PHOTOVOGUE

The Shortlist

Celebrating the most talented image-makers from our global open call, this shortlist of 150 photographers and video makers from around the world presents a powerful, intimate, and richly diverse reflection on womanhood through the female gaze.

By PhotoVogue

PhotoVogue is proud to unveil the shortlist of the most talented artists selected from Women by Women, our most ambitious Global Open Call to date. This digital exhibition brings together a remarkable group of 150 photographers and video makers whose work explores what it means to see—and be seen—as a woman.

With nearly 100,000 submissions from over 9,500 artists across 149 countries and territories, the response was extraordinary—a testament to the urgency, depth, and beauty of the female gaze in contemporary image-making. From intimate portraits to bold conceptual narratives, from fashion to documentary, the selected works span a wide range of voices, styles, and visions.

These artists’ works stand out for their originality, emotional resonance, and aesthetic strength. Together, they form a moving visual chorus that challenges norms, expands representation, and reclaims space.

This year, we're doing things a little differently. Instead of revealing everything at once, we’re unveiling Women by Women in stages—building momentum toward the next edition of the PhotoVogue Festival:

In September, we will announce our incredible international jury.
In October, we will reveal the grantees and the artists selected to exhibit at the PhotoVogue Festival in Milan.
In the months leading up to the festival, we’ll continue to spotlight the talents who will receive portfolio reviews and unveil more exciting opportunities.

Additional announcements and new, incredible initiatives are on the horizon—so make sure to return to this page and follow us on Instagram to stay updated. Women by Women is more than a showcase—it’s a statement. A global manifesto of solidarity, creativity, and empowerment, it affirms that the future of image-making is plural, inclusive, and female-led.

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Other Joys

Alice Poyzer

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series ‘Other Joys’. Poyzer’s work explores the euphoria surrounding my special interests and the difficulties I face as a woman with autism, as I try to navigate the world. The work is a mixture of self-portraits and documentary-constructed imagery. Throughout the project, there are visual comments on my autistic traits, communicating to the viewer what it is like for me to experience the condition.

A girl standing on a field with two butterflies.

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USUS FRUCTUS ABUSUS (La Blanche et la noire)

Gloria Oyarzabal

Spain

This photograph is part of the series ‘USUS FRUCTUS ABUSUS (La Blanche et La Noire)’. Roman law defined ownership as the absolute, perpetual, exclusive, and full enjoyment of objects or entities. Is the concept of the museum universal? Museums and European art have always been responsible for a stereotyped representation of Black women. Is returning what has been plundered --both objects and identities-- an urgent, universal, and feasible matter? Let's provoke a polyphonic debate on the function of objects and their role in the process of subjectivation of the individual and in building collective identities.

Inspired by Manet’s Olympia and Ingres’ Odalisque à l’esclave

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Sexual Fantasies

Myriam Boulos

Lebanon

This photograph is part of the series “Sexual Fantasies.” Boulos has explored sexual fantasies since she discovered her own, a few years ago. She based her approach on an open call: “If you identify as a woman or you have been socialized as a woman, and you want to share your sexual fantasies, send me an e-mail.” By exploring our sexual fantasies, we inevitably document socio-political issues that are silenced and normalized.

Combining the intensity of sex and tears brought me to a new level of pleasure.

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She Saw Me

Bettina Pittaluga

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘She Saw Me’. Through the act of photographing mostly women and LGBTQIA+ individuals, I came to understand that my perspective as a woman was neither neutral nor universal. To be a woman looking at other women is to position oneself within a history shaped by erasure, and to attempt a different response. My work has thus become deeply political: it questions how the gaze is shaped by the body, history, and social experience of the one behind the camera.

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On Womanhood and the Right to Dream

Delali Ayivi

Togo

This photograph is part of the series ‘On Womanhood and the Right to Dream’. In Ayivi’s work, womanhood and sisterhood are sacred, generative forces. She imagines women as life-givers, dream-keepers, and co-authors of visual worlds—limitless, spiritual, and defiant. Sisterhood is a wellspring of knowledge and collective power. Through photography, she honours these bonds, creating spaces where women are seen not through limitation but through possibility. Imagination is our tool, and sisterhood is the foundation.

