CLEVELAND — A photography exhibit in Ohio is taking on a big challenge, and they need your help. 

​The Cleveland Photo Fest is collecting one million photos. So far, they’ve received about 170,000 submissions from around the world. 

Herb Ascherman, a director of the Cleveland Photo Fest, said if they can collect that many pictures, they’ll have an international record. 

“We had kids that submitted, we have adults,” he said. “One guy showed up with a thumb drive of 60,000 images and said, ‘Here, I’ll contribute these.’”

Maria Perme submitted a handful of photos to the exhibition. She’s been interested in photography since she was a teen. 

“It started out as a hobby, and it has really grown into something that is a passion and something I just love to do,” she said. 

Right now, thousands of photographers currently have works on display in the Bostwick Design Partnership through the One Million Photos challenge. 

“It’s just another way for us as people and as human beings to interconnect to one another,” she said. 

Cleveland Photo Fest Director Jim Szudy said the goal of the event is to show unity through photography. 

“Sometimes language can be limited, according to region or what have you,” he said, “But photography and images are universal. They expound over those boundaries that sometimes language can cause."

The majority of the photos submitted so far are currently displayed on large 8-foot panels that hold about 17,500 photos on each. NEO Pro Imaging donated the prints for the exhibition. 

The show runs through the end of 2022, and they plan to continue collecting photos until they reach the million milestone. They’re hoping to hit the mark next year, when they’ll update the gallery with all the additional photos.

“You don’t know what you’ve got until you get into it, but the response that we’ve gotten internationally has been fascinating,” Ascherman said. 

You can submit your own photos of any subject for free at onemillionphotos.org.