PLANET Magazine, a leading global culture lifestyle magazine blending the latest in contemporary art, music and fashion with coverage of distant cultures, unique travel experiences, and global awareness is pleased to announce our 1st annual Global Travel Photo Contest, with the ultimate Grand Prize: A round-the-world ticket, open for one year (or $1000 cash prize), with a 10-page portfolio assignment covering your trip to be published upon your return.

Since our launch in 2001, PLANET has become known for its outstanding photography, shot by many of today’s top photographic talents, from dynamic up-and-comers to great masters and enduring legends.

PLANET’s photo contest offers photographers from around the world a unique opportunity to share their vision of travel, life, people, and sub-culture with our top editors and a distinguished panel of judges culled from the highest levels of New York’s international photography community. Best of all, the Grand Prize winner will receive a round-the-world ticket with a 10-page portfolio assignment covering your trip.

Three runner-ups will each receive a liveBooks portfolio website (basic web package or $800 toward any liveBooks website package or upgrade.) and a 6-page portfolio of their work published in PLANET in 2009.

Ten finalists will have their work appear in our Spring 2009 Journeys issue, in a special contest portfolio, and each will receive a free photo-related book from powerHouse books.

The contest theme is “Many Worlds, One Planet”, and we’d like to ask photographers to not only submit images defining a particular place but also ones that show the people, cultures, and sub-cultures of the places they document; a powerful portrait or image of a gathering can equally reveal the depth and mystery of the travel experience.

At PLANET, our concept of travel is different from other magazines. It’s not just about destinations; it’s about journeys. And for each of the last several years, we’ve published our annual “Journeys” issue rather than a mere “Travel” issue. For us, travel is a state of mind, and as much as we’re passionate about traveling to distant places and discovering new people, delicious food, intriguing nightspots and scenic locations, it’s also possible to discover new worlds in your own city simply by changing neighborhoods or documenting a different circle of culture.

Based on this broad understanding of travel, photographers are encouraged to submit traditional travel images, studies of the people and environs they encounter as they travel, and even explorations of their own local surroundings. Above all, entries should inspire PLANET readers to explore the many worlds contained in this, our one planet.

To enter, please read the following guidelines and then click the button below to register and submit your image. Each entry contains one image. Photographers may submit multiple entries. There is a $15 fee per entry to cover administering the contest.

GUIDELINES

All entries must be submitted as digital files through the upload feature we’ve provided. Photos delivered via post or email will not be accepted.

Images may be color corrected and retouched, however no photo illustrations or digitally created images will be accepted.

All photographers must hold copyright to their submitted images and will be asked to confirm as such by accepting our Terms and Conditions.

Size specifications for upload are: At least 4 inches by 6 inches or larger at 72 dpi. Finalists will be requested individually to submit 300 dpi images for publication.

DEADLINE

The deadline for submissions for the PLANET Magazine Global Travel Photo Contest is November 15, 2008, midnight, Greenwich Mean Time. Finalists will be selected by December 15, 2008, and winners will be notified by January 1.

THE JUDGING PANEL

Our inaugural year’s contest will be judged by an esteemed panel of international photography professionals and PLANET editors.

The panel includes:

Tim Barber runs the well-known online gallery tinyvices.com. He is also a photographer, publisher and designer and just launched his own independent publishing house TV Books (tvbookshop.com), which produces unique books, artist monographs, zines and posters. is currently curating a series of five photography books to be published by the Aperture Foundation in the fall of 2008.

Steve Kalalian has been on the forefront of the digital imaging, photography and post-production industries since he founded The Millennium WorldGroup in 1991. Steve’s umbrella of leading brands includes Impact Digital, Industrial Color, ICLAB, Fast Ashley’s Studios, GLOBALedit and The M Project Gallery.

Marek Milewicz is a longstanding figure in the international photographic community, having founded one of the most successful and prestigious photographers’ agencies known on both sides of the Atlantic, Marek and Associates. He started with only one photographer over thirty years ago, Deborah Turbeville, who is now one of the legends of art, travel, and fashion photography. Other important photographers whose careers he has helped develop are Walter Chin, Michel Comte, and Steven Klein.

Hans Neleman is a Dutch-born American photographer and author of three acclaimed photography books: Moko-Maori Tattoo, Night Chicas, and Silence. He is the founder of WIN-INITIATIVE a new stock agency based on the cutting-edge talent of emerging photographers worldwide. He works from his studio in SOHO, New York City.

Derek Peck is Founder and Creative Director at PLANET Magazine. He conceived PLANET over ten years ago while napping in a hammock in Latin America and, consequently, hasn’t napped much in a hammock since. He has been a writer, editor and photographer for many years, was senior editor at Surface Magazine, and occasionally contributes to the UK style magazine, Another.

Sara Rosen is Associate Publisher and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Publicity for powerHouse Books, Publisher of Miss Rosen Editions, Editor of powerHouse Magazine, and Publicity Director of the New York Photo Festival. She lives and works in New York City.

Anthony Smith is a veteran travel writer with two decades of experience in art photography, ethnography and photojournalism. In addition to his work with photographer Gerald Forster for The Light Years Project (a seminal collection of photography, poetry and stories from the field), he has traveled to and written about over thirty countries on six different continents. He is editor-at-large at PLANET.