Two models wearing overlalls wirh stars.

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Golden Soul

Agathe Breton

France

This is an excerpt from the project Bound by Heart and Grit. A four-year documentary project, it follows the Olympic journeys of French female athletes—capturing their strength, doubts, and resilience far from the hypersexualized or superficial portrayals of women in sport. As a former elite footballer, the photographer builds deep trust and proximity, offering an honest, intimate lens. Beyond performance, this work reveals stories of identity, sisterhood, and self-determination—expanding the visual landscape of female role models with women who rise, fall, and fight not just for medals, but for visibility, freedom, and truth.

In the video, the French-Caribbean gymnast Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos"

Watch Full Video Here

A girl talking about her experience as a gymnast.

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CHANGING ROOM

Turkina Faso

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This is an excerpt from the video CHANGING ROOM. Set in an imagined, intimate space, the performance explores the chaotic beauty, pressure, and vulnerability embedded in the daily lives of women. Inspired by both gym locker rooms and the history of the female nude in art, CHANGING ROOM confronts how the female body is seen, judged, adorned, and politicized. Through gesture and gaze, it reflects on insecurity, confidence, ritual, and self-surveillance—raising urgent questions about ownership, identity, and the silent dialogue between body and perception.

Watch Full Video Here

A group of women captured in the changing room.

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MOONS

Priscillia Saada

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘MOONS’. Intimate, raw and quirky, Saada’s project celebrates the glorious slips moments of modern day mothers as they stride the streets with their little ones strapped to their arms. As a mother myself, I wanted to explore the theme of motherhood through a personal and contemporary lens, offering a fresh and honest perspective on this universal experience.

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We Will Be Who We Are

Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda

Congo

This photograph is part of the series ‘We Will Be Who We Are.’ Boi and Aya challenge gender norms in Sierra Leone, a still conservative West African country. Through lyrical and provocative visual expression, We Will Be Who We Are is a lyrically confrontational nod to patriarchy and the creative riot that can dismantle it.

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Glendalis

Angela Cappetta

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Glendalis.” Shot in the pre-gentrified blocks, fields, and buildings of the Lower East Side, the family photographed in this book occupied a multigenerational tenement house on Stanton Street. Their story is told through a protagonist named Glendalis. Cappetta grew up within a family system similar to Glendalis’s, surrounded and embraced by an ever-present cast of relatives and friends. Like the artist, the protagonist of the series was the youngest, and, much as Cappetta did, she whispered out the messenger of a family in the voice of a last-born.

The life of a LatinX family of women in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood told through the eyes of the youngest daughter

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When seabirds are far away

Anaïs Kugel

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘When Seabirds Are Far Away’. The Parisian sky often flirts with the seagulls that travel up from the Côte Fleurie to the banks of the Seine. In my imagination, they symbolize a displacement of the self—an anomaly, a departure from their original habitat. In a way, they are no longer in the right place, a feeling that stays with me through the course of romantic, friendly, or professional migrations, and one that I wish to convey through the ambivalent practice of self-portraiture with this ongoing project.

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Bellissima

Carla Rossi

Italy

This photograph is part of the series ‘Bellissima’. The project follows Rebecca, a young aspiring model navigating castings and rejections in Italy’s beauty industry. Mixing new images with archival footage from Miss Italia, the project reveals how media and fashion shape and commodify female identity. Through Rebecca’s poses and the camera’s gaze, Bellissima questions how beauty is constructed, performed, and valued in a system built on spectacle.

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Taylor I Love You

Laura Pelissier

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘Taylor I Love You’. It's hot and sunny. It's the big day. The Eras Tour. Cowboy boots on, perfectly styled hair, glittery makeup, sparkling dresses, friendship bracelets on their wrists. Bodies are free, insecurities forgotten. They're here for their idol: Taylor. And Laura Pelissier is there for them. She watches them, observes them, and she's fascinated. She doesn't know anything about Taylor Swift, and she's discovering her through her "Swifties". She slips into this gigantic "safe place" that she admires and that inspires her. They are beautiful.

