Among the news of this year: the cash prize being offered rises to a total amount of 50,000 euros, to be divided among the winners as follows: €5,000 to the overall winner, €1,000 to the ten section winners and €500 to the challengers.

The 16^th edition of the Oasis PhotoContest is named after Roero, benefits from the support of Fiap Auspices . Registration opening on September 25 ^th, 2023. Closing date for entries on January 15^th, 2024. Winners’ Announcement on March 1^st, 2024. Award ceremony on May 19^st, 2024.

Article 1 – ORGANIZERS: Oasis magazine with the organizational support of AITN (Italian Association of Nature Tourism) announce the “Oasis Photo Contest Roero” International Nature Photography Award, open to photographers, either amateurs, beginners, or professionals, from all over the world. People (and their relatives) who are members of the jury may not participate. Employees of the publishing company Oasis Magazine srl (and their relatives) may not participate.

Article 2 – CATEGORIES: In order to group homogeneous images, the contest is divided into ten categories. In the first eight categories, contestants who reach the “Nomination” stage of the jury selections will have to submit the original file for the final awarding of prizes. Photos participating in these eight categories are also competing for the overall International Oasis Photographer award. In the remaining two categories, submission of the original file is not required. Images in these categories compete only for the relative category awards. Images taken with compact cameras, smartphones or tablets are eligible to participate in this last category. Each section is marked with a letter to codify the submitted files. 

M) MAMMALS Includes all those images depicting mammals, excluding cetaceans filmed underwater which should be entered in the “Underwater” category and bats, which should be entered in the “Birds and Bats” section. Please note: a cetacean filmed from a boat is entered in this category. Any animal or plant taken underwater should be entered in the “Underwater Photography” category. 

U) BIRDS AND BATS Includes all those images depicting both birds and bats in the air element. Please note: images depicting diving birds taken underwater should be entered in the “Underwater” category. 

T) OTHER ANIMALS Includes those images depicting all other animals, except those belonging to the Mammals, Birds and Bats, and Underwater categories. They therefore include vertebrate reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrate mollusks, annelids and arthropods, (crustaceans, arachnids, insects, myriapods). Please note: Fishes photographed from a boat (e.g. swallowfish) or from land (e.g. jumping salmon) should be included in this category. 

F) UNDERWATER Includes all images taken underwater with diving equipment, whether in freshwater or saltwater environments (e.g. underwater flora, fish, cetaceans in diving, amphibians and birds in diving).

V) VEGETABLE WORLD Includes all images in which flowers, plants, mushrooms are the main subject, either with macro or normal techniques.

P) LANDSCAPE Includes all those images representing natural environments, whether intact, that is, without signs of human presence, or modified by human works or labor (crops, housing, roads, …).

G) PEOPLE Includes all those images depicting people, tribal peoples or ethnic tribes in all parts of the world, especially those populations still living in close contact with the natural environment or still linked to typical customs, habits and traditions.

S) STORYBOARD Includes all those images connected by a precise leitmotiv. The theme must be developed with a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 9 images, either in sequence or taken at different times yet closely related to each other; with the aim of telling a “story” related to nature, wildlife, ethology, anthropology, environment, or photojournalism. 

OPEN SECTION IN WHICH ORIGINAL FILE SUBMISSION IS NOT REQUIRED

In these categories, images taken with mobile phones or other devices may participate and original files are not required.

J)  NATURALISTIC JOURNALISM

In this section the images will deal with the relationship between man and environment in the different aspects that will bring out our attitudes and actions that affect the natural world (environmental complaints, human nature relations etc…)

D) DIVERSITY WORLD FOOD In this section, all those images that represent the food diversity in the world, the different relationships between man and food, typical customs. This section is dedicated to reflect the extraordinary diversity of reports on food and nutrition in the World.

Article 3 – PRIZES: The prize money will be delivered by bank transfer within 60 days of the award ceremony after having completed the procedures to make the transfer . Those who do not attend the ceremony will receive the amount of the prize (deducted the attendance token) on Bank Transfer within 60 days from the date of the ceremony.. Each author may not receive more than one award per category but may receive more awards coming from different categories. Yet, the Overall Prize can be combined with any other prize. Attendance tokens cannot be combined. In the case of an author with more than one award, he/she will be paid the highest value attendance token.

