it must meet the technical specifications in 7, below.
4. If someone is identifiable in your image, they must be happy to be photographed, displayed in exhibitions, and potentially published on the Summit website and the websites of the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology. Download the model release form below, ask each of your subjects to sign it and include the signed copy or copies with your entry.
5. Your file names (photograph and any model release forms) must include the title of the image and the photographer’s name: e.g. funinthesun_janedoe.
6. Your image must also have a caption that indicates what it covers and which SDG or SDGs it relates to: e.g. Solar power is essential to a clean energy future – SDG 7 (250 characters max.)
7. Technical specifications:
   • Photographs must be submitted in a JPEG format
   • The recommended format is 5000 pixels long side at 300 DPI
   • Photographs taken on a digital camera should be a minimum of                                                             5MB
   • Photographs taken on a mobile phone should be a minimum of 1MB, but please note that this will impact on the quality of the print, so go for the highest resolution your phone is capable of
8. There is no limit to how many photographs you can enter.
9. There must be no branding or logos visible in your images. 
10. You may use editing software to remove branding/logos, enhance your photographs or merge multiple images together. 
11. The image/s you submit, including any post production work, must be your own and not subject to any third party copyright issues. You cannot submit a photo that someone else has taken, even if you set up the photo yourself and someone else just clicked the shutter.
12. You can submit a photograph you took prior to the competition, however it must not have been previously entered into any competitions. If one or more people are identifiable in it, it must meet condition 4, above.
13. Photographs must be submitted by midnight on Sunday 25 August 2019.
14. The entrant retains intellectual property rights over their image/s. For publicity purposes, the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology reserve the right to print and exhibit entries and display them during the Summit, and on our websites and social media channels.  
15. Photographs will be judged by a panel of judges appointed by the Summit Steering Group. Every effort will be made to ensure that judges are impartial and are suitably qualified, however appointments will be made at the sole discretion of the Steering Group.
16. Prizes may not be awarded if, in the opinion of the judging panel, the number of entries which are of sufficient quality to receive a prize is less than the number of prizes available.
17. The decisions of the judging panel will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.  
18. Summit and competition organisers are not eligible to enter the competition. 

      Download model release form

      If your image contains identifiable people you need one of these forms for each person featured.

      Download this PDF 40.9KB