2026 Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest
2026 Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads Photo Contest is now open for entries!
UNESCO invites young people from around the world 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.
Short description
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 the 2026 edition of the "Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads" photo contest, young participants aged 14 to 25 are invited to submit photographs illustrating "Living Heritage along the Silk Roads". Through this theme, the photo contest aims to highlight how traditions and cultural and ritual practices together reflect the interconnected histories of the people of different regions linked by these routes. Across centuries, this shared living heritage has safeguarded collective memory and enabled the transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural expressions from East Asia to the Mediterranean, across Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and the Middle East.
From the cultural landmarks to everyday practices and forms of knowledge transmission, participants are invited to document the visible and less visible elements that sustain communities and keep the shared legacy of the Silk Roads alive.
By highlighting both historical and contemporary expressions of tangible and intangible living heritage, the contest emphasizes their role in fostering intercultural dialogue, the transmission of knowledge, mutual respect and ultimately more peaceful societies.
Two age categories:
➜ 14 to 17 years old
➜ 18 to 25 years old
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.
Photo entries will be reviewed by an International Selection Committee.
Eligibility
UNESCO invites young people from around the world, aged 14 to 25, to partecipate in the competition.
Prize
Three winners in each age category will receive cameras:
➜ First prize: Professional camera
➜ Second prize: Semi-professional camera
➜ Third prize: Standard-model digital camera
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.
Entry fees
The competition is free to enter.
