VI Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026

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VI Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 is calling photographers worldwide to submit projects examining human rights and global justice. The sixth edition closes on October 9, 2026, at midnight Spain time and offers a €3,000 main cash prize, alongside three additional €400 category awards and exhibition opportunities across Barcelona.

Entrants can explore four thematic tracks: Social Justice, Climate Justice, Gender Justice, and Economic Justice. Ten finalist projects will be selected for large-format exhibitions in public spaces across Barcelona’s ten districts and included in both the 2026 Festival Catalogue and Festival Magazine. Participants pay a €5 entry fee per project and submit through Picter. For photographers comparing the best photography challenges for 2026 for their own work, the festival combines a project-based submission format with public exhibition and cash awards.

Projects are expected to engage with global justice through photography, with particular attention to the Sustainable Development Goals and the structural causes of inequality.

Prizes

The VI Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 offers cash awards alongside public exhibition and publication opportunities for the ten projects selected by the jury.

• Overall Winner: €3,000 cash award for the best of the ten finalist projects. The winning project is also considered the winner of its category.
• Category Winners: Three €400 cash awards for the best project in each of the remaining three categories.
• Ten Finalists: Large-format exhibition in public spaces across Barcelona, inclusion in the 2026 Festival Catalogue, and publication in the Festival Magazine.

The festival covers the production costs of the exhibitions within the available budget. Finalist projects may also be included in later traveling exhibitions, educational activities, awareness initiatives, or cultural programs directly connected with the festival.

Categories or Themes

The Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 maintains four thematic categories, each addressing a different dimension of human rights and global justice.

• Social Justice: Projects exploring inequality, discrimination, exclusion, migration, labor rights, human rights defenders, conflict, access to essential services, and other fundamental rights.
• Climate Justice: Stories addressing the effects of the climate crisis, natural disasters, extractive industries, pollution, biodiversity loss, environmental activism, access to water, displacement, and the relationship between ecological change and vulnerable communities.
• Gender Justice: Visual narratives exploring gender-based violence, discrimination, feminist movements, sexual and reproductive rights, gender identity, care work, empowerment, and the rights of women and gender minorities.
• Economic Justice: Projects dealing with economic inequality, labor conditions, access to resources, exploitation, poverty, global trade, land distribution, wage inequality, fair trade, and alternative economic models.

Each project must be submitted to one category, although the organizers may reassign a project when they consider another category more appropriate.

Dates and Entry Fees

The sixth edition of the Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival opened in June, with finalist selection taking place shortly after the October submission deadline.

Entry Fee:

• €5 per project.

Participants may submit more than one project, with the fee applying separately to each submission.

How to Enter

Entries are submitted through Picter. Each project must contain 15 photographs, with at least seven images taken between January 1, 2025 and the submission deadline. Photographs may be in color or black and white and can have been previously published.

Applicants must select one of the four categories, provide a descriptive synopsis, include captions in the image metadata, and number the photographs according to their narrative sequence. Files must not contain identifying information about the photographer. Images uploaded to Picter must measure at least 1,500 pixels on the longest side at 72 ppi.

About the Jury

Más Retina appoints a jury composed of photography professionals specializing in human rights together with people working in humanitarian and cooperation fields. Individual jury members are not named in the published rules. Decisions are made by simple majority and are final.

The jury of Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 chooses the two strongest projects from each of the four categories, producing eight finalists. It then compares the third-place project from each category and selects two additional projects to complete the group of ten finalists.

Why Enter Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026?

The combination of ten large-format exhibitions across Barcelona, inclusion in the official catalogue and festival magazine, and €4,200 in cash prizes gives selected projects several different forms of recognition. Just as importantly, the Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 is structured around complete photographic projects rather than isolated images, giving photographers space to develop a sustained visual narrative around human rights and global justice.

The four categories also cover a wide range of contemporary issues, from migration and gender inequality to labor conditions, environmental justice, and climate-related displacement. For photographers exploring photographic competitions connected with documentary practice and socially engaged storytelling, the festival offers a specific framework centered on public exhibition and thematic projects.

Rules and Copyright

We reviewed the official rules of the Barcelona Human Rights International Photo Festival 2026 to summarize the key participation requirements, copyright terms and image usage conditions. Before entering, we recommend checking the complete rules published by the organizer.

Rules

Participants must be at least 18 years old and may enter regardless of nationality. Each project consists of 15 photographs, with at least seven images created during 2025 or 2026. Previously published photographs are permitted.

Only single-frame photographs are accepted. Photomontages and significant alterations are prohibited, although traditional adjustments such as brightness, contrast, color, dodging, and burning are allowed when they do not alter the content of the image. AI-generated or AI-modified images are not permitted, and organizers may request original files, negatives, transparencies, or untreated scans if authenticity is questioned.

Copyright and Image Usage

Photographers retain full copyright and intellectual property rights to their submitted work. By entering, however, participants grant Más Retina worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free rights to reproduce, distribute, publicly communicate, and make technical adaptations to submitted images for purposes directly related to the festival.

These uses include festival promotion, documentation, historical archives, future editions, catalogues, magazines, exhibitions, educational materials, websites, social media, press releases, and other related communication channels. The authorization may also extend to collaborating organizations involved in educational, cultural, or social projects connected with the festival.

The authorization remains valid for the maximum period of legal copyright protection and for as long as related archival or historical materials remain accessible. Uses outside the festival, its associated programs, or its communication activities require separate permission from the photographer. Más Retina also states that it will not authorize unrelated third-party uses without the author’s express consent.

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For more information and to participate in the contest, visit: the official website.