The PHMuseum 2024 Women Photographers Grant has recognized outstanding talent in contemporary photography, awarding €5,000 to Iranian photographer Sara Abbaspour for her project Floating Ocean, which explores Iran s socio-political transformation through the interplay of spaces and their inhabitants. On behalf of the jury, Gem Fletcher praised the work:
“Sara Abbaspour’s Floating Ocean charts a transitional moment in Iran’s socio-political landscape told through the relationship between spaces and their inhabitants. Making poetry out of collisions—temporal and eternal, interior and exterior, familiar and peculiar, personal and political, seen and unseen, magic and mundane, imagined and experienced—Abbaspour conjures a complex and moving contemporary portrait of a society in an era of profound social transformation. Leveraging a collection of narrative threads, Abbaspour s potent body of work reminds us to continually renew our perspectives, not only as a way of imagining but as a means of survival.”
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The €2,000 Second Prize went to American photographer Lisa Elmaleh for Tierra Prometida / Promised Land, an evocative exploration of life along the U.S.-Mexico border. Farah Al Qasimi commended her approach:
“Lisa Elmaleh s Tierra Prometida offers an attentive journey along the U.S. - Mexico border. The region has long been a symbol of American exclusionary politics and border violence, but Elmaleh s 8x10 view camera approach slows down the process of witnessing and invites us into humanising moments with the many people whose livelihoods are defined by the wall s presence. While technically beautiful, the photographs also feel timeless, which works to highlight the ongoing urgency of the border crisis in America and beyond. I believe that this work straddles traditional reportage with narrative storytelling in a way that is both informative and emotionally striking.”
Bolivian photographer Marisol Mendez secured the €1,000 Third Prize for Padre, a project weaving personal family history with broader reflections on masculinity. Danaé Panchaud described it as:
“Skilfully weaving personal family history over three generations with the broader social context of Latin America, Marisol Mendez s ongoing project Padre is a delicate and thoughtful exploration of contemporary masculinity. Taking as its starting point letters from her grandfather to his sons, including her father, she sets out to examine and deconstruct how notions of masculinity are embedded in, and imposed on, individual, familial and collective identities. Using hunting, a gesture of dominance, control and strength as her framework, Mendez produces a nuanced narrative, imbued with a determined softness countering its expected violence.”
The €2,000 New Generation Prize was awarded to Swiss photographer Sara Faustino for A Home With No Roof. Pixy Liao remarked:
“Sara Faustino s project A Home With No Roof brilliantly uses a 1:15 scale model of a house to explore the dysfunctionality within her home. By immersing herself in this miniature world—incorporating scaled-down everyday objects, sculptures of body parts, and striking juxtapositions of size—she transforms the apartment into a monstrous entity while positioning herself as both subject and object within the space. Her imagery vividly conveys a sense of discomfort and awkwardness, evoking the emotional experiences of her younger self. Through this process, Sara not only invites the audience to empathise with her journey but also uses art as a medium to reflect on and reconcile with her past.”
Honourable mentions for the Main Prize include projects by Lisa Gervassi, Robin Crookall, Joana Dionísio, Pia Guilmoth, Stacy Kranitz, and Marens Van Leunen. Cheryl Mukherji, Charley Tengbergen, and Yixi Tian were recognized for the New Generation Prize.
Additional highlights include Pia Guilmoth’s Flowers Drink The River, selected for a Vogue Italia feature by Alessia Glaviano, and Lucija Rosc’s Heirloom, awarded a solo exhibition at PhMuseum Lab for its profound exploration of memory and heritage.
Six artists received portfolio reviews from PhMuseum mentors, supporting the development of their promising projects.
