Final Artist Selection 2026

Akshay Mahajan is an artist and photographer from India whose work explores photography as a site of memory, myth, and historical rupture. Moving between images, archives, text, and collage, his practice reflects on postcolonial cities, vernacular histories, and the afterlives of empire. He is particularly interested in how photographs shape personhood, collective memory, and the politics of representation. Mahajan’s work has been shown internationally, including at the Bamako Encounters, Cairo Biennale, Athens Photo Festival, and Encontros da Imagem. He was named Foam Talent 2023–24, was runner-up for the Aperture Portfolio Prize, and won the Nera di Verzasca Prize in 2024.

Alessandro Bo is an Mexican photographer (b. 1982), based in Oaxaca. My practice focuses on long-term projects exploring the relationship between humans and nature, environmental issues, the dialogue between science and art, urban myths, syncretism, technology, identity displacement, and the impact of tourism. In 2025, I developed a body of work and organized a cultural exchange program with support from the Diane Mayer Fellowship. Recipient of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators grant (2021–24). Nominated for British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch (2019). My work has been exhibited internationally, including Photo Vogue Festival and Filter Photo Fest, and published in Balam, Der Greif, Esquire, It’s Nice That, The New York Times, Don’t Take Pictures, and C41 Magazine.

Anita Khemka (b. 1972) has studied English Literature at Delhi University and Visual Merchandizing at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Her work on alternative sexuality was made into a German film, Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender (2005). Her work titled Laxmi — an ongoing collaboration with a transgender activist since 2003 was on exhibit at the Asian Arts Museum, Nice (2022) and at Magazzino delle, Trieste (2024). After a six-year hiatus from making pictures, she began collaborating with Imran Kokiloo in 2017, with a shared focus on Kashmir. She is represented by PHOTOINK, New Delhi and is Head, Projects India at PhotoSouthAsia. Her book ‘Liquid Borders. Dissident Bodies’ was published by CREA in 2025.

Aprillio Akbar is an Indonesian photographer and photojournalist at Antara News Agency, with over a decade of experience covering social, cultural, political, and humanitarian issues. After eight years in Jakarta, he has been based in Semarang since 2025, contributing to the Central Java and Yogyakarta bureau. He has covered major international events and is a recipient of the Permata Photojournalist Grant VIII (2018). He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts and also writes on Medium.

Arhant Shrestha is a Kathmandu-based photographer whose work draws from personal memory and his relationship with the city. He studied Photography at Bard College, New York. In 2024, he the 7L Photography Grand Jury Prize (@librairie7l) at the 39th Hyères festival (@villanoailles) for Between Space and Memory and was named one of British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch 2025. His project Loose Fist was presented as an exhibition and book at Paris Photo 2025.

Aziziah Diah Aprilya, known as Zizi, is a Makassar-based photographer and artist whose practice centers on visual storytelling and research-driven approaches. Her work explores urban issues, communal memory, and social and environmental change. In 2024, her long-term project Mattude received the Objectifs Documentary Award. She also published Got Your Back (SOKONG!, 2024), a photobook of back portraits reflecting emotional and psychological relationships to space and landscape.

Bertha is a Hong Kong–based visual journalist and photographer whose work explores identity, culture, and social dynamics, with a focus on the impact of recent political and social changes. She believes strongly in photography as a powerful medium for telling human stories. She studied Political Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on a sports scholarship and was awarded the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence, later completing a master’s in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. As a freelance visual journalist, she has worked with AFP, Bloomberg, AP, and EPA, and as a news producer with Al Jazeera English. She most recently worked at CNN as a photo editor.

is an Indonesian photographer based in Germany, working across documentary and portrait photography. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Photography at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2023 and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Photographic Studies.
Her work explores migration, identity, memory, and femininity, focusing on the emotional complexities of living between cultures. Through intimate portraits and layered storytelling, she reflects on personal and collective histories.

Charmaine de Heij is a visual artist, photographer, curator, and researcher exploring how colonial history shapes contemporary representation, identity, and social structures. Her work centers on uncovering hidden stories and creating counter-narratives, with a focus on racism, colonialism, gender, beauty standards, and collective memory. Drawing from her Surinamese–Dutch background, she brings forward lived experiences and perspectives often overlooked.

Carrara’s marble has been extracted for over two millennia, leaving deep marks on the territory and its collective imagination. Once a symbol of artistic excellence, it is now at the center of growing debates surrounding extractivism and the transformation of the Apuan Alps' landscape in northern Tuscany, Italy. 

