The Teen Voice Project welcomes portraits and photographs featuring people. We believe allowing students to photograph individuals is important to creative expression; however, every participant must respect the privacy, dignity, safety, and wishes of the people they photograph.
A person is considered identifiable when they could reasonably be recognized through their face, name, tattoos, distinctive markings, clothing, identification badge, location, surroundings, or other identifying details.
The following requirements apply:
1. Consent is required. A completed Photo Subject Consent and Release Form must accompany every submission containing an identifiable person. If the person photographed is under 18 years of age, the release must be signed by the subject’s parent or legal guardian. The minor should also understand how the photograph may be used and agree to being photographed.
2. Multiple subjects. If a photograph includes more than one identifiable person, a separate consent form must be submitted for each person.
3. When consent cannot be obtained. If the photographer cannot obtain the required permission, the person must not be identifiable. The photographer may accomplish this through silhouette, distance, cropping, photographing the person from behind, or carefully obscuring identifying features.
4. Private information. Photographs must not reveal unnecessary personal or confidential information, including home addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, medical or counseling information, school or employee identification numbers, work or school badges, vehicle license plates, legal or case information, or details that could reveal the location of a protected or vulnerable person. Such information must be cropped or obscured before submission, even when the person has signed a release.
5. Respect for the subject. Consent must be given voluntarily. Participants may not pressure, mislead, secretly photograph, humiliate, exploit, or place another person at risk. Consent to be photographed does not permit the photographer to use a misleading, demeaning, or harmful title, caption, or context.
6. Organizer discretion. The Quinlan Visual Arts Center and Wellroot reserve the right to reject, remove, crop, obscure, or decline to publicly display any photograph that may violate a person’s privacy, compromise someone’s safety, lack adequate consent, or conflict with the safeguarding standards of the Teen Voice competition.