OW - "Water" Photography Contest 2025

• OW

• Deadline: December 7th, 2025

• Theme: Water

• Prize: €5,000 + Online Exhibition

• Entry Fees: Free

• REGISTRATION: CLOSED. Click HERE for more Opportunities

We invite photographers of all levels—from seasoned professionals to passionate amateurs—to take part in this year’s photographic exploration of humanity’s deep and multifaceted relationship with water. With over €10,000 in prizes, this competition offers not only recognition but also the opportunity to contribute visually and meaningfully to one of the most urgent conversations of our time.

Through your lens, we encourage you to unravel the intricate tapestry of human experiences with water—from spiritual and cultural rituals to the ordinary yet profound moments of daily life. Water sustains livelihoods, shapes gender roles, influences environmental change, and defines social structures. Your images can reveal how this vital resource connects us all, influencing who we are, how we live, and how we imagine our collective future.

The contest draws inspiration from the United Nations’ theme for World Water Day 2026, which centers on the vital connections between water and gender, examining how access to and control over water resources shape identity, equality, and opportunity across societies.

Guidelines for Photostories

Participants are invited to create photo essays that achieve one or more of the following goals:

• Explore the link between water and identity. Capture how gender, profession, ethnicity, culture, and personal experience influence the ways people access, manage, and relate to water—sustainably or otherwise.

• Highlight challenges and inequalities in access. Document the real-world impacts of water scarcity, contamination, or distribution on communities, and reveal the creative, collective, or traditional responses that arise.

• Celebrate resilience and inclusion. Elevate the voices of those often unheard—women, indigenous groups, local leaders, and youth—whose stories of adaptation and care inspire equitable and sustainable water solutions.

Join us on this global visual journey to illuminate the profound and ever-evolving relationship between water and human identity. Together, let us celebrate the diversity of experiences that define water stewardship and work toward a future in which fair, inclusive, and sustainable water practices benefit all.