No. You haven’t misheard or mistaken the lyrics to the Whitney Houston eighties pop anthem for the last thirty years. Yes, we’ve engaged in some word play to boost the launch of Sahara Group’s first ever photography competition and we think it’s a good one even if we say so.
On the back of a successful #GoGreenforValentine internal campaign we are proud to extend our theme of love to span the rest of February-The Universal Month of Love.
Here at Sahara Group, we believe the greatest love of all begins with the world we inhabit and our concern for her sustainable well-being. Our planet is the cradle of all known lifeforms and the foundation for every human experience conceivable so it feels right to bring our natural environment to the very centre of our February love theme. Why wait until Earth Day April 22, when we should recognize, celebrate and preserve our planet every day of every month?
We decided to approach our #TheGreenestLoveofAll campaign as though we were planning an early, festive surprise party for Mother Earth.
Our Instagram photo competition is designed to reinforce the importance of capturing moments that celebrate the people, places and things which best depict the promotion or violation of environmental consciousness and eco-friendly sustainable practices. Our one request is that you capture these images with the utility of what today is considered to be our closest, most steadfast companion- The mobile smart phone!
Who or what have you seen at home, at work, or driving down the road which struck you as the greenest expression of love? What sort of images should we immortalize and preserve? What strikes you as a cautionary tale or something we should do away with to preserve our planet for the next generation? We would like you to capture, upload, tag and share it!
Enter a short narrative under your caption, and describe to us why your photo exemplifies #TheGreenestLoveofAll and what the picture and/or the theme means to you in particular.
Here are just some of the reasons the subject of Climate Action is so meaningful to us at Sahara Group:
- As a UN appointed custodian of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we have a mandate to drive the achievement of Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action) across the world.
- By driving environmental governance, resource efficiency and ecosystem management particularly in developing nations, we lay the groundwork and nurture the operating conditions which foster entrepreneurship and the reciprocation of wealth in the communities most in need of it.
Please note that we are not looking for professional pictures taken with state of the art, single lens digital cameras. What we are looking for are the best pictures taken with the convenience of your mobile phone.
We’d love to help you celebrate the pride you took in producing the photos. - Value of Contest
i. Grand Prize – Samsung S8 Smartphone (winning photo to be enlarged, framed and displayed at the African Artist Foundation Gallery & Sahara HQ)
ii. 1st Runner-Up – Apple Smart Watch (photo to be framed and displayed at the African Artist Foundation Gallery & Sahara HQ)Selection Criteria
· Images MUST depict the theme.
· Images MUST have a narrative or caption describing why you entered the photo
· Images MUST be taken with the use of a smartphone.
· All contestants MUST follow @iamsaharagroup on Instagram.
· When posting the image, the contestant MUST tag @iamsaharagroup
· Images MUST be posted and submitted via Instagram using the following hashtags; #TheGreenestLoveOfAll · Images MUST not contain inappropriate subject matter.
· Pre-existing photographs, stock photos are not allowed. You may be asked to prove the originality and date of images submitted.
· No corporate imagery such as company logos, branded cars or merchandise can be admitted.
Be as artistically creative with your mobile phone as possible.
Selection Process
· The final judging panel is comprised of selected members from the artistic community.
· The approved images would be reviewed by the panel to produce a short list of 10.
· The top 10 entries selected by the panel will be posted on our Instagram page and whittled down to 3 based on the number of likes and re-grams.
Please note that the hashtags MUST be used while posting your images to ensure eligibility