UNESCO-UNEVOC Photo Competition 2012

Work has many faces – show us what it looks like in your country!

See the Winners Photo gallery

What is “work”?

Work is…
… an identity
… a place
… a path
… a fundamental right.

Every working person brings their own set of skills to the workplace. Whether you are an amateur or professional photographer, capture the working environments in your country and send us your best pictures of the world of work!

In the course of their life, most people spend more time working than at any other waking endeavour. A person’s occupation has an important role to play in defining their role in society, building their identity, and giving meaning to their life. At the same time, work is essential in providing people with food, shelter and basic care.

Around the world, the working population has many faces. The vast majority of jobs require technical and vocational skills, which are acquired in informal settings, on the job, or in formal settings such as schools or training institutions. Manual and physical labour have a central role to play in building a country’s economy. However, in a world that is shifting from industrial to information age, the traditional distinction between manual, “blue-collar”, and intellectual, “white-collar”, work is blurring.

We are looking for a wide range of photos, portraying learning and working people – women and men – in action. What do different occupations look like in your country? What does training for the world of work look like? Your pictures could depict the traditional crafts and trades, show technical and vocational occupations in the modern workplace or present learning situations in which people are preparing for the world of work.

The winning photographs will be published on the UNESCO-UNEVOC website and will be featured in an upcoming milestone publication on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of UNESCO-UNEVOC’s establishment in 2012.

Submission Process

• Email your photograph(s) to photo(at)unevoc.unesco.org with your full name, address, nationality, job title and a short description of the photograph(s) by 9 March 2012.
• The competition is open to everyone, amateur and professional photographers, in and outside the UN system.
• UNESCO-UNEVOC reserves the right to contact photographers to confirm information on the submission form or for any other purpose considered necessary.
• Photographers whose contact information has changed during the course of the contest should notify photo(at)unevoc.unesco.org.
• Winners will be notified via email on 16 March 2012. The winners will be announced on the UNESCO-UNEVOC website on 23 March 2012.

Photo: During an international arts workshop in Pakistan in 2006, a photographer took a series of portraits of workers from Gadani ship-breaking yard © UNESCO/Alix Wurdak

Photo on UNEVOC start page © ILO / Maillard J.