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:
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Children’s Experiences of Climate Change
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How do children experience and perceive climate change in their everyday lives?
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How do climate-related disruptions (e.g., extreme weather, displacement, environmental degradation) shape children’s well-being, education, and play?
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How does climate change affect children’s relationships with their homes, neighborhoods, and natural environments?
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Intergenerational Dimensions of Climate Action
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To what extent do children’s voices influence intergenerational dialogues on climate change?
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In what ways do children challenge or reshape adult perspectives on climate responsibility?
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What role do education and intergenerational knowledge-sharing play in preparing children for climate resilience?
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Co-Imagining Climate Futures
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What significant relationships in children’s lives shape their hopes, fears, or demands for change in the face of the climate crisis?
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How are children shaping climate discourse and solutions through activism, education, or community-led initiatives?
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How do children envision the future in the face of climate change?
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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.