Call for Photo Essays!
Climate change is reshaping children’s lives in complex ways, affecting their health, well-being, education, and sense of security while also transforming the places they grow up in. From extreme weather events to slow-onset environmental changes, children experience climate change firsthand, and often disproportionately. Yet, children are not merely passive victims; they are also active participants in climate action, engaging in advocacy, adaptation, and everyday acts of resilience. CYE invites abstract submissions for a special issue exploring the profound relationships between children and climate change through photo essays.
​
This special issue seeks visually compelling narratives that capture children’s experiences, perceptions, and responses to climate change in the context of a specific environment. Photo essays should engage with the following question as a guiding framework: How does climate change affect children’s relationships with their homes, neighborhoods, and natural environments?
Submission Guidelines
Photo essays may take various forms, including time-sequence, location-based, or abstract conceptualizations. Each essay should comprise a collection of original photographs accompanied by concise textual narratives (captions) per photograph that critically engage with the overarching theme and selected topic.
​
Final essays will include 10-12 high quality photos, captions of up to 100 words per photo, and a 200-word abstract summarizing the essay.
Special Issue Timeline
​
Topic Possibilities
The topics below are proposed by the special issue editors for your submissions:
​
-
Children’s Experiences of Climate Change
-
​​​How do children experience and perceive climate change in their everyday lives?
-
How do climate-related disruptions (e.g., extreme weather, displacement, environmental degradation) shape children’s well-being, education, and play?
-
How does climate change affect children’s relationships with their homes, neighborhoods, and natural environments?
-
-
Intergenerational Dimensions of Climate Action
-
To what extent do children’s voices influence intergenerational dialogues on climate change?
-
In what ways do children challenge or reshape adult perspectives on climate responsibility?
-
What role do education and intergenerational knowledge-sharing play in preparing children for climate resilience?
-
-
Co-Imagining Climate Futures
-
What significant relationships in children’s lives shape their hopes, fears, or demands for change in the face of the climate crisis?
-
How are children shaping climate discourse and solutions through activism, education, or community-led initiatives?
-
How do children envision the future in the face of climate change?
-
​
For photo essay examples, please reference the following publications:
​
Robins, S. (2021). Twenty days of radiation: A photo essay. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 52(3), 321-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2021.06.002
​
Harvard Photo Essay collection
​
Our Children, Our Future photo essay
​​​
Editorial Team
Selected contributors will be invited to develop full photo essays for editorial review by the following international scholars:
​
CYE Editors: 
Özlemnur Ataol, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, o.ataol@rug.nl
Catherine Rita Volpe, University of New England, Australia, cvolpe@une.edu.au
Victoria Carr, University of Cincinnati, United States, CARRVW@ucmail.uc.edu
Sue Elliott, University of New England, Australia, sellio24@une.edu.au
​
Guest Editors: 
Sean Hughes, University of Cincinnati, United States, hughess3@ucmail.uc.edu
Aneesa Jamal, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia, jamal20@graduate.utm.my
Sheila Williams Ridge, University of Minnesota, United States, will0342@umn.edu
Hikmet Gokmen, Dokuz Eylul University, Türkiye, hikmet.gokmen@deu.edu.tr
Joshua Russell, Canisius University, United States, russellj@canisius.edu
​
For inquiries, please contact Özlemnur Ataol at o.ataol@rug.nl.