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Good News

Daniela Ioana Groza Pop

Romania

This photograph is part of the series ‘Good News’. If photography is a notorious culprit for inciting nostalgia, itself a shade of joylessness, joyful images will meander the soft edges of what it feels like to come in contact with light, with the love we hold for each other, our favorite foods the ordinary necessary objects becoming extraordinary. As queer artists we are learning how to soften up while unlearning to judge, by embracing joy as a means of resistance.

Reading 'The ethics of opting out' by Mari Ruti

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Girls

Clara Belleville

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘Girls’. This series captures the women in Belleville’s life as they are, in everyday moments. Many of these photographs were taken in summer – a time when everything feels looser and slower – when the artist lived side by side with them and time didn’t matter. Belleville photographed men in similar ways, but somehow, the images of women always drew more attention and more pushback. This project focuses on the images that are often questioned or censored. Not out of defiance, but out of care, to reclaim and affirm them.

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Long Story

Clara DeWeese

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Long Story.” Clara's work is not judgmental but an open book with all the blemishes of real-life - genitals, boobs, flab, bad haircuts and hangovers, bad relationships, and boring pots of water that never boil - no secrets here, just people staring back at the camera, reciprocating the honesty of the photographer in a relationship built on trust which in turn is granted to the viewer, a glimpse inside.

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Not What You Saw

Keerthana Kunnath

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘Not What You Saw.’ Female bodybuilders from South India defy traditional gender roles and beauty norms by embracing physical strength, an attribute historically and culturally associated with masculinity. They navigate societal pressure to conform to traditional femininity while managing the complex physical and emotional challenges of building and maintaining their physique, all while challenging deep-rooted expectations of how a woman should look and what careers are considered ‘respectable.’

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Not Your Girl

Stella Asia Consonni

Italy

This is an excerpt from the video Not Your Girl. Bold and unapologetic, the piece confronts cultural preconceptions surrounding the female body and sexuality. Through charged imagery and an assertive visual language, Not Your Girl reclaims agency and challenges the objectifying gaze—demanding space for complexity, autonomy, and self-definition. It is a declaration of resistance and a call to be seen on one’s own terms.

Watch Full Video Here

Two girls kissing in front of a fireplace.

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Clayton Sisterhood Project

Laila Annmarie Stevens

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Clayton Sisterhood Project.” Inspired by the longing for ancestral remembrance through the traditional family album, "Clayton Sisterhood Project" explores contemporary queer kinship and the continuing legacy built by the photographer’s sisters and nieces from Queens, NY moving on to Clayton, North Carolina, which functions as a metaphor for non-traditional “Home” building.

Aunt Janice (74) gathers with the family's younger generations in the driveway of her childhood home in South Jamaica

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Andie, Darling

Elsa Hammarén

Sweden

This photograph is part of the series ‘Andie, Darling’. Hammarén’s ongoing project delves into the artist’s relationship with Andie, examining the evolving dynamic between muse and photographer. For nearly two years, Hammarén documented her navigating themes of identity, sexuality, performance, and power while blurring the lines between staged and documentary photography.

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The Birth of a Siren

Indiana Roma Voss

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the video The Birth of a Siren, which reimagines Greek mythology through a modern lens. Inspired by The Odyssey and the visual language of Helmut Newton, it depicts women in free fall—moments of chaos and fear—before they reemerge from water in control. Shot in and around a swimming pool, the project becomes a metaphor for transformation: the siren evolves from a passive symbol of fate into a powerful figure reclaiming her own narrative.

Watch Full Video Here

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Shred the Patriarchy

Chantal Pinzi

India

This photograph is part of the series “Shred the Patriarchy.” Pinzi traveled more than 1,900 kilometers to photograph a group of Indian women and tell the story of how skateboarding has shaped them, transforming them into free women capable of shattering the stereotypes that still plague India. Many have managed to avoid arranged marriages, while others have gained independence, reclaiming the respect in their communities that women generally don't have. Traveling among the lowest caste communities, skateboarding is a way out, the first passport stamp, and the first person who speaks English. Once again, sport has the power to shake a patriarchal system that disadvantages us women.

