WIPO Photography Exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva

This summer, 30 shortlisted entries of the WIPO Photography Prize for Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Youth 2021-2022 (the WIPO Photography Prize), are being exhibited at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG) Garden.

Themed Climate Change and Climate Action: Mother Earth through our Lenses, the WIPO Photography Prize encourages Indigenous Peoples and local community youth to capture and communicate their perspectives on climate change-related challenges confronting their communities.

As part of MEG’s exhibition “Environmental Injustice – Indigenous Peoples’ Alternatives”, which presents the perspectives and knowledge used by Indigenous Peoples to mitigate the climate crisis, MEG partnered with WIPO to present the shortlisted photos from the competition. An official opening of the exhibition took place on June 21, 2022.

The exhibition at the MEG featuring the finalists of the WIPO Photography Prize is currently on display until the end of August 2022. Here is a preview of the exhibition.

MEG and WIPO’s collaboration

For several years, MEG has been liaising with the Traditional Knowledge Division at WIPO with the view to promote and better protect the traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. As an example, in April-May 2021, the Traditional Knowledge Division organized a Virtual Workshop on IP and Traditional Cultural Expressions for the Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève upon a request from MEG.

Joanderson Gomes de Almeida, the 1st winner of the WIPO Photography Prize, visited the exhibition at the MEG Garden during his recent travel to Geneva.

Background

Launched on International Youth Day, August 12, 2021, by the Traditional Knowledge Division of WIPO, the WIPO Photography Prize aims to celebrate and make widely known the creativity of Indigenous Peoples and local community youth, as well as raise their awareness on how copyright can be used to protect their creativity expressed through photographs. To make the competition accessible to as many young people as possible, entrants were not required to use professional photographic equipment.