Global Development Photo Contest

The King Center on Global Development invites current Stanford undergraduate and graduate students, as well as predoctoral research fellows, and postdoctoral scholars, to submit photos to the King Center's 2023 Global Development Photo Contest.

Submitted photographs must have been taken by the entrant within three years. Only Stanford students and researchers enrolled for fall quarter 2023, as well as current predocs and postdocs, can submit photos.

The contest welcomes photo submissions relevant to themes of global development. These could include, but are not limited to:

poverty alleviation
health
education
sanitation
environmental challenges
urbanization or infrastructure
working conditions.

Photos will be judged on technical quality, composition, creativity, originality, and sense of place.
Winners will be announced by October 27, 2023.
Three winners will be selected and will receive $100 each.
Photos will be displayed in the King Center offices and may be used in printed materials and/or online.
Winners are also eligible to receive a copy of their photo printed on canvas.

For a photo in which a person is recognizable, you should secure a model release from the subject wherever possible. If the individual is a minor, you will need parental or guardian consent. Releases are generally not required from people who are identifiable in a photograph of a street or public place provided that the photograph is reasonably related to the subject matter and the identifiable people are not the focus of the photograph. A sample release can be found here.

How to enter

Upload one photograph per submission form; there is a limit of three photographs per person. A new entry form will need to be completed for each upload.

Submit your photos here

In order to be considered for prizes, please include the following information on the submission form.

Your first and last name
SUID number
Stanford email address
Department, degree, and projected graduation year (if applicable)
Location the photo was taken (city and country)
Month and year the photo was taken
Photo title
A short description of the photo you’re submitting (what/who, your connection, when and why the photo was taken, etc.)

All digital files must be 10 megabytes or smaller, must be in a .JPEG, .jpg, .png or HEIC format. Eligible photos must also be 3,200 pixels wide or tall. Please submit the highest-quality image you have within these parameters. Please name your attachment(s) in the following manner: last name_first name_location (e.g. Smith_John_Dhaka_Bangladesh).

By entering the contest, entrants grant Stanford University a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivative works of the entries, in whole or in part, in any media now existing or subsequently developed, for any educational, promotional, publicity, exhibition, archival, scholarly, and all other standard purposes. Any photograph reproduced will include credits as feasible. Neither the King Center on Global Development nor Stanford University will be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses.

Questions

Please contact King Center Program Associate Neil Pedreira at np1@stanford.edu.

Winners of the 2022 Global Development Photo Contest

Moogdho Mahzab, Postdoctoral Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment

Jashore, Bangladesh

"A brick-loader in Bangladesh, working hard in a very challenging situation to earn his living. This is the typical work for brick loaders that they do for the whole season. The face enormous health hazard from their work. Also, given the demand for clay-fired bricks, there are more than million of workers working on brick kilns. The photo shows the sad truth about development - low paid labor, environmental hazards, cost-effective production method in LMICs."

Zeina Hashem, BA '25, Department of Psychology

Saqara, Giza, Egypt

"In the rural area of Saqqara in the Giza governorate, farmers live a much more calm and peaceful life than those living in the bustling city of Cairo just a 30-minute car ride away. When asked if they would rather live in the city, the farmers laughed and told us that they would much rather be surrounded by masses of greenery and clear skies than the traffic and busyness of Cairo. In the photograph, a farmer's young daughter drinks from one of many taps that provide filtered water to the large communities of farmers and their families in the area. This family in particular was incredibly kind and welcoming, offering us tea and snacks, and stories about their lives."

Anna Queiroz, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Communication

Aldeia Papagaio, Alta Floresta, MT, Brazil

"This photo shows a female middle school student from an indigenous village in Brazil wearing a VR headset. This photo was taken by Zaz Productions during a large-scale project in Brazil targeting digital inclusion and environmental awareness. The project aimed to reduce the gap between private and public schools, allow the students to engage with technology, and learn about human actions in mitigating climate change causes and consequences. A total of 12 thousand middle and high school students from low-income and indigenous communities in Brazil participated in the project. This was a collaboration between the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford and Instituto Edp in Brazil."