Shradda is performing a “fly out indy grab” from the bowl at Pune's park dressed in a white saree.

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Niyat (Intentions)

Dhan Illiani Yusof

Malaysia

This photograph is part of the series ‘Niyat (Intentions)’. The project focuses on the exploration of contemporary femininity in Southeast Asia, on muslim women in the exploration of faith, identity through textile and fabrics of cultural or religious wear to present the hidden lived realities of muslim women in Malaysia. The series presents playful commentaries fueled by self-discovery, inclusive of the complex multiplicity of realities in existing as a Muslim woman.

A series of capturing young Malaysian girls in the traditional garment

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Future Kids

Doro Zinn

Germany

This photograph is part of the series ‘Future Kids’. The project is a long term collaboration with Coco, İlhan, Leila and Mohammed, children of so-called "guestworkers” - muslim migrants from Turkey and Palestine in Germany.

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I Never Wanted to Sell You a Fantasy

Hannah Hall

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series ‘I Never Wanted to Sell You a Fantasy’. This photo series explores the complexity of existence through cinematic stills. A collection of portraits presenting as a visual performance. Inviting the viewer into a reflective space to question and explore the photographed subjects and the emotions they hold within the curated scenes. Playing with the juxtaposition of positive and negative emotions existing at once. Questioning the morality of womanhood. The purpose was to build characters in collaboration with the photographed subjects.

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Cousins

Kristen Joy Emack

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Cousins.” “Cousins” is a long-term documentary series focused on Emack’s daughter and nieces. Most images are taken in their hometown of Cambridge, MA, where they live, attend school, and navigate the nuances of growing up. The project captures their connection to each other -- their interdependence and their independence -- their love and ease, and the seriousness of growing up female.

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Untamed Lands

Dicte Sønnichsen

Denmark

This photograph is part of the series “Untamed Lands.” In the American West, girls are raised by their fathers to be self-reliant. From a young age, they learn how to drive a pickup truck so that they can haul their horses in a trailer. These are girls whose biggest wish for their 21st birthday is a handgun. Girls who have never left the country or seen the ocean. They've been on horseback for as long as they can remember. They aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and are deeply connected to the land and nature.

Amanda getting ready to compete in the bathroom at of the Arena.

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Sugar for the Pill

Lexi Hide

South Africa

This photograph is part of the series ‘Sugar For the Pill’. Hide’s photographs are an attempt for her to remember, but also an attempt to get back into her memories. No longer a teenager, she still feels like she is, or wishes to be, maybe. Memories are a lie, nostalgia is a trick – it wasn’t that good, it was plagued by newfound intense emotion she hadn’t weathered yet. Or maybe it was?

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From My Mother

Sydney Gawlik

United States of America

This is an excerpt from From My Mother, a visual poem about sisterhood and maternal love. Through quiet gestures and intimate bonds, it reflects the ways women shape one another—how being a daughter, a sister, and a friend are intertwined. A tender tribute to the women who teach us how to move through the world with strength, warmth, and grace.

Watch Full Video Here

A group of sisters portrayed on the brightest summer day.

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Now, She Is

Mirielle Rohr

Germany

This photograph is part of the series “Now, She Is.” This dreamy series narrates the journey of young women through different phases. They embody the many lives we live within one body, the quiet revolutions of womanhood that unfold over time. Many of the images were created in rural and domestic settings across France, often using elements such as water, fire, and fabric to suggest transformation and rupture. The work reflects how womanhood is experienced: not as a fixed identity, but as something fluid, shaped, and reshaped.

This dreamy series traces a surreal narrative of young women journeying through different phases.

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Women and the Masters

Maya Inès Touam

France

This photograph is part of the series ‘Women And The Masters’. Through her REPLICA series, Maya Inès Touam reinterprets Vermeer and Matisse to challenge the male gaze in art history. By featuring racialized women, long erased from dominant narratives, she restores presence and power to these figures. Her work, at the intersection of the personal and the political, blends homage and critique, hybridization and memory, to create new visual stories rooted in a plural heritage.

