‘Tides Are Changing’: Meet the Winners of the UN’s 10th Annual World Oceans Day Photo Competition
by: Christen Hemingway Jaynes edited by: Irma Omerhodzic
Our world’s oceans are stunning, so what better way to capture their wide array of colors, personalities and awe-inspiring vastness than through the art of photography?
This year, the 10th Annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Ocean Day (UN WOD) received thousands of photo submissions from around the world surrounding the theme, “Planet Ocean: Tides Are Changing.”
Six first-place winners were selected and announced by actor and activist Lucas Bravo and the respective judges during the live broadcast of UN WOD at New York’s UN headquarters on June 8.
The free competition launched in March and explored six thematic categories connected with the overarching theme of the 2023 UN WOD; they are: No Time to Waste, Putting the Ocean First, The Wonderful World of Tides, Ocean Is Life, Big & Small Underwater Faces and Underwater Seascapes.
The judges selected first-, second-, and third-place winners for each category. World-renowned judges included wildlife photographer Rathika Ramasamy from India, underwater fine art wildlife photographer Ipah Uid Lynn from Malaysia, filmmaker and director Antoine Janssens from Switzerland, and wildlife photographer Rajan Desai of the United States.