Catchlight reveals the 2025 CatchLight Global Fellows

During the CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit on May 3, the San Francisco–based nonprofit Catchlight revealed this year s CatchLight Global Fellows, who received a $30,000 grant to develop their project and engage with the communities portrayed. The organisation has the goal of discovering new forms of narration, different from the traditional documentary visual storytelling: the three photographers chosen for 2025 center the community in both the process and impact of the project, using photography as a tool of change and solidarity.

Rehab Eldalil is a photographer based in Cairo who collaborated with a war survivor in the SWANA region. In the project From the Ashes, I Rose, the artist transformed what the patients at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Amman experienced into acts of resistance. Moving away from victimhood narratives, Eldalil presents a mixed-media project in which solidarity wins against civilian violence.

Shams (12), Iraq.When Shams was 2 years old, she was injured by an explosion along with her mother Noura A. Noura’s injuries were limited to her hands while Shams was injured in her face, neck, and hands. She has partially lost her eyesight and free hand movement. Since then, Shams has undergone one plastic surgery for her hand. During her visit between March and May 2024, Shams received occupational therapy rehabilitation to gain further handmovement and independence. Shams is an artist and a Tiktoker. She has crafted the Polaroid works using her injured hand and the new skills obtained during her hospital visit. In one of her Polaroid shots of her hand, which she has embellished with cotton balls, Shams writes her name in Arabic.Rehab Eldalil

Sabrine (31), Iraq.Sabrine s face was severely injured by a car explosion in Mosul, Iraq. She has so far received three stages of treatment at the MSF hospital.Throughout multiple visits, she has bonded with a fellow patient, Begard, who also suffered a major facial injury. Sabrine has taught Begard Arabic and Iraqi dancing. “I can finally bite on an apple,” she said after her latest procedure in April 2024. In her Polaroid photo featuring diamond painting, Sabrine has chosen, for the first time, to show her injury rather than hide it.Rehab Eldalil

In Adam Perez s project “Of the Fields”, the California Central Valley farmworkers become authors of their stories through photography and video, in a land where climate change and inequality are shaping the everyday life of its inhabitants. As he already did with Terra Mia, a community-driven art festival he organised in rural Poplar, Perez sees the community at the core: the project will be based on the intimate storytelling gatherings in homes, schools, and universities called Pláticas, and the farmworkers will be the community ambassadors. The stories will be shared through installations on Highway 99 and within a zine to be distributed in communal spaces.

Lucio Gómez leads a cavalry of horses and floats celebrating Mexican Independence Day from Poplar, CA, to Woodville Labor Camp.Adam Perez

The first annual Mexican Independence Day in Poplar, California, on September 16, 2021.Adam Perez

The third Catchlight Fellow is Federico Estol, who exhibited his project “Heroes del Brillo” at the past edition of the PhotoVogue Festival, as part of the exhibition “Latin American Panorama," presenting his project on shoeshiners in La Paz, Bolivia. With the support of the CatchLight Global Fellowship, he will continue working on his long-term project, de-stigmatising the job of the sixty shoeshiners he portrayed throughout the years: ten shoeshiners will have the opportunity to be trained as visual storytellers to lead new collaborations with five additional shoeshiner organisations in La Paz.

Federico Estol

Federico Estol