The whole picture is a tribute to Stephy's grandmother

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Dahlia

Vera van Dam

Netherlands

This photograph is part of the series “Dahlia.” Dahlia is a flower. Maybe a car. Definitely a mother. In this project, I found a way to reclaim what has been hijacked by the masculine kingdom. Women and cars. Subjects of advertisement, objects of home. By focusing on both their levels of intimacy and anonymity, I realized cars are as personal and universal as the female body. Skin and metal-covering frames to protect our insides from the outside.

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This Time

Hillary Foxweldon

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘This Time’. The project is a celebration of women and the passing of time. Foxweldon’s images are an effort to encapsulate and document the importance of women and the often overlooked mark they make in this world. The unique and ephemeral time of pregnancy, children growing up, parents aging, and all of us aging.

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As Close As I Can Get To You

Mathilde Mujanayi

Congo

This photograph is part of the series ‘As Close As I Can Get To You’. The Congo Mujanayi left behind is not the Congo that exists today, and neither is she. This project catalyzes reunification between the artist and her mother. Utilizing the lived experience of having assimilated, this project breaks down the nuances of what it meant for her to take up an American identity. The ramifications of leaving one's home.

A girl lies under the USA flag wearing dirtied socks.

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Song For The Sirens

Shannon Cavarocchi

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series 'Song For The Sirens'. This project is an intimate exploration of womanhood—of what it means to grow into ourselves alongside one another. Cavarocchi’s work traces a journey of self-understanding through the act of looking outward: toward other women her age, toward nature, and quiet moments of shared experience. Through portraiture and landscapes, candid interactions, and symbolic imagery, she seeks to capture the subtle gestures and emotions that define our collective becoming.

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Honey, Blood and Milk

Marta Ant

Italy

This is an excerpt from the video Honey, Blood and Milk. A collaboration between Marta Ant and Gabriela Alatorre, the work translates a live performance into a digital ritual. Through textured imagery and symbolic gestures, it explores bees as metaphors for womanhood, and honey, blood, and milk as elemental substances tied to nourishment, resilience, and regeneration. At its core is the motif of braided hair—a living archive of care and continuity, woven with memory and meaning. Honey, Blood and Milk reflects on femininity as both cyclical and sacred, embodied and enduring.

Watch Full Video Here

An exploration of womanhood through honey

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Plaukai

Francesca Allen

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series ‘Plaukai’. Once a year, hundreds of women with thousands of feet of hair flood into a Lithuanian arena for the World’s Longest Hair competition – a folkloric beauty pageant where obsession, tradition, and identity converge. Drawn to the surreal spectacle, British photographer Francesca Allen travelled to the event (known locally as Konkursas Pasaulio Ilgaplaukės) with a Lithuanian friend to document the competition firsthand.

Gloved judges measure a participants' hair length.

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Stars are Ageless

Lillian Dabe

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Stars are Ageless.” In her ongoing series, Dabe uses her mother Heidi Kaczenski as a model to echo this entanglement, to emphasize how familial ties and inherited narratives shape identity. At times she is a Norma Desmond starlet, recalling a bygone Hollywood, insistent upon its relevance. Other times, she appears as a ghostly specter. In the pictures, Dabe and her mother reverberate back and forth, blurring into each other, characters performed and re-performed, identities coalescing like merging shadows.

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Carolina

Elizabeth Bick

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Carolina’. Bick’s work explores how performance, gender, and whiteness shape American identity. After relocating to South Carolina, she began photographing historical reenactments, antebellum costumes, and plantation tours—rituals that aestheticize power and mythologize history. Using the camera’s technical precision, Bick reveals the tension between spectacle and evidence, truth and fantasy.

An antebellum ball was hosted by the organizers of the annual Battle of Aiken in Aiken

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Dhon

Pretika Menon

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘Dhon (Two)’. Menon’s work is an ongoing photographic project that delves into the concept of home through the lens of image-making and storytelling. Centered around Eugene D'Souza, her twin daughters Eulanda and Rustica, and her mother-in-law Maria in the village of Moira, North Goa, the project captures the essence of familial bonds and nostalgia in a century-old house.

