Youth Lens on the Silk Roads is an international photography competition. The project aims to raise awareness of the importance of the shared heritage of the Silk Roads as a basis for mutual understanding and respect in our globalised world. Some 6,625 young men and women aged 14-25 from 100 countries along the historic routes and beyond used their unique lenses to capture representations of the shared cultural heritage of the Silk Roads. The current album showcases 70 of the best photos submitted, accompanied by the photographers’ testimonies about their perceptions of this shared heritage.

In 2016, a contest was launched for children in the Barika refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. The themes of the competition were “camp life”, “family” and “friends”. Seven winners were selected and each received a brand new laptop.

In June 2012, Reza partnered with the NGO IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) to launch the international photography competition “Children’s Eyes on Earth“. The aim of the competition was to raise children’s awareness of important environmental issues and, more generally, to encourage them to look at the world in a different way through the use of photography. The competition, with the theme “I love nature. I fear pollution“, received 4,000 entries from 1,200 young photographers from 91 countries. In May 2013, an international photography festival and awards ceremony was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, attended by photography professionals from around the world. The 100 best images from the competition were exhibited. The six winners, accompanied by their families, were invited to attend the awards ceremony and then to take part in various photography workshops with Reza.