Join the 2026 Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest
UNESCO invites young people from around the world, aged 14 to 25, to pick up their cameras and send their best photos to the 8th edition of our Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads International Photo Contest.
The UNESCO Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads photo contest, is organized within the framework of UNESCO’s Silk Roads Programme, this initiative promotes photography as a powerful medium to encourage cultural exchange, foster mutual understanding, and promote peace among communities across the Silk Roads regions.
For this 2026 edition, under the theme “Living Heritage along the Silk Roads”, young photographers are invited to capture how traditions, cultural expressions, and ritual practices reflect the interconnected histories of peoples across these regions.
Young participants may draw inspiration from, but are not limited to:
- Shared traditional knowhow, artisans practicing crafts such as weaving, embroidery, ceramics, or pottery or other expressions of living cultural heritage.
- Traditional sports and games practiced or transmitted across generations.
- Music, musical instruments, dance, or oral storytelling performed within communities.
- Culinary traditions, gastronomy, and food production passed down through generations.
- The living transmission of knowledge, skills and ideas that have fuelled the dynamic cultural and intellectual exchanges of the Silk Roads.
- Intercommunity and multicultural gatherings during celebrations, life milestones, or everyday moments in diverse societies.
- Portraits of individuals and communities from Silk Roads regions capturing their cultural identity, resilience, and knowledge, as well as moments of joy, celebration, learning, and everyday life.
Key Information:
- Deadline:
Tuesday 30 June 2026, at 23:59:59 (GMT +2)
- Age Categories: Two categories:
– 14 to 17 years old
– 18 to 25 years old
- Prizes: Three winners in each age category will receive cameras:
– First prize: Professional camera
– Second prize: Semi-professional camera
– Third prize: Standard-model digital camera
- Visibility:
Additionally, around 60 of the best photos from the contest will be featured in the professional photo album “Youth Lens on the Silk Roads” and may be showcased in exhibitions organized worldwide.
- Selection:
Photo entries will be reviewed by an International Selection Committee.
- For instructions on how to participate, click here
- More information on the photo contest
- More information on UNESCO’s Silk Roads Programme
- Contact: silkroadsphotocontest@unesco.org
#UNESCOSilkRoads
The Silk Roads in short
For thousands of years the Silk Roads have been an extensive network of trade and communication routes, connecting civilizations and bringing peoples and cultures from across the world into contact with one another. As well as permitting the exchange of goods, they facilitated the interaction of ideas, cuisines, languages, and fashions, shaping the cultures and identities of the contemporary world. The Silk Roads linked vast areas of the world – originating in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, then crossing Central Asia, the Russian steppe and Indian subcontinent, the Iranian and Anatolian plateaux, and the Arabian Peninsula. They also stretch through North and Northeast Africa, from Tanzania to Morocco, before passing through Eastern and Southern Europe, reaching France and the Iberian Peninsula.
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In a rapidly changing world, where new challenges and transformations shape societies and their educational and cultural institutions, this contest offers young people an opportunity to share their creativity and vision for a more inclusive world, where tolerance and intercultural dialogue foster mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence. In this spirit, UNESCO, through its many initiatives, works to promote access to knowledge and education, support learning, and engage youth worldwide.
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