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Corazonada

Giulia Gatti

Mexico

This photograph is part of the series “Corazonada”. The body is a weapon, an enemy, and an ally in a fragile war against convention. The Istmeña woman, often armored in tradition, reclaims her narrative beyond the patriarchal gaze. Born from travels and long stays in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Corazonada is Giulia Gatti’s project, created with local women. United by a desire for freedom, they subvert imposed norms, reclaiming symbols of power, eroticism, and mystery.

Potion served by a woman during the "Dias de muertos".

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A Girl From That Town

Narantsetseg Khuyagaa

Mongolia

This photograph is part of the series “A Girl From That Town.” Raised in a slaughterhouse run by the women of my family, I learned resilience before tenderness. “A Girl From That Town” reimagines those memories—sparkling dreams, bloody floors, summers that smelled of iron—to ask where Mongolian women can lay down their armor. Blending fragmented memories with staged reverie, the project shifts the gaze from mythical nomads to the unseen girlhoods that grow inside concrete yards.

Silk skin like borrowed courage against coarse air.

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Girlhood

Hannah Norton

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series Girlhood. The project traces the transformation that unfolds between the ages of 10 and 18, capturing the delicate shift from childhood into adolescence. Following girls like Mia, a fearless 10-year-old, the portraits reflect moments of rawness, curiosity, and emerging self-awareness. As the world’s expectations and contradictions begin to shape their sense of self, Girlhood observes this passage not as a loss of innocence, but as a quiet metamorphosis—an evolution marked by strength, vulnerability, and becoming.

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Hardcore

Yolanda Hoskey

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the video Hardcore. Centered on 50-year-old Brooklyn bodybuilder Nicole Strauss, the project challenges conventional ideas of strength, beauty, and aging. In a world where women—especially older women—are often erased or sidelined, Nicole reclaims space in the male-dominated world of bodybuilding with grit, grace, and unapologetic power. Hardcore is a portrait of resilience and defiance, pushing back against stereotypes to redefine what it means to be strong.

Watch Full Video Here

The bodybuilder Nicole Strauss challenges stereotypes and pushes the limits of strength

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Frida - A Singular Vision of Beauty Pain

Julia Fullerton-Batten

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series inspired by Frida Kahlo. After arriving in Mexico City in 2022, I was deeply moved by its colours, people, and rhythm—and above all, by Kahlo’s omnipresent spirit. Her fearless vulnerability and strength continue to inspire generations of women artists. Through this project, I honour her legacy and the unifying, healing power of art. In a world increasingly fractured, I hope these images serve as a reminder of resilience, dignity, and the beauty found in embracing one’s truth.

With a lot of help from local people in Mexico I was given access to hidden
secret locations

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Mwani Origin

Lee-Ann Olwage

South Africa

This photograph is part of the series ‘Mwani Origin’. For generations, the women's collective Mwani Zanzibar Mamas have practiced intergenerational seaweed farming on the island of Zanzibar. Guided by the rhythms of the moon and tides, they farm using ancestral knowledge passed down from mother to daughter. This wisdom enables them to harness the seaweed's natural benefits, including its use in traditional remedies and skin care.

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UNICO UNO - EL BARRIO FILM

Beatrice Dall’Asta

Italy

This is an excerpt from the video UNICO UNO. Filmed in Naples in 2018, the project captures the lives of femminielli—charismatic figures deeply rooted in Neapolitan tradition. With no script or direction, the team focused on presence over performance, building trust and intimacy while remaining almost invisible. The result is a raw, observational portrait shaped by quiet connection, not control. UNICO UNO offers a tender, unsentimental glimpse into everyday beauty, identity, and the authenticity that surfaces when people are simply allowed to be.

Watch Full Video Here

A story about the Neapolitan figures called “femminielli”.

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Escaramuza

Luisa Dörr

Brasil

This photograph is part of the series “Escaramuza.” La Escaramuza “Perla de Occidente,” founded by Zoila Cárdenas—who opened Mexico’s first school for female riders—leads in charrería, a sport long ruled by men. Eight women perform daring, synchronized routines in dresses inspired by the adelitas, the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Their presence on horseback reclaims history, challenges tradition, and celebrates female strength in Mexico’s national sport.

