The British Journal of Photography

10/10/2025

What does freedom look like when the ground beneath you is occupied?⁠
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In Landing, Maen Hammad captures Palestinian skateboarders carving fleeting moments of resistance and escape on their boards - an act of defiance, of imagination, of life itself.⁠
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Join us for the book launch and conversation with Maen, hosted by Dalia Al-Dujaili and Mohamed Somji, on 1 Nov, 4pm at Oxford House, Bethnal Green.⁠
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Presented by British Journal of Photography (@1854.media) and Gulf Photo Plus.
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Limited copies of Maen’s book will be available on the evening. Landing is published by , published by Huwawa Books - a new artist-led publisher amplifying counternarratives from the Arab world.⁠

Grab your ticket: http://1854.photo/3WvYcRY
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📷️: Maen Hammad

09/10/2025

With only one month left to enter Female in Focus x Nikon 2025, we asked our judges to share what they’d like to see in this year’s entries. Here’s what some of them had to say:

✨ ”I’m particularly drawn to voices that surprise me, challenge conventions, or shed light on overlooked stories. Most of all, I want to feel a sense of urgency and authenticity behind the images.” - Alessia Glaviano, Head of Global PhotoVogue and Director of the PhotoVogue Festival

✨ ”I would love to see work that feels unfamiliar, or shows us something in a way we haven’t seen before.” - Carolyn Mendelsohn, Photographer and Nikon Ambassador

✨ ”I'm always looking forward to encountering work that teaches me something new, or expands my understanding of a subject or experience that I'd otherwise be unaware of.” - Marigold Warner, Writer

✨ ”I hope to see joy, anger, excitement, rawness, beauty in the everyday, resistance, love, and deep respect for the photograph's subjects. I would like to see work that is just fresh and honest and powerful.” - Jess Baxter, Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate Modern

Become a Full Access Member and submit up to 10 single images or one series. Enter now: http://1854.photo/3KJWMRe

Deadline: 06 November 2025, 23:59 UK time.

06/10/2025

As Paris Photo returns for its 28th edition, its second back at the Grand Palais after the venue’s refurbishment, is continuing to promote inclusivity. This year Paris Photo includes 223 exhibitors from 33 countries, 183 galleries and 40 publishers, 59 of whom are participating for the first time; Paris Photo is becoming more diverse, with galleries such as Tintera from Cairo, Vadehra Art from New Delhi, Ayyam from Dubai, and Don from Shanghai all making their exhibiting debut.

Planas was appointed artistic director of Paris Photo in December 2022 and joined with a reputation for embracing photography in all its forms in her work with various institutions.

And as Planas suggests, the fair is aiming for multiplicity in other ways too, from the kind of work on display, to the epoch in which it was made.

Voices is returning after a successful first outing last year, curated by Dr Devika Singh, senior lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, and Nadine Wietlisbach, director of Fotomuseum Winterthur. They have selected work around landscapes and portraiture respectively, at first sight two very different themes which actually share wider preoccupations around nations, communities and identity.

Read the full interview with Planas at the link below.

02/10/2025

Utah’s Great Salt Lake, once the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, has already lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area. Once a vital hub for wildlife, it is now reduced to stretches of dry, cracked mudland where thousands of birds lie dead. Scientists warn of a looming disaster that could expose communities to toxic dust, wipe out a major migratory route, and destroy Utah’s industries.

Alfredo Jaar is the winner of the eleventh edition of the Prix Pictet, themed ‘Storm’. His series, The End, turns his lens on this quietly unfolding tragedy. Landscapes fade into desolate close-ups, ending with a flock of birds “condemned to death”.

“I'm always looking for the perfect balance between information and poetry; information and spectacle,” Jaar says of his work. “That balance is very difficult to achieve. If it is too informative, it becomes boring, dry, didactic… If it is too poetic, it becomes too sweet, too decorative, and it loses its power.”

On show now at the V&A until 19 October, The End is both a warning and a reflection on fragility, urgency and responsibility.

Read more:

In a time of censorship and climate denial, what is the role of photography? Now on show at V&A Kensington alongside eleven shortlisted photographers, Alfredo Jarr reflects on feelings of hope and helplessness in the midst of environmental disaster.

