Checklist for Implementation
The following is a list of things to consider when using the photo contest method as a creative engagement tool.
1. Define Contest Themes
Choose compelling categories that align with your message, such as pollinators, edible biodiversity, or urban green spaces. For example, in the use of the method within the PLANET4B agrobiodiversity case study, themes included agrobiodiversity in action, urban gardening, and seed stories and monoculture compared with diverse faming systems. Categories could also be adapted beyond the biodiversity theme, to sustainable transport, citizen science projects or community cooking.
In this video Borbála Lipka discusses the themes that were selected for the PLANET4B Biodiversity Photo Contest:
2. Set Clear Entry Criteria
Clearly explain how the photos will be used and what participants can expect to gain from taking part. Establish submission rules, image quality standards, and ethical guidelines, and if applicable a short accompanying narrative. If entries are submitted online, ensure compliance with data protection laws. Consider banning AI-generated images to maintain authenticity.
3. Promote Effectively and Collaborate for Greater Reach
Leverage social media, community groups, and environmental networks to spread the word. As well as advertising digitally, consider also advertising on public, community and/ or workplace notice boards to attract interest.
This method lends itself well to working with a particular community, i.e. it could be run within a volunteer network. It can also be used to create a community, especially if people are collaborating on a shared interest. Consider also partnering with (e.g.) schools, community centres, faith groups, and conservation organisations to boost participation and expand your audience.
4. Offer Meaningful Incentives
Encourage engagement with prizes that align with your theme, such as seed kits, photography workshops, or feature opportunities in exhibitions. Ensure these are culturally sensitive. If budget restraints prevent you from paying for prizes think about what else you can offer contributors – is there a training course or workshop that can be offered, could they choose one of the categories for the next photo contest?
5. Make It Inclusive and Accessible
Consider all skill levels and demographics when designing the contest. Ensure guidelines are easy to follow and the entry process is as straightforward as possible. If you are running the session with a community group, then you could run a training session on photography.
6. Encourage Storytelling
To combine the method with a photovoice contest, ask participants to share the story behind their photos. To explore further the role of storytelling with photos visit the Photovoice Method.
7. Create a Tradition
Consider running the contest annually to build momentum. Previous exhibitions can serve as powerful promotions for future contests. The themes could build on each other.
8. Provide a Tools Library (if feasible)
To allow people access to better cameras, consider running a tools library and renting equipment. Be mindful of costs and insurance when setting this up.
Using a Photo Contest in a Research Setting
A photo contest can be used as a research method to explore how people perceive, represent, and value biodiversity in their everyday lives. By inviting participants to submit images, researchers gain access to diverse perspectives and creative expressions that may not surface in interviews or surveys. Observing the images chosen, the narratives attached, and the ways they are shared can reveal much about cultural understandings of biodiversity and about how communities engage with nature and place.
Define research objectives
- Begin by clarifying what the photo contest is intended to investigate, while leaving space for unanticipated insights that may emerge through submissions.
- Objectives may include examining how biodiversity is visually represented in different contexts, how people use photography to express values or concerns, or how imagery can mobilise awareness and advocacy.
- Researchers could focus on the role of the contest itself, studying how collective participation, judging processes, or exhibitions shape meanings and engagement.
- Objectives should reflect both the interests of participants and the wider research aims, for example contributing to debates on cultural values of biodiversity, documenting local ecological knowledge, or testing visual methods for participatory governance.
Data generation
- A photo contest generates a variety of data, including digital images, captions or short narratives submitted with photographs, and records of judging processes or public voting.
- Additional material can be captured through researcher fieldnotes on how the contest was organised, promoted, and received, as well as feedback from participants and audiences.
- Exhibitions, online galleries, or community events associated with the contest can also provide data on audience responses and the circulation of images.
- Managing this variety of data requires strategies such as cataloguing entries with clear metadata, storing files securely, and ensuring participant anonymity where requested.
Ethics and consent
- Ethical practice is crucial, since photographs may depict people, places, or ecologically sensitive sites.
- Informed consent should be obtained for all submissions, with clear explanation of how images and captions will be used in research, publications, or exhibitions.
- Participants should be given options regarding credit and anonymity, and researchers should be transparent about whether images may be reproduced in academic outputs, online platforms, or promotional material.
- Where images are used beyond the contest, participants should, where possible, be invited to review or approve their use, maintaining trust and accountability.
Analytical strategies
- Thematic analysis can be applied to photographs and captions to identify recurring motifs, values, and concerns about biodiversity.
- Visual analysis can explore composition, symbolism, and aesthetic choices, considering how biodiversity is framed through style and perspective.
- Discourse analysis can examine captions, narratives, or judging discussions, focusing on the language used to describe biodiversity and human–nature relationships.
- Comparative strategies can reveal differences across groups, locations, or categories, showing how biodiversity is understood in varied contexts.
- Triangulation with other methods, such as interviews or mapping, can strengthen credibility and provide a more rounded understanding of community perspectives.
Positionality
- The researcher’s role shapes the contest, from how categories are framed to how entries are judged or displayed.
- Reflexive practice involves recognising how decisions about design, criteria, and incentives influence who participates and what images are submitted.
- Researchers should consider how their own assumptions about biodiversity or photography may privilege certain kinds of representation over others.
- Acknowledging this influence strengthens the transparency and credibility of the research.
Theoretical framing
- A photo contest can be situated within traditions of visual sociology, participatory research, and critical environmental studies.
- It connects to scholarship on visual methods, photography as narrative, and participatory arts as tools for knowledge production.
- The method highlights how visual culture shapes public understandings of biodiversity, and how images can function as both data and advocacy.
- Framing the contest as both empirical practice and political act positions it within wider debates on environmental communication, representation, and the democratisation of knowledge.
