Online picture competition: urban heat in Mediterranean cities
A visual invitation from the Cool Noons Project – open to all.
As part of the Cool Noons project, we are launching a call for submissions for all photographers, image-makers, urban wanderers, mediterranean city residents, tourists, and everyday dreamers.
This project, taking place in five European cities – Marseille, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, Imola, and Budva – explores how urban tourism is adapting to climate change, particularly in response to increasingly intense heatwaves.
But rather than taking a purely technical or distant perspective, we aim to poeticize resistance, to document bodies adapting, gestures that soothe, spaces of refuge, and the inventiveness of daily life under the burning sun.
Thematics of the competition:
- How do we improve urban thermal comfort during the hottest hours of the day?
- How do we imagine new uses for urban spaces, better adapted to today’s climate challenges?
- How do we visualize a lively and living city? How do we protect and left no one and nothing behind? How do we ensure home?
- Your projects should document the five Cool Noons cities: Marseille, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, Imola, and Budva
Artistic inspiration – Capturing the realities of urban heat.
We want to see the city differently:
This competition is an invitation to reveal the social, political, and sensorial dimensions of cities under heat stress.
How do the walls sweat? Where do the kind shadows hide? Which communities care for one another? What imaginaries of coolness can emerge between concrete, sea, dust, and asphalt?
We are looking for images that go beyond the lens of tourism – photographs that capture cities as spaces lived, inhabited, and endured. To give voice to the experiences of those who remain when the tourists leave, who bear the brunt of the rising heat, often in unequal ways.
This is a call to bring forth narratives of climate justice, of relationships with the living, of hospitality, pleasure, care and survival, found in the cracks between mass tourism and the climate crisis.
Participatory online workshop
At the end of the open call, we’ll host an online workshop for all participants who have submitted an image or a project idea.
A participatory session, held in English, to help you develop or refine your project, whether you’ve submitted only an initial idea or a first image. You will have until September 30th to submit the final version of your project.
This workshop is not a lecture — it is a collective and non-hierarchical space, to reflect, share, and shape your visual proposals in dialogue with others.
Together, we will explore how every image begins, not with the camera, but within ourselves.
+Reflect on the idea of the “situated gaze” and why intention matters
+Explore what it means to “write an image” before taking it or after
+Work on crafting a short, honest, and powerful caption to accompany your photo
+Share supportive feedback in small groups or in plenary (with no obligation to share)
+Think of editing as a narrative tool: how to sequence, select, or frame your work
The workshop will be led by Kmar Douagi, an visual artist and facilitator, whose practice is rooted in documentary and socially engaged approaches. Operating at the intersection of image and narrative, her photographic work explores everyday life – profoundly real, to question, connect and shift our gaze.
Investigating transformative potential of photography through collaborative and transnational initiatives, she is currently mentee of the Ecole nationale de la photographie in Arles (ENSP).
Rewards
The 3 best pictures selected by our jury will earn a prize:
1°
A return-trip in a city of the project
(for 360 euros maximum)
2°
Material photo for a maximum
amount of 200 euros
3°
2-hours “Advising” with Heartline World collective, as a professional accompaniment for “Portfolio restructure”, “support for writing applications”, “Development strategies”
A selection of pictures will also be displayed in EuroMediterranean exhibitions, taking place in: Athens, Budva, Coimbra, Dubrovnik, Imola, Lisbon and Marseille during the first semester of 2026.
How to participate?
Who can apply?
You must be based in or visiting one of the project cities. No age limit.
Calendar & submission period
- from 07 July to 07 August – Apply to the competition by sending your initial project from
- August or September 2025 – Attend the online workshop to finalize your project (the date will be confirmed depending on participation)
- Send your final project by 30 September 2025
- The selection of the 3 best projects will take place at the end of the year 2025
To participate
Use the online registration form to apply and send your project.
Find all information in the online picture competition rules.
About the Cool Noons Project
The Cool Noons Project charts cooling actions in five Mediterranean cities, to reimagine tourism and urban life during peak heat hours by promoting climate adaptation, thermal comfort, and public space design.
Discover the project – from the urban Cool Paths to the catalogue of urban cooling solutions.
For any question, participants can contact coolnoons@interreg-euro-med.eu
Join us in the fight against climate change!
Join us in helping urban tourism destinations to become more resilient to climate change!Find out more about our initiatives, participate in our events, and help spread our mission for a more sustainable future.
