Deadline: 25 October 2011
Open to: Anyone older than 14 years except of the representatives of the bodies which organize the contest
Prize: Two Grand Prize winners will receive a tablet computer (iPad 2) and their entries will be displayed at the U.S. Department of State;18 runners-up will receive ExchangesConnect T-shirts
Description
From September 13 until October 25, 2011, you are invited to submit an original photo to the ExchangesConnect Photo Contest, “Dance with Us: Motion across Cultures.” ExchangesConnect is an international online community managed by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State that brings together over 32,000 members for people-to-people dialogue about U.S. Department of State-sponsored exchange and cultural programs. People all over the world, ages 14 and older, are invited to share personal perspectives on dance in their culture by submitting a photo and a short description.
Whether it’s a spontaneous dance with our families or a formal performance, we express ourselves through movement in every culture. Grab your camera, get creative, and capture a movement that celebrates your unique culture.
Photo Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation or commercial promotion. Submissions also must not contain content or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to the Contest Sponsor, or to groups, individuals or institutions.
Photo Submissions must be original photos created by the Contestant and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below). Submissions must adhere both in appearance and in fact to the norms of civil discourse. In other words, the content of all Photo Submissions must be suitable for a global, public audience. The Contest Sponsor and Platform Sponsor reserve the right to disqualify, at their sole and absolute discretion, any submission that does not adhere to these criteria, to the intent, or to the substance of these Official Contest Rules.
Prize
- Two Grand Prize winners will receive a tablet computer (iPad 2) and their entries will be displayed at the U.S. Department of State.
- Runners-up will receive ExchangesConnect T-shirts and real postcards featuring the top 20 submissions.
Eligibility
- Contestants must be at least 14 years old on the date of commencement of the Contest.
- The Contest commences at 4 p.m. GMT (noon EDT) on September 13, 2011, and closes at 4 p.m. GMT (noon EDT) on October 25, 2011. The person submitting the photo will be considered the Contestant and will be the only person eligible to compete for the prize. In order to be eligible to win the prize, you must provide accurate and complete information.
- The following individuals are not eligible to enter the Contest: Employees, directors and officers of: the Contest Sponsor, Platform sponsors, Participating Individuals and Organizations, the U.S. government, or contractors of the U.S. government; or distribution agencies, web design agencies, advertising agencies, fulfillment agencies, as well as judging and Contest agencies involved in the administration, development, fulfillment and execution of this Contest and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same households of each such individual.
- Submissions must follow technical format requirements of the Ning Platform – Submission should be in .jpg, .gif, or .png format and no larger than a ten (10) megapixel (mg) file size. The submission should be at least 72 dots per inch (dpi). Submissions should not have any visible any watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
Selection of the winners
All photos will be screened by the Contest Sponsor to ensure compliance with these Official Contest Rules and the ExchangesConnect and Ning Terms of Service. The Contest Sponsor reserves the right in their sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning Photo Submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules.
An independent jury comprised of Contest Sponsors and photography and dance experts will evaluate the submissions to choose one U.S. and one international grand prize winner and 18 finalists from the world’s six geographic regions as defined by the U.S. Department of State (Western Hemisphere, East Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, Near East, South & Central Asia). The finalists will be announced and posted on the Contest site and Facebook page on November 17, 2011. Finalists may be publicly identified by name and country, at the sole discretion of the Contest Sponsors.
The criteria for judging are:
1. Originality
2. Creativity
3. Effectiveness
4. Photo Quality
How to enter the contest?
Take an original still photo that reflects the theme of the contest, “Dance with Us: Motion Across Cultures,” and represents dance in your community or culture and submit it to the Contest using the method listed below (“Photo Submission”). Once a photo is uploaded to the Contest site, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified or edited, or replaced. Contestants may submit no more than two photos. Participation in this Contest is automatically deemed as acceptance of these Official Contest Rules. A Photo Submission must be an original photograph (digital or analog) taken by the submitter.
a. Photo Submission: After registering for the Contest Website (click here), contestants can upload their Contest photographs. Photos must include a title, description, and tags for the phrase “dancewithus” and the name of the participant’s home country to be eligible. Contestants will also be required to complete a registration form to include their (i) Name, (ii) Country, (iii) Email Address, (iv) Number of Photos Submitted , (v) How they heard about the contest and (vi) Exchange program status (v and vi both optional).
b. Retouching of Photos: The submitted contest photograph cannot be significantly retouched: nothing in the photographs (people, animals, scenery, objects, etc.) may be altered, removed, augmented or rearranged. Cropping is permitted, as is modest darkening or lightening of parts of the image.
If you would like to see the procedure of entering the process in pictures, please click to the following link.
To display the information flyer, please click here.