This project traces a visual and material history of marble extraction through contemporary photography, archival research, and encounters with former quarry workers. At its core is a dialogue across time with the work of Ilario Bessi: a photographer from Carrara who documented the quarries surrounding his city from the 1920s through the 1980s. 

Forty years after Bessi’s passing, his archive became, for me, a site of visual excavation and reinterpretation, where new images emerged from the existing material. Through this dialogue, the project builds a layered visual language in which landscape, memory, industry, and matter remain in constant negotiation

Chloe Bartram is a photographic artist, researcher, and academic based in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia). Working across archives, photography, and feminist material practices, her work centers the female gaze and uncovers overlooked narratives within Australian histories. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and she is currently completing a PhD exploring photographic archives and feminist reinterpretations of the Wallal expedition.

Daniela Balestrin is a Brazilian visual artist exploring photography, writing, and experimental analog processes. Since 2020, her work blends memory and fiction through images, text, video, and artist books. She is a recipient of the IPA Analog Photographer of the Year (2023), and has been recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards (2024, 2026). In 2024, she held her first solo exhibition at the Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo.

Gab Mejia is a queer Filipino photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and environmental engineer. His work spans photography, moving image, and ecological design, exploring climate, biodiversity, and culture. His works have appeared in National Geographic, BBC, Vogue, and exhibited internationally, including Fotografiska Shanghai and Photo London.

Gianluca Lanciai is an Italian visual artist working with photography and video, exploring resilience, spirituality, and science. He studied at Camera Torino and the International Center of Photography, where he received the ICP Documentary Arts Fellowship. His work has been featured by Bloomberg and National Geographic Italy, and he was named a Global Winner of the GFX Challenge Grant (2024).

Ha Dao is a Hanoi-based artist working with photography and moving image. Her practice reflects on everyday life, personal histories, and distance, with the camera as both witness and mediator. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and she is a recipient of the Prince Claus Fund Seed Award, Higashikawa Award, and Dogma Prize. She also co-runs Matca, an initiative supporting photography discourse in Vietnam.

Joel Jimenez (b. 1993, Costa Rica) is an artist and filmmaker based in Madrid. Working across photography, installation, and moving image, his research-driven practice explores memory, power, and history. His work has been exhibited at PhotoEspaña, Paris Photo, and featured in the British Journal of Photography. He is the recipient of the Paris Photo Carte Blanche Étudiants Award (2024).

Joyantee Raina is a Bangladesh-based documentary photographer whose research-driven practice explores gender and indigenous communities. Her work examines how political forces shape personal lives and identity, rooted in lived experience and everyday realities.

Kate Perfilieva is a multidisciplinary artist exploring emptiness, alienation, and displacement. Her work reflects on post-Soviet spaces, intimacy, and psychological processes through photography, installation, and personal archives. Born in Russia, she is currently based in Ubud, Indonesia.

Keyza Widiatmika is a Bali-based educator and visual storyteller exploring media, urban space, and everyday life. His work reflects on how tourism, commerce, and local rituals intersect, shaping the visual culture of contemporary Bali.

Kibe Nduni is a Kenya-based photographer whose work explores contemporary Africa through color, light, and emotion. Drawing from his surroundings, he creates visual narratives that reflect youth, identity, and transformation within a rapidly changing continent—blending lived experience with imagination.

Inuk Jørgensen is a Greenlandic filmmaker exploring language, culture, and Indigenous storytelling. His work has been shown internationally, and he actively supports the development of Greenlandic cinema.

Lars Dyrendom is a visual artist working with photographic archives, examining the relationship between people, place, and Denmark’s colonial history in Greenland.

Made Virgie Avianthy (b. 2003, Jakarta) is a Balinese artist working with film, photography, and archives. Her practice explores memory, identity, and Balinese Hindu traditions, particularly through experimental and documentary approaches. Her works have been presented at ARKIPEL Jakarta and international screenings.

Martín Bollati (b. 1986, Buenos Aires) is a visual artist, editor, and educator. He explores the intersection of photography and fiction, focusing on the discursive possibilities within the limits of the photographic medium. Bollati is the founder of SED editorial and ATLAS and has exhibited internationally, including at the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial and Centro Cultural Kirchner.

Muhammad Dwiki Viansa (Wiki) is a visual artist and screenwriter currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Institut Teknologi Bandung. His practice explores video art, documentary, and expanded cinema, with a focus on memory, space, and digital realities. Wiki is also a creative strategist, working on interdisciplinary projects that merge storytelling, branding, and social impact.

Nadège Mazars is a French photographer based in Colombia since 2007, with a PhD in Sociology. Her work critically interrogates social representations, questioning prevailing narratives. Mazars is the author of Mama Coca, a project deconstructing misconceptions about the coca plant, and her work has been exhibited globally. She regularly contributes to outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, and The Washington Post.

