One of the biggest challenges facing humanity today is how we meet the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – the challenge to grow, and conserve at the same time.
Photographers were invited to submit their responses to the theme, with entrants to the Professional Commission category offered a unique opportunity: to submit a proposal for a project that explores the theme in a more in-depth way.
The winning photographer, Yan Wang Preston, will receive support to carry out her proposed project, an expansion of her ‘Forest’ series, which explores ways in which new forests are created in Chinese cities according to traditional aesthetics: aesthetics that strive for an ideal harmony between man and his environment. The photographic series follows the journeys made by some of the old trees from their homeland to their new homes in the cities.
In addition to the work of the six finalists, the exhibition presents other thought-provoking and powerful responses from photographers who also entered, ranging from displacement due to conflict and climate change, urbanization and the impact on food security and human health; to the misuse of valuable resources and the growth in sustainable energy.
The 43 selected photographers provide a unique perspective on one of the greatest challenges the world faces and asks the question: Can we manage economic, social and technological growth in a way that supports the needs of today as well as for future generations?
Winner
Winner
Winner
Our Future
There are more young people than ever before. Over 40% of the world’s population is under 25. Their future depends on the choices we make.
Selected Works
Liveable cities
Industrialization and advancing technology are producing more food, energy and consumer goods than ever before. The gains are immense: rising living standards and millions lifted out of extreme poverty. But there’s a price to pay, as economic growth fuels over-consumption, waste and pollution. The environment suffers – and so do human health and wellbeing. One death in every eight is caused by air pollution.
The challenge is to build liveable, sustainable cities that contribute to quality of life and the long-term protection of the environment, and exist in harmony with the rural communities that provide our food.
Selected Works
Health & Wellbeing
Industrialization and advancing technology are producing more food, energy and consumer goods than ever before. The gains are immense: rising living standards and millions lifted out of extreme poverty. But there’s a price to pay, as economic growth fuels over-consumption, waste and pollution. The environment suffers – and so do human health and wellbeing. One death in every eight is caused by air pollution.
The challenge is to reap the benefits of growth sustainably: improving living standards without impairing quality of life, and making the most of our planet without damaging land, seas or the air we breathe.
Sustainable development
People are visionary when it comes to buildings – reclaiming land from sea, putting up palaces in the desert, and reaching for the sky. 128 skyscrapers were built around the world in 2016, more than any year before. If you put them one on top of the other they would stretch almost 19 miles – about the same as going from Heathrow Airport to Somerset House. Buildings are becoming greener, yet concrete is the most widely used synthetic material in the world – and one of the most environmentally unfriendly.
So how do we keep pace with the need for more and more buildings, yet make them friendly to people and the planet too?
Selected Works
Conflict & climate change
We’re living in an age of forced migration. People are on the move as never before, uprooted and forced out of their homes by wars, persecution and weather disasters often caused or made worse by climate change. Every minute on average, 84 children, women and men leave their homeland head for another country – 24 of them displaced by conflict and 60 forced out by disasters like floods or droughts.
The challenge is how to turn forced displacement into economic opportunity, both for the millions of families seeking a new life in another country, and for the countries receiving them.
Selected Works
Food Security
Too much and too little go side by side. So much depends on where you happen to live: one in nine people in the world are hungry at this moment, yet some industrial countries face an ‘obesity epidemic’. And in these nations it’s the poor, not the rich, who are more likely to be overweight. Food security isn’t just about growing ‘enough’ food. It’s about producing the right food, in the right quantity, at the right time, around the world.
How can consumers and businesses change their relationship with food, so that we feed our children, ourselves and our communities not just well, but wisely?
Selected Works
Culture & Community
In times of huge global change, culture and tradition connect people, reinforcing communities and enriching lives. Despite urgent global crises, we find time to care about culture and heritage because they give us a sense of belonging, a shared story. Culture is also a powerful economic driver. Creative industries provide nearly 30 million jobs worldwide – more than the car industry of Europe, Japan and the US combined.
The challenge is to connect and enrich societies even further to ensure continued prosperity and sense of belonging in the global value chain.
Selected Works
Rethinking resources
Two things our planet has in abundance: water and energy. Yet today, 40% of the global population is threatened by water scarcity and billions lack electricity or clean cooking fuels. The resources to meet these basic human needs are plentiful – but the way we harness them needs to change. Technology offers an ever-wider choice of solutions. Windpower has overtaken coal as the second largest source of power capacity in Europe and there’s growing recognition that waste water and sanitation waste should be recycled, not discarded.
The challenge is to connect and enrich societies even further to ensure continued prosperity and sense of belonging in the global value chain.
Winners
Professional Submission
1st Yan Wang Preston,
2nd Lucas Foglia,
3rd Claudia Jaguaribe.
Open Competition
51 Selected Works Photographer A to Z
Guilhem Alandry, Guilhem Alandry, Richard Allenby Pratt, Elena Anosova, Elena Anosova, KM Asad, KM Asad, Gohar Dashti, Gohar Dashti, Trent Davis Bailey, Trent Davis Bailey, Yiorgios Doukanaris, Peter Essick, Anna Filipova, Ashley Fischer, Tommy Fung, Susana Giron, Akos Hegedus, Akos Hegedus, David Huamani, David Huamani, François Knoetze, Ryan Koopmans, Ryan Koopmans, Alan McFetridge, Kendall McMinimy, Ian McNaught Davis, Ian McNaught Davis, Noritaka Minami, Rahendra Mohan Pandey, Mark Neville, Matteo Pasin, Jame Porschen, MD Farhad Rahman, MD Farhad Rahman, Probal Rashid, Johann Rousselot, Jocelyne Saab, Jocelyne Saab, Tor Seidel, Tor Seidel, Toby Smith, Toby Smith, Alnis Stakle, Jamey Stillings, Jamey Stillings, Issac Temitope, Brad Temkin, Eric Tomberlin, David Verbreckt, Simon Wan.