All prize-winning works will be published, with their respective rankings, in Oasis magazine and on the Oasis Photo Contest website.   

– International Oasis Photographer. The title will be awarded to the overall winner to be identified among the winning works in the 8 categories (excluding the two open sections) and will be announced exclusively during the award ceremony. The overall winner will receive:

1) An invitation to the theater for the Grand Gala Awards in the presence of the jurors.

2) The original bronze Oasis Photo Contest Trophy (value €1,500).

3) A cash prize of €5,000 (consisting of a check for €4,000 plus an attendance token at the awards ceremony of €1,000 and including the category prize).

4) A voucher for two people to attend the Gala dinner (value €120). 

5) A voucher for an overnight stay for two people (value € 160), to be spent at a hotel in the location of the award ceremony.

6) A full page in the catalogue dedicated to the author, including biography and personal photo in addition to the publication of the winning photo.

7) The printing of the photo in 70x100cm format that will be part of the prestigious OASIS PhotoContest exhibition presented in major Italian cities. 

Category Awareds For each of the 10 categories there will be one Category Winner, one Runner Up, 3 Honorable Mentions, 5 Mentioned Works, 10 Works with Honor of Print in the catalogue. All Mentioned Works will be published in the prestigious catalogue. 

– The Section Winner will be awarded with:

1) An invitation to the theater for the Grand Awards Gala in the presence of the jurors.

2) A reproduction of the Oasis Photo Contest Trophy.

3) A cash prize of 1,000 euros (consisting of a check for €600 plus an attendance fee for the awards ceremony of €400).

4) A voucher for a gala dinner for two people (value €120).

5) A voucher for a one-day overnight stay for two people, at a hotel in the location of the awards ceremony (value € 160).

6) A page of the catalogue dedicated to the author with biography and personal photo in addition to the publication of the winning photo.

7) Printing of the photo in 70x100cm format that will be part of the prestigious OASIS PhotoContest exhibition presented in major Italian cities.

– The Section Runner Up will receive:

1) The invitation to the theater for the Grand Awards Gala in the presence of the jurors.

2) The plaque of merit.

3) A cash prize of €500 euros (consisting of a check for €200 plus a token of attendance at the awards ceremony of €300). 

4) A voucher for the gala dinner for two people (value € 120).

5) A voucher for a one-day overnight stay for two people (value € 160) at a hotel in the location of the award ceremony. 

6) A page of the catalogue dedicated to the author with biography and personal photo in addition to the publication of the winning photo.

7) Printing of the photo in 70x100cm format that will be part of the prestigious OASIS PhotoContest exhibition presented in major Italian cities.

– Honorable Mentions Authors awarded with honorable mention will receive:

1) An invitation to the theater for the Grand Gala awards ceremony in the presence of the jurors.

2) Certificate of Merit

3) A voucher for the gala dinner for two (value € 120). 

4) A voucher for a one-day overnight stay for two people (value € 160) at a hotel in the location of the award ceremony.

5) A catalogue page dedicated to the author with biography and personal photo in addition to the publication of the winning photo.

– Signaled Works. The authors awarded with the mention Signaled Work will receive:

1) An invitation to the theater for the awards gala in the presence of the jurors.

2) Certificate of distinction.

3) A voucher for the gala dinner for one person (value € 60).

4) Presence of the photo mentioned in the prestigious catalogue.

Works with Honor of Press. Authors awarded with Honor of Press will receive:

1) An invitation to the theater for the awards gala in the presence of the jurors.

2) Certificate of Honor of Press

3) Possibility of attending the Gala dinner at a cost of €60 upon reservation

4) Presence of the photo mentioned in the prestigious catalogue.

Article 4 – RIGHTS OVER THE IMAGES:

The ownership and rights over the images are and remain with the authors of the images. They grant, free of charge, to the organizers, the use of the photographs submitted to the competition, exclusively for the following uses: the printing of the catalogue, the publication on websites in contexts related to the competition, the projection in audiovisual formats during promotional events of the competition, the preparation of the exhibition dedicated to the competition. At the conclusion of the exhibition cycle of the exhibition, the panels of the photos on display, will later be auctioned off in a public charity auction. The entire proceeds will go to support a solidarity project. Oasis magazine will use the images to publish a report of the event at the end of the contest by publishing the winning photos. The winning or reported photos will be made available to the press organs that wish to report on the results of the contest. In each use of the pictures, the organizers will always report the name of the author. 