Zoila and her daughter Iuzkani are a sport “charras” ladies

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Chhordima

Ranita Roy

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘Chhordima’. This project is a personal homage to Roy’s grandmother, Chhordima—a quiet yet powerful presence in her life. Now in her nineties, Chhordima embodies resilience shaped by years of caregiving and silence. Through collaborative photographs and shared rituals, the artist explores their bond and her grandmother’s untold legacy. This work honors her strength, tenderness, and the lives of women who, like her, nurtured entire worlds while remaining invisible within their own stories.

Sometimes Chhordima wakes in the night from bad dreams

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Nothing but a Test

Fatima Agoula

Netherlands

This is a 60-second excerpt from the video installation Nothing but a Test, which explores the consequences of clichés and accepted narratives surrounding Muslim women. The protagonist senses an (in)visible presence that reflects how she is perceived by the outside world. Her behavior leads to a symbolic death—one that becomes a form of relief. Referencing Fatima’s thesis A Deep Dive into Mold, the piece draws on religious and scientific views on death, the soul, and near-death experiences. The viewer is immersed in the protagonist’s journey as her soul departs her body.

Watch Full Video Here

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RAYS

Suleika Mueller

Switzerland

This photograph is part of the series “RAYS.” The project explores women whose art serves as both a personal spiritual practice and outward creative expression. Drawing from my experience growing up in a Sufi community, where women faced restrictions on practicing, art became the transformative medium through which I embarked on my spiritual journey. “RAYS” pays homage to those who have bravely paved the way for their unique artistic expressions of spiritual practice, celebrating the many ways in which creativity serves as a conduit for the divine.

Rukmini Vijayakumar is a Bengaluru-based Bharatanatyam dancer whose devotion to dance has taken her on a journey to find the Hindu deity Shiva.

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The Longing of the Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken

Rehab Eldalil

Egypt

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Longing Of The Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken’. In the series, Eldalil explores the visual conversation with the Bedouin women. The project explores the notion of belonging and the interconnectedness between people and land through a visual collaboration with the Bedouin community of Sinai. The project addresses the continuous human process of searching for a home and celebrates the Indigenous culture which has often been romanticized.

Nadia Embroidered photograph of Nadia by her cousin Mariam. St. Catherine

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I'll See You When You Wake Up

Patricia Voulgaris

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series I'll See You When You Wake Up. This ongoing project traces the life of the photographer’s partner and the quiet, everyday magic that sustains their relationship. Through gestures, rituals, and shared moments, the series captures a portrait of queer partnership rooted in tenderness, joy, and resilience. It’s a love story shaped not by spectacle, but by intimacy—where small acts become spells, and survival is woven with affection.

Amina in the grass beneath a sky unraveling with celestial motion

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No Woman's Land

Kiana Hayeri

Afghanistan

This photograph is part of the series “No Woman's Land”. "No Woman's Land" reveals the quiet resilience of Afghan women defying severe restrictions under Taliban rule. Despite the overwhelming restrictions, Afghan women are finding subtle but powerful ways to resist. Their defiance is not displayed in public protests but unfolds quietly behind closed doors: in homes, through secret classrooms, and in moments of stolen joy that assert their indomitable spirit. This project delves into the complex interplay between modern aspirations and conservative forces within Afghanistan, illustrating how the scars of ongoing conflict and competing visions for the nation's future make any progress difficult and tenuous.

Tahmeena and her mother Wazhmah pose in their home.

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The Monster of Ghazipur

Claudia Revidat

France

This photograph is part of the series “The Monster of Ghazipur.” Ghazipur, a towering mountain of waste on the outskirts of Delhi, rises like a storm frozen in time, a 100-metre toxic shadow looming over the city. Originally intended to reach no more than 20 meters, it has long surpassed that limit, and it’s now higher than the Taj Mahal. The air is thick, and heavy with toxicity. Each step brings dizziness, and each breath quickens the heart. Every day, women and children confront this giant, digging through its depths for scraps of plastic – fleeting treasures traded for a handful of coins. What Revidat witnessed was not despair, but sisterhood. In this space of ruin, they had forged a sanctuary of solidarity, turning survival into shared strength.

