Commonwealth Youth Photography Competition 2026: Meet the judges

We are proud to announce the panel of judges for the Commonwealth Youth Photography Competition 2026: Waves of Change, run by the Royal Commonwealth Society in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the City of London Corporation’s Youth Natural Environment Board.

Waves of Change invitations younger folks aged 18 to 30 from throughout the Commonwealth’s 56 member nations to doc the ocean and its relationship to communities, environments, and the longer term. Free to enter, the competitors accepts entries throughout 4 classes: Human-Ocean Connection, Hope and Resilience, Threats and Challenges, and Innovative Solutions. The general winner receives a money prize of £1,000, with £250 awarded to every of the three remaining class winners. Winning pictures can be celebrated throughout Commonwealth networks reaching 2.7 billion folks throughout 56 nations.

This 12 months’s judging panel brings collectively eight world-class photographers, filmmakers, marine scientists, and ocean advocates from throughout the Commonwealth and past, every bringing a definite and highly effective perspective to the work of evaluating entries.

Dr Enric Sala is a former college professor who noticed himself writing the obituary of ocean life, and give up academia in 2008 to turn into a full-time conservationist as National Geographic Explorer in Residence. He based and leads Pristine Seas, a worldwide initiative that mixes exploration, analysis, media, economics and coverage, working with native communities, Indigenous Peoples and governments to guard important locations within the ocean. To date, Pristine Seas has helped to create 27 of the biggest marine reserves on the planet, protecting an space of over 6.5 million sq. km, the dimensions of the Amazon area.

Enric has printed over 250 analysis papers, 3 books, and produced 30 documentary movies. He has acquired quite a few awards together with the 2008 World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader, 2013 Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award, 2018 Heinz Award in Public Policy, 2021 Emmy Award for Nature Documentary, National Geographic Hubbard Medal, and Albert I Grand Medal. He is an Officer of the Order of San Carlos of Colombia and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Aishwarya Sridhar is a National Geographic Explorer and the co-founder and CEO of Bambee Studios, a full-service manufacturing firm in India specialising in pure historical past and environmental documentaries for world broadcast. From filming massive cats throughout India to going undercover within the wildlife markets of Bangkok, she has labored on numerous tales. A Canon EOS Maestro and an Associate Fellow on the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), Aishwarya has contributed pictures to a number of famend publications together with National Geographic journal, BBC Wildlife, the Guardian, Mongabay, Digital Camera, Times of India, and Sanctuary Asia.

In 2020, she turned the primary Indian lady to win on the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards in London. As a filmmaker and director, her productions have been broadcast on National Geographic WILD, National Geographic Channel, Prime Video, Sky TV, Apple TV, Discovery Plus, Animal Planet, Arte, KBS, NHK, and Love Nature. Her work has acquired world recognition together with the Princess Diana Award for younger changemakers, and he or she was named one of many 50 Explorers altering the world by the Explorer’s Club, NYC. Her newest directorial The Fading Star has earned her a Wildscreen Panda Awards nomination for the 2025 Emerging Talent Award.

Lewis Pugh is an endurance swimmer and ocean advocate. For practically forty years, he has pioneered swims in a number of the most fragile and threatened environments, from the North Pole to Antarctica, and from the Himalayas to the good rivers of the world. Each swim is undertaken to attract consideration to locations which can be altering quickly, and to assist safe their future.

To help this work, he based the Lewis Pugh Foundation to show consciousness into lasting safety. The Foundation works with governments, scientists and native communities, and has helped shield greater than 3.5 million km² of weak ocean. In 2009, Lewis was awarded South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Ikhamanga (Gold Class), and in 2013 he was appointed UNEP Patron of the Oceans. Lewis grew up within the United Kingdom, Malta, and South Africa, all Commonwealth nations, and has lengthy believed within the energy of younger folks to steer change.

Marcus Bleasdale CMG has been a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine for over 20 years, utilizing his work to affect policymakers and decision-makers worldwide. His work documenting human rights and battle has been exhibited within the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, the United Nations, the UK Houses of Parliament, and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Marcus can be a long-standing human rights activist and has partnered with Human Rights Watch for greater than 20 years, documenting human rights abuses in battle zones.

Marcus can be an influence and sustainability skilled and the Managing Director of Wilstar Impact Investing AS, which invests in fixing local weather challenges and constructing revolutionary options wanted to create a extra sustainable and equitable world. In recognition of his contributions, he was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) by King Charles III within the 2023 Birthday Honours.

Marcus serves as Guest Faculty on the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, instructing on the Impact Measurement and Management Programme. He has additionally served on the Advisory Board of the multi-generational management programme on the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). He is the writer of three books: One Hundred Years of Darkness (2002), The Rape of a Nation (2009), and The Unravelling (2015). Marcus holds a Bachelor’s diploma in Business and Finance and a grasp’s diploma in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.

