The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is not a photobank.
The photos that appear on the World Heritage website, in the photo galleries for each World Heritage site, were generously donated by photographers to help raise awareness of the importance of the World Heritage Convention. They are for educational use, but not for commercial distribution.
Therefore, these photos are not part of the public domain and are protected by international copyright laws. They cannot be used for commercial purposes.
For many World Heritage sites, it is possible to find images free of charge on photography websites.
UNESCO does not purchase photographs from private individuals, professional photographers or agencies.
UNESCO does however, favour partnerships with photographic institutions that promote the World Heritage Convention and the preservation of World Heritage sites.
UNESCO is also happy to accept the generous donations of photographs which are extremely useful in raising awareness of the importance of World Heritage preservation among the public.
Photos must be sent to the email address wh-info@unesco.org, using a file transfer service of your choice or www.unesco.org/tools/filedepot.
Requirements
- Photos must be within the boundaries of a site inscribed on the World Heritage List (please do not hesitate to go on the “Maps” tab of the sites to double-check)
- UNESCO accepts photos only from the copyright holder of the photos.
- UNESCO selects the photos to publish and can remove them from the UNESCO website without notification.
- UNESCO does not accept photos of politicized subjects (controversial flags, weapons….)
- Photos must have useful metadata or a descriptive file associated with mandatory information.
Mandatory information
- License : a Creative common license that authorizes UNESCO to use the photo and distribute the photo to a third party or the UNESCO license form (English - French)
- Author: author of the photo (always an individual)
- Copyright: copyright holder of the photo (it is the author of the photo or a company/organization employing him/her)
- Size: 1920 x 1080 pixels (HD 1080) or higher
- Description: accurate and exhaustive (not just the name of the site – for example, not “Historic Centre of Brugge”, but “Historic Centre of Brugge –Our Lady’s Church”).
- Date: date when the photo was taken
- Authorization to share your contact email to a third party: please clearly specify whether we can give your contact in case someone wants to use your photos
Not mandatory information
- Latitude / Longitude in decimal degree, WGS 84
- Keywords
Subjective recommendations
- Photos should give a good idea of how the World Heritage property looks like
- Accurate colours
- Good exposure
- Good composition