01/10/2025

How are technology, ethics and trust shaping photojournalism today? It’s a big question but, amid rising conflict and authoritarianism, one crucial for both image-makers and audiences. So London College of Communication is to be commended for its conference, Lines of Engagement, which posed and explored this question over the 18th and 19th September with image-makers, researchers, picture editors and lawyers.

Julia Kotchetova gave her very personal account of war in Ukraine at the event, for example, arguing against statistics and traditional war photography in favour of something more involving. “War is an immersive experience, you need to feel it; journalism is not enough any more,” she said.

Offering accessible – at times alarming – insights into the construction of visual narratives, the conference was open to all, in-person and online, and affordably priced; videos of the talks and discussions are now available online. Read more:

Lines of Engagement, How Technology, Ethics and Trust Shape Photojournalism Today provided an urgent insight into the contemporary construction of visual narratives, hosted at the London College of Communication but open to all in person and online

30/09/2025

This year’s Female in Focus x Nikon theme, ‘On the Cusp’, invites photographers to explore that space between what was and what’s coming. A moment of stillness before movement, or clarity breaking through the uncertain.

It might take the form of personal transformation - ageing, grief, migration, recovery. Or it might emerge in response to broader ruptures: political unrest, climate collapse, technological acceleration, or shifts in cultural identity. We’re looking for images that hold tension and possibility. That capture people not in their arrival, but in the process of becoming.

Now open for entries, Female in Focus is judged by an international panel of leading industry figures. 20 single images and two bodies of work will be exhibited in 2026 at PhotoIreland in Dublin and 10.14 Gallery in London.
The photographers behind the two winning series will also receive a Nikon Z Series mirrorless camera and two NIKKOR Z lenses of their choice.

Enter now: http://1854.photo/4mIFiCj

Deadline: 06 November 2025, 23:59 UK time.

29/09/2025

Daegu Photo Biennale celebrates its 10th since its foundation in 2006. The main exhibition, The Pulse of Life, considers what life is, whilst a second ‘special’ exhibition is titled The Origin of the World and asks what it is to be human.

A third exhibition will be devoted to Rinko Kawauchi’s latest series, M/E On this Sphere Endlessly Interlinking, in which ‘M/E’ refers to Mother Earth and also the pronoun ‘me’. Around 80 artists are included in The Pulse of Life and 75 more in The Origin of the World, as well as Kawauchi’s major solo show.

The Encounters VIII exhibition, meanwhile, is a place to see work by emerging artists. Occupying some 4000 square metres in the Daegu Culture and Arts Center, south-eastern South Korea, the Biennale also includes related events such as a symposium, a photobook exhibition and a portfolio review.

This edition of the Biennale is spearheaded by Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais, an art historian who was previously curator of Centre Pompidou’s photography department, then head of the photography collection and curator of the photography department of the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

De l’Ecotais speaks to BJP; read the full story at the link below.

The South Korean festival reaches for a new conception of the world in which humans are part of a wider, more symbiotic flow. Artistic director Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais explains

26/09/2025

The 2025 Carte Blanche Students spotlight four emerging European photographers whose work navigates presence, displacement, mystification, and the unseen. Selected from over 600 submissions, Kim‑Camille Kreuz, Tom Lyon, Mirielle Rohr, and Viktoriia Tymonova will present large-format works at Gare de Lyon and portfolios at Paris Photo 2025.

Kreuz transforms fragments of daily commutes into UV prints on glass, fragile traces that hover between visibility and disappearance. Lyon interrogates migration and border regimes in ‘Arena’, layering documentary and found imagery to question dominant narratives around displacement. Rohr examines “sharenting” and child influencers in ‘Money Making Child’, exposing the commercialisation of childhood through AI-generated images. Tymonova explores the boundaries between official history and alternative narratives in ‘We want to know the truth’, using fiction, magic, and reenactments to probe mystification and hidden truths.

Find out more about the laureates at the link below.

Four young European photographers have been named laureates of Carte Blanche Students 2025

24/09/2025

Since launching in 2018 with just one venue, 212 Photography Istanbul has grown into a city-wide celebration of image-making, spanning 30+ venues across the Bosphorus-spanning metropolis. This year, the festival continues its bold mission of discovery – spotlighting both global legends and local talents across photography, digital media, installation and film.
Expect iconic names like Steve McCurry, Harry Gruyaert, and Erwin Olaf, alongside rising voices such as Toma Gerzha, Güliz Kayahan, and Çağla Demirbaş. From whimsical collage to haunting photojournalism, the work pushes boundaries in both medium and message.