Johnny Miller is a photographer, filmmaker, artist and drone journalist based mostly in South Africa and the USA. His work strikes between images, urbanism, inequality, well being and the constructed atmosphere, utilizing visible instruments from aerial images to satellite tv for pc information to AI-built platforms to make massive structural forces legible. His work has been printed and exhibited internationally, together with in National Geographic and on the quilt of Time, at Photo Art Basel, museums, and quite a few solo exhibits.

Johnny is a Senior Fellow at Code for Africa, an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity on the London School of Economics, a BMW Responsible Leader, and a UN-Habitat Champion. He can be the co-founder of africanDRONE, a pan-African initiative targeted on utilizing drones for public-interest storytelling, mapping, and evaluation, and the director of Millefoto, his wider studio for images, movie, and visible storytelling.

Lara Jackson is a conservation biologist, award-winning wildlife photographer, Nikon Creator, and Ambassador for Save The Rhino. Her work has taken her around the globe and he or she has carried out quite a few cutting-edge analysis tasks with a number of critically endangered species.

Combining her scientific background along with her love for images and storytelling, Lara’s work has acquired worldwide recognition in competitions together with Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Vincent Kneefel is an award-winning underwater photographer with over twenty years of expertise documenting the ocean’s most iconic megafauna. Through The Ocean Story (www.theoceanstory.com), his UN Ocean Decade-endorsed images and storytelling venture, he makes use of imagery to attach audiences with marine life and drive conservation influence. His work sits on the intersection of ocean storytelling, science, and expertise. He can be the co-founder and CEO of Vital Ocean, a marine tech firm constructing AI-powered ocean intelligence.

Ibiso Ikiroma-Owiye is the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Blue Charter Ocean Youth Working Group, a sustainability advisor, and member of the Professional African Technical Network and Advisory (PATNA) Initiative. With over 8 years of expertise in social influence and environmental safety, she has been recognised for her work within the local weather area as a 2022 UNDP Climate Competition winner and 2022 Top 20 Young Women in Sustainable Development.

Ibiso holds a BSc in Fisheries from the University of Port Harcourt and has acquired certifications from the University of Copenhagen, University of Cambridge, and Lagos Business School, amongst others. Her work encompasses marine analysis, local weather motion, renewable power, neighborhood growth, monitoring and analysis, youth growth, management and emotional intelligence coaching, and nonprofit administration.

As a marine researcher and mangrove conservationist, Ibiso has mobilised youths in planting over 10,000 mangrove seedlings within the deforested coastal communities of Niger Delta Nigeria. Her work additionally entails telling the tales of degrading coastal communities affected by oil spills, whereas actively partaking communities on local weather consciousness and motion.

The Commonwealth Youth Photography Competition 2026: Waves of Change is free to enter and open to all Commonwealth nationals and residents aged 18 to 30.

Entries shut on 22 June 2026.

The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is a community of people and organisations dedicated to enhancing the lives and prospects of Commonwealth residents internationally. Through youth empowerment, schooling, and high-level advocacy, the Society champions schooling, equality and the atmosphere throughout the Commonwealth’s 56 member nations.

Our distinctive place inside the Commonwealth household permits us to play a pivotal function in convening and connecting the Commonwealth’s political and diplomatic representatives, civil society, enterprise and youth leaders, on a variety of points, in addition to to ship highlights of the Commonwealth calendar such because the annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey and the High Commissioners’ Banquet at Guildhall or Mansion House.

Founded in 1868, the Society is privileged to have His Majesty The King as Patron and Her Majesty The Queen as Vice-Patron.

About The Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth is a voluntary affiliation of 56 impartial and equal sovereign states, with a mixed inhabitants of two.7 billion folks, of whom greater than 60 per cent are aged 30 or underneath. Spanning the globe, the Commonwealth consists of each superior economies and creating nations, with 33 member states labeled as small states, a lot of that are island nations.

The Commonwealth Secretariat helps member nations to construct democratic and inclusive establishments, strengthen governance, and promote justice and human rights. Its work helps to develop economies and increase commerce, ship nationwide resilience, empower younger folks, and deal with threats reminiscent of local weather change, debt, and inequality. Member nations are additional supported by a community of greater than 80 intergovernmental, civil society, cultural, {and professional} organisations.

About The City of London Corporation Youth Natural Environment Board

The City of London Youth Natural Environment Board, CityYNEB, is a youth-led environmental governance initiative bringing collectively college students from throughout the City of London household of faculties. Established to make sure that younger folks have a significant voice in shaping environmental coverage, sustainability schooling and local weather motion, CityYNEB offers a platform for college students to maneuver past awareness-raising and participate in real-world advocacy, collaboration and techniques change.

Through tasks reminiscent of Waves of Change, CityYNEB helps younger folks to develop the information, confidence and inexperienced abilities wanted to contribute to a extra sustainable future. The Board works in partnership with faculties, civic establishments and environmental organisations to attach youth management with sensible motion, coverage engagement and neighborhood influence. Its work displays a dedication to intergenerational duty, environmental stewardship and empowering younger folks as energetic contributors in decision-making in regards to the pure world.