Article 5 – TYPE OF IMAGES:

All images must be free of frames, borders, signatures, lettering, date/time. A caption of the image is required, with the location of the shot and possibly mentioning the species portrayed. Cropping is allowed but must not exclude key elements of the original image. 180-degree panoramic photos are accepted. Focus stacked photos are also accepted.

Conditionalities for categories M-U-T-F-P-V-S

All photos must accurately reflect the subject or scene as it appeared to the photographer. Photos that have been digitally altered beyond optimization standards will be disqualified. Only changes that involve: color adjustments, contrast, brightness, sharpening (slight sharpen) and minor cleanup work are accepted. Pixel shifts, images retouched by adding, duplicating, deleting or moving objects in photos are not accepted. Uses of artistic digital filters and effects are not accepted, except for the graduated gray filter. Animals must be shot in natural attitudes, either life-like or portrait. Animals must be shot in the wild, captive or farmed animals shots are not permitted. The use of live bait is prohibited. Please note: captive animals may be shot exclusively for the Storyboard category if useful to the development of the story and accordingly reported in the description.

Notes for categories D – J

Images may be digitally edited or altered. Animals portrayed may be wild, domestic, farmed, filmed in the wild or in captive conditions (rescue centers, wildlife parks, bioparks). Landscapes and people may refer to the urban environment.

Article 6 – JURY: The jury of the competition will select and rank the deserving works at its sole discretion and reserves the right not to accept images whose realization is presumed to have caused harm to the species portrayed. The jury’s judgment is final and will focus on the technical, naturalistic, artistic, documentary and environmental relevance of the images. Photos with technical deficiencies in shooting or display will receive an overall negative judgment beyond naturalistic value. The names of the jurors will be announced on the website (www.oasisphotocontest.com) on the JURY page. In addition to the official jury that decides the rankings, the photos that reach the selection called “the Final”, will be judged by a popular jury that will vote via the Internet. They will decide the awarding of the OasisWeb Prize to the most voted works.

WORK OF THE JURY: The work of the jury will take place in the following way: an initial technical selection of the Organization will identify the photos admitted, then after three intermediate selections the Semifinalists then the Finalists will be designated. Eventually, among these, the jury will designate the photos that will enter the “Nominations” from which the photos to be awarded will be identified. The authors of the photos that will enter the Nominations of the 8 sections for which it is intended will be asked for the original files. Award nominees will also be asked to send a brief resume, a photo of the author portrayed in the foreground, and a descriptive text accompanying the indicated image. After reviewing the original files, the jury will make a final and irrevocable decision on the winners of the 15^th edition.

The announcement of the winners will be the following: In a first phase, in May 2023, the names of the authors awarded with Honorable Mention, Signaled Work and Work with Press Honor will be announced: The names of the two challengers who will compete for the title of Winner will then be announced. All the people involved will be notified by email, with an invitation to the awards ceremony to be held in September. The winning images will be revealed at the awards ceremony, as well as the name and the image of the Overall winner International Oasis Photographer.

ORIGINAL CHECK: To participate in the following categories: Landscape, Mammals, Birds and Bats, All Other Animals, Underwater Photography, Plant World, People and Peoples, and Storyboard, the author must possess the native files of the submitted images, as recorded by the camera without manipulation, in a RAW format (Dng, Cr3, Orf, Pef, Nef, Mef, Sr2, …) or the original in slide. In absence of the RAW-type files, if the author has only the JPEG or TIFF format, the unedited original and/or the sequence of shots before and after the shot under consideration will be requested. If the requested files are not received, the image will be excluded from Nominations. The original file to be sent must be named with the same codified name given to the photo that the jury sends to the author as a request. Participation in the Divertity World Food  and Nature Journalism sections is not subject to this type of check. 

Article 7 – CATALOGUE:

For this edition of the contest, a high-quality paper catalogue will be printed with the same characteristics as the one produced in past editions (160 pages hardback with plasticized dust coating). In addition to the winning photos, a gallery of all the finalist photos will also be published. To make it easier for contestants to get the catalogue, it is offered for pre-sale purchase at very advantageous prices depending on the period of entry. After the contest closes, from January 15^th, 2024 onward, it will be on sale on the website for €30.