A rare public opening of Pangaltı Latin Catholic Cemetery, where Mustafa Seven’s atmospheric images tell quiet stories of a city that never stands still, is one of this edition’s must-see venues. Over in a Byzantine-era palazzo, textile artist Tuba Geçgel transforms space with tactile memory.

BJP speaks to director Banu Tunçağ at the link below.

Rapidly expanding across the city’s historic venues since its 2018 inception, 212 Photography Istanbul puts the focus on discovery with an enticing mix of local and international artists

24/09/2025

“I met Fiona as part of an ongoing series exploring the stories of mothers who were unable to hold their children at birth,” recalls Hanna Wolf, one of the Female in Focus x Nikon 2024 Single Image Winners.

“After the unexpectedly traumatic birth of her twins, Fiona faced the devastating diagnosis of breast cancer. The lost moments of holding her newborns on her chest echoed in ways she could never have imagined as she underwent a double mastectomy. When we met, six months after her surgery, Fiona shared that she was ready to be photographed with her scars. What began as the absence of touch transformed into a profound journey of grief, resilience, and triumph - reclaiming her body not just as a place of healing, but as a space where motherhood and selfhood can be reimagined.”

This year’s theme, On the Cusp, invites photographers to explore turning points - both personal and global. From moments of revolution and revelation to quieter transitions shaped by ageing, climate change or technology, it reflects the uncertainty - and possibility - of what comes next.

Become a Member now and submit up to 10 single images or one complete series. Selected work will be exhibited at PhotoIreland in Dublin and 10.14 Gallery in London, with series winners receiving a Nikon Z Series mirrorless camera and two NIKKOR Z lenses of their choice. Enter now: http://1854.photo/424cw7I

📸: Hanna Wolf, Female in Focus x Nikon 2024 single image winner.

23/09/2025

In 1986, Chilean photographer Paz Errázuriz began a tender project: a monthly portrait of her son, Tomás, against a garden wall in Santiago. Across four years, the images chart his gradual transformation from boy to young man, echoing the seismic changes taking place in Chile as dictatorship gave way to democracy. Shown here as the video piece Un Cierto Tiempo, it is just one of many works in Paz Errázuriz: Dare to Look, currently on view at MK Gallery.

Errázuriz’s work often unfolds in spaces of resistance and intimacy. Her landmark series La Manzana de Adán (1982–87) – made in collaboration with a community of LGBTQIA+ s*x workers in Santiago and Talca – stands as an extraordinary record of lives lived with courage, trust, and defiance, at a time of violent persecution. “Taking a photo is extremely intrusive,” she notes. “Letting oneself be photographed is highly courageous.”

Bringing together more than 170 works, the exhibition spans five decades: from psychiatric hospitals to border towns, from women’s rights to aging bodies. At once poetic and political, Errázuriz’s images insist on attention, offering beauty, dignity, and solidarity against erasure.

On at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes until 5 October.

Read the interview with Head of Exhibitions, Fay Blanchard, at the link below.

At MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, Dare to Look brings together over four decades of work by the Chilean artist

19/09/2025

Rahim Fortune’s latest body of work Between Memory and Me opens at CPW, Kingston in upstate New York tomorrow. Developed on commission with Aperture and Documentary Arts, Fortune engaged with the Texas African-American Photography Archive to reveal a compelling portrait of kinship in the American South.

This was the Texan-born Oklahoma-raised artist’s first stab at producing a “serious body of work” in colour, he tells BJP, a format he’s continuing to experiment with now. Fortune has been photographing the Black community in the American South for just under a decade, publishing three photobooks and exhibiting multiple bodies of work: last year, Hardtack was published by Loose Joints, shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse this year 2025 as well as a Les Rencontres d'Arles 2024 Author Book Awards nomination.

“I’m charting the influence of black Americana within Texas, which reaches through music and through rodeo culture and fashion, as well as geographic locations of freedman colonies,” he tells BJP. This latest show sits in a larger body of works exploring ideas around community, which Fortune thinks we’re not only born into, but have a hand in choosing.

Read the interview at the link below.

The Austin-born artist engages with the Texas African-American Photography Archive to reveal a compelling portrait of kinship in the American South