EU-OSHA Sponsors Photo Contest, Seeks Safe Working Shots
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is sponsoring a "pan-European photo competition" focused on occupational safety and health. The competition is open to anyone with a camera, but professional photographers will judge the submissions based on creativity, originality, and "universal European appeal." First prize will win 3,000 euros, second prize will win 2,000 euros, and third prize will win 1,000 euros. An additional prize of 1,000 euros will be awarded to the winner of an online poll in which the public will select its favorite photograph from the submitted entries. The deadline to send in a photo that in some way captures safe and healthy working environments in Europe is August 15.
"Wherever you may be in Europe, we'd like to invite you to take part in our new photography competition," says EU-OSHA, in a flyer for the contest. "We want participants to be as imaginative and creative as possible, and to explore ways in which photography can highlight the need for safe and healthy workplaces. . . . Our competition challenges everyone living in the EU to grab their camera and capture their own image of safety and health at work. Place the human being at the heart of your photograph and share your perspective on what it means to be safe in the workplace."
The winning photos will be chosen in September, and the winning photographers will be notified by October. EU-OSHA says the prizes will be awarded for the most outstanding photographs in terms of artistic value and best embracing the competition topic. The contest consists of two rounds of evaluation for the first three prizes. In round one, each judge in a panel of photographic experts will select 10 photographs from among all eligible entries, based on the quality of each photo and the creativity it displays. The entries selected in round one will be put forward to round two, at which point the judges will collectively select a first, second, and third place winner based on the same criteria.
EU-OSHA notes that the decisions of the judges will be final and binding. Included in the judging panel are photographers Mertxe Alarcon, Clemente Bernad, Miguel Angel Gaueca, and Ambroise Tezenas. These four will be joined by safety and health expert Peter Rimmer, the former director of information with the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Rimmer also is president of the award jury of the international OSH film festival at the World Congress of Safety and Health at Work.
For more information and contest registration, go to http://www.osha-photocompetition.eu/home_en.html#.