OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS NOW!
Deadline: 22nd July 2025
PHOTOGRAPHY AS WITNESS. PHOTOGRAPHY AS RESISTANCE.
Enter This is Gender today!
This is Gender: Law & Justice invites photographers to explore how gender shapes legal systems—both visible structures like laws, courts, and policing, and the less visible forces of bias, economic exclusion, and social stigma. We’re calling for photography that uncovers injustice and offers new ways of seeing justice, challenging systems shaped by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy.
Law and justice have never been neutral. In today’s volatile political landscape, legal systems reflect the power of those who shape them. Laws can serve as tools of liberation or instruments of control. Justice depends on who is visible, who is heard, and who is silenced. Across the world, those demanding gender justice are met with legal crackdowns, while those in power manipulate the law to maintain dominance.
But justice is not confined to courts. It is contested in the streets, on social media, in homes, and in history books. Justice unfolds in village councils, community gatherings, and international tribunals. It exists in the quiet resilience of those navigating oppressive legal systems and in the loud defiance of those who refuse to accept them.
We encourage works that interrogate the following questions:
- Institutional
- How do courts, police, and governments uphold or deny justice?
- Who has access to legal representation, and who is excluded?
- Environmental & Spatial
- Where does justice happen? In a courtroom, a protest, a detention centre, a refugee camp?
- How do borders, surveillance, or urban planning shape who is protected and who is punished?
- Social Relations
- How does justice (or injustice) play out in families, workplaces, or communities?
- Who enforces norms, and who resists them?
- Personal & Embodied
- What does it mean to carry the weight of the law?
- How does legal status shape daily life?
- Who moves freely, and who lives under constant threat?
- Radical Visions
- What does a truly just world look like? How do we redesign legal systems that centre rights, respect, rehabilitation, fairness, compassion and care?
- How do feminist, indigenous, and decolonial approaches to law offer new ways forward?
Across regions, we are witnessing a coordinated rollback of rights where gender is being politicised and weaponised – used to divide, exclude and undermine progress. This competition is a space to visualise and reclaim gender justice. Photography becomes both testimony and resistance, capturing the tension between power and protest, between law and lived experience.
Why enter?
Unlock global recognition and amplify your voice as part of a movement for change. By submitting your work, you’ll gain access to expert critique, international exposure, and exciting opportunities to connect with a global network of creatives—while helping to shape new perspectives and understanding on the intersection of law, justice and gender. Winning images will receive a £500 cash prize!
Benefits for All Who Enter
| Benefits | Winning | Shortlisted | Longlisted | Every entrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expert Review: Have your work critiqued by a panel of global experts | ||||
| TiG Collection: Feature in our prestigious collection of hand-selected creatives working in representing gender | ||||
| Artist Database: Feature in our artist database that connects organisations to talented creatives around the world | ||||
| Accredited Recognition: Earn Global 50/50 certified acclaim | ||||
| Artist Network: Join our global creative community and receive opportunities, updates and insights | ||||
| Join the movement: Be part of a positive change in representational practices in the global health sector | ||||
| Online Exhibition: Feature in online exhibitions and virtual thematic online stories | ||||
| International press exposure: Potential to reach a global audience | ||||
| Feature in Global 50/50 reports and outputs: Potentially feature in Global 50/50 reports and outputs and reach our engaged, global audience | ||||
| Cash Prize: Win £500 award |
Eligibility criteria
This is Gender: Law & Justice is open to photographers of all backgrounds and experience levels. We welcome all forms of photographic work, including but not limited to:
- Documentary & Photojournalism – Capturing real-world events, activism, and lived experiences.
- Portraiture – Exploring identity, representation, and power through the lens of the individual.
- Conceptual & Fine Art Photography – Using staged, symbolic, or abstract imagery to challenge perceptions of justice.
- Experimental & Alternative Processes – Including collage, mixed media, archival interventions, and other hybrid photographic techniques.
- Street & Candid Photography – Unfiltered moments of justice, protest, and everyday resistance.
We encourage work that pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling and challenges traditional representations of justice.
How to enter
Each contestant may submit up to five individual submissions, accompanied by the following elements:
- A brief narrative on the significance of the image to the themes of the competition.
- Where and when the submission was created.
- Short artist biography.
- Acceptance of the This is Gender Terms and Conditions.
Please read the terms and conditions in the link carefully before completing the entry.
If this process is inaccessible for any reason, please contact This is Gender curator, Imogen at imogen.bakelmun@global5050.org. If there’s anything we haven’t considered, let us know how we can make the process accessible to you.
Judging Criteria
Winners will be decided by a panel of international experts in photography, visual culture, gender and justice. All works will be judged across two separate categories:
Visual merit and creativity:
- Strong visual impact.
- Thoughtful, considered composition and framing.
- Use of colour (or intentional lack of colour) and creativity.
Storytelling and perspective:
- Unique perspective on the subject.
- Clear link to gender and/or justice.
- Impactful story behind the image.