Nicolás Bernal (b. 2000) is an Indigenous Pasto photographer, political scientist, and visual artist from Ipiales, Colombia. His work merges artistic and documentary photography, exploring colonial legacies, marginalized bodies, and sexual and gender diversity in Abya Yala. Bernal has exhibited at global venues such as Contemporary Calgary, Melkweg, and the Trastevere Museum. He has earned accolades like the LensCulture Art Photography Awards and POY Latam New Talents

(b. 1996) is a Javanese-born documentary photographer and writer based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Most of his works and projects emphasize history, daily stories, and values ​​on society in wider themes including social issues, environment, and local wisdom. He splits his time between handling editorial assignments, corporate and commercial works, personal projects, and as a Content and Digital Communication Specialist.

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Prima also deepened his photography in several programs, including the Panna Future Talents: One Year Mentorship held by PannaFoto Institute in 2021 and a reflective and narrative Photography scholarship by Arkademy Project “Kelana PN-Prima” in 2022.

in Bahía Blanca, Province of Buenos Aires, in 1983. He is an architect and photographer. He published the books “Asimismo, todo aquello” (2007), declared of Cultural Interest by the National Secretariat of Culture, and “Razia” (2011). He is currently a professor of Photography at the University of Buenos Aires.

His work has received numerous international awards, including the Global Fujifilm GFX Challenge Award (Japan–USA, 2021), 1st Prize Best Portfolio at the Transversalidades Award (2021), the Feliz Schoeller Photo Award (Germany, 2017), and several

Photographer, Editor & Architect. MA (merit) Photography and Urban Cultures, Goldsmiths College. Editor at Raya Editorial, AÑZ, Fotografía Expandida de Latinoamérica. Founder of 20Fotógrafos & MESAS DE EDICIÓN. Visual curator of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition of Colombia. NFT Resident of Voice & PhotoVogue 2022. TEDx Speaker. First Publication Prize FUTURA Felifa 2018. Winner of POY Latam “Nuestra Mirada”, Photometria 2025,

historian working across photography, performance, and site‑specific intervention. Through a research-led practice, he examines the construction of power and historical narratives. Using speculative fiction and collaging as methodologies, central to his research and practice is an interrogation of the archive as material and institution.

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Cham was a participating artist in the Guangzhou Image Triennial (2025), Addis Foto Fest (2018), and Landskrona Foto Festival (2018). His works have been commissioned by Singapore Art Museum (2025), Singapore Fringe Festival (2019), The Future of Our Pasts Festival (2019), and NUS Centre For the Arts (2019). Recent awards include LensCulture Critics’ Choice Award (2025), and ROSL Photography Award (2025). He was selected as a Foam Talent in 2026.

artist. She has an MFA in Art Studies with a specialization in Art History and Critical Theory from Universidad Iberoamericana, where she is also part of the Technical Council of the Art Department. She studied Photography at the Escuela Activa de Fotografía and earned a degree in Social Communication from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.  ​Her work explores the intersection between fiction, politics, and material imagination, focusing on artistic practice, the study of the image and media, and the potential of visual narratives to challenge reality.​​

Vinit Gupta is an artist, educator, and researcher working with photography, video, and collaborative processes. His practice grows from long engagements with specific landscapes and communities, where questions of ecology, memory, and social resistance unfold slowly, through shared time and attention. He is interested in how people inhabit changing environments, and how these shifts are felt, remembered, and expressed in everyday life.

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His work has been shown across India and internationally, including at the Emami Art Experimental Film Festival (2024), Magazzino delle Idee, Trieste (2024), Tiradentes Photography Festival (2022), Rotterdam Photo Festival (2022), Fotofest Biennial, Houston (2018), and the Delhi Photo Festival (2015).

photographer working for a social media and branding agency. His daily work involves producing visual content for the hospitality industry’s social media platforms. In this role, he photographs spaces with the aim of making subjects appear appealing and easily consumable.

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At the same time, he remains curious about how photographic images operate of how they shape desire and influence the ways spaces are percieved and understood within broader relations of power.

Japanese artist whose practice centers on photography and artist books. Through intimate relationships with her family, she explores strong emotional experiences, as well as themes of identity and memory, often examining how personal history is held in everyday objects and spaces. Guided by her emotional response, she creates artist books using various textured media and hopes her works offer viewers opportunities to recall their own memories and intimate feelings.

Furusawa holds an MA in Photography from SCAD. She was the winner of Capri Photography Festival (2024) and has been shortlisted for awards including PhMuseum