Those who make registration between September 25, 2023 and January 15^th, 2024 can order and purchase the catalogue for only €24.
Registration gives the right to reserve at a discounted price only one copy per single registration.

WARNING: The catalogue is not part of the cash prize, therefore it is not to be considered a prize, meaning that it will not be given as a gift to either the overall winners, section winners, Honorable Mentions, or Reported Works. The new edition will be presented for the first time at the awards ceremony to be held in may 2024. The catalogue will be mailed to the contestants who purchased it on pre-sale at the time of registration, within 30 days after its presentation.
Contestants who did not reserve the catalogue at the time of registration will still be able to purchase it at a price of €30 on the website.

Article 8 – ENROLLMENTS: Entries to the competition can only be made by filling out the appropriate form on the website www.oasisphotocontest.com.
Entries received by other means (email, fax, mail) will not be accepted. Registration on the website gives access to the personal area. Submission of images can take place after the payment has been completed. Payment can only be made after registration on the site.

PAYMENT: The participation fee of €25 entitles the submission of up to 36 photos. A maximum of 3 photos can be submitted for each category (with the exception of the Storyboard, where a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 9 photos is required).
Payment can only be made online by credit card or Pay-pal. It should be noted that at any time up to the deadlin of the contest, images can be added, deleted and replaced.

At the time of registration, it is possible to purchase in advance the Oasis Photo Contest catalogue starting from a price of €24 (instead of €30), Please note that shipping costs are not included in the price, therefore they will be added at the checkout for an amount of €4.50 in Italian territory. For non-Italian destinations, the system calculates the shipping costs by country. The shipping managed by express courier and can be tracked at any time.

FILE SUBMISSION: Only photographs in digital format can participate to the contest; photographs originally made in analog but digitized in the required format are also accepted. Files to be submitted for selection must be jpeg or tiff type. The longest side of the photo must measure at least 3,000 pixels but no more than 5,000. The maximum file size is 15MB. It is also advisable to fill in the description field information about the location and date of the shot, and indications of the species or situation portrayed.

Article 9 – DEADLINES AND DATES:

.
September  25 th 2023: registration opening.

January  30 th 2024: last useful date to book the catalogue at a discounted cost of Euro 20.

January 15 th 2024: closing of registrations.

January 20 th 2024 request sending the original files to the authors in Nomination (excluding the two Open sections).

January 26 th  2024: Final works of the Jury, verification of the original files and validation of the rankings.

February 5 th 2024: deadline for sending the original files to the authors in Nomination.

February 12th 2024: announcement of the authors vying for the awards.

March 5th  2024: Sending Voucher for Hotel and Gala Dinner to all authors in prize.

April 5 th 2024: Last day of voucher validation and confirmation of participation in the Award Ceremony by Prize Candidates.

May 18 th  2024: Award ceremony at the Theatre followed by the Gala Dinner.

Article 10 – PRIVACY: We inform you that, in accordance with Article 13 of Legislative Decree No. 196 of June 30, 2003 (containing the Code for the Protection of Personal Data hereinafter referred to, for brevity, as the Code), the personal data provided as part of the Oasis Photo Contest Prize will be collected and recorded by AITN on media, electronic and/or computer and/or telematically protected and processed in an appropriate manner to ensure the security and confidentiality in accordance with the provisions of the Code. Please note that the data provided will be used only for purposes strictly related and instrumental to the Initiative. To this end, as part of the Initiative, data may be published online in the contest website (www.oasisphotocontest.com) or in the contest catalogue. The provision of data is necessary in order to be able to participate in the contest. We inform you that you may exercise the rights provided by art. 7 et seq. of Legislative Decree No. 196/2003 (including, but not limited to, the rights to obtain confirmation of the existence of data concerning you and their communication in an intelligible form, the indication of the methods of treatment, updating, rectification or integration of data, cancellation) by means of a request addressed without formalities to the Data Controller. The data controller is the AITN, with registered office in Via Fontana 4, Rodello (CN) through its president, Eugenio Ecclesiastico. 

FINAL PROVISIONS: The following regulations regarding procedural rules, awarding of prizes, calendar of events and anything else not covered herein, refer to what is published on the official website of the international prize www.oasisphotocontest.com. Participation in the photo contest takes for granted the knowledge of these regulations and implies, on the part of the participants, the full acceptance of these regulations.