Her face dissolves into the toxic haze. The air hangs heavy

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Body As A Site: Willendorf Figurine

Anusha Alamgir

Bangladesh

This is an excerpt from the video 'Body As A Site: Willendorf Figurine'. Blending performance, sculpture, and tutorial, the film explores how the body can be reimagined through restriction, extension, and material play. Drawing from the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf and using wearable forms crafted from household objects, the artist challenges idealized body standards and proposes new architectures of self. Through exaggerated proportions and tactile experimentation, the body becomes both subject and site—expanding notions of identity, functionality, and representation in a digital world shaped by narrow ideals.

Watch Full Video Here

a self portrait developed with proportions of how the body of a female form might look if she were to be looking down at herself leading to exaggerated proportions of hips waist and chest.

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Patterns of Home

Nora Lorek

Sweden

This photograph is part of the series ‘Patterns of Home.’ When asked what they brought with them during their escape, the women said "milaya." In the middle of the night, when they were forced to leave their homes in South Sudan, the most important belongings were gathered on the bed, wrapped in hand-embroidered sheets, and the bundle was carried to the Ugandan border. Before the war, the decorated milayas were used for dowries, funerals, and celebrations. Here in Bidibidi, the embroidery tradition lives on.

Watching out over the golden light left by a tiny sandstorm

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The Wrestlers

Tara L. C. Sood

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Wrestler’. Amid rising conversations around gender and representation in Indian sports during the Olympics, this surreal portrait follows female MMA fighters in Bangalore. It celebrates women who defy physical and cultural expectations. Inhabiting a male-dominated space, their presence becomes a quiet political act, a rebellious embodiment of femininity that unsettles, simply by existing. Commissioned by Dazed Magazine.

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Mother Dearest

Vân-Nhi Nguyễn

Vietnam

This photograph is part of the series “Mother Dearest.” The project traces the chaotic landscape and austere portraits of the city of Hanoi to reveal the character of the artist’s mother. Through it, “Mother Dearest” mirrors the world, politics, resilience, and hope of one's own in conjunction with the masses.

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The Girls Who Can’t Walk To School

Laura Pannack

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Girls Who Can’t Walk To School’. Making our way to and from school is a simple, nostalgic, universal activity. But for many young women in South Africa—particularly those under 18 living in the Cape Flats—it is a daily act of resilience.

A group of girls living living in the Cape Flats.

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Waiting For a Bird

Aletheia Casey

Australia

This photograph is part of the series ‘Waiting For a Bird’. Shortly before Casey’s mother died, she told her she was waiting for a bird—one she’d recognise when it came, and that would carry her safely away. This work, made with her family, imagines where that bird may have taken her mother. It is both a search for where her mother now is and a meditation on impermanence. Through images of her mother, her family, and evocations of Mother Earth, it becomes a quiet remembrance—a way to trace her flight and consider how presence endures beyond absence.

Left: A pelican at Callala Bay. Right: My mother and my son at my parents' home

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Nowhere Near

Alisa Martynova

Russia

This photograph is part of the series ‘Nowhere Near’. The migrant’s journey is a long one, night after night, inching toward the horizon like constellations. Migration narratives are often dominated by male stories, overshadowing the presence of women. This work shifts the lens to celebrate the resilience of women who have decided to undertake the journey—alone or in company—facing not only the dangers that all migrants endure but also the specific vulnerabilities that come with being a woman.

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Shaping Change

Anna Fabricius

Sweden

This is an excerpt from the video Shaping Change. Set in a historic bathhouse, the film follows three women as they move through the phases of puberty, childbirth, and menopause—using movement to express the emotions tied to bodily transformation. Blending documentary and fiction, Shaping Change invites us to reflect on the evolving female body beyond shame or silence. Through intimate reflections and choreographed gestures, the film explores how we can learn to befriend change, reclaim body image, and move forward with awareness, compassion, and strength.

Watch Full Video Here

“Shaping change” portrays the female body's natural changes in different phases of life: puberty

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Finding Freedom in the Water

Anna Boyiazis

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series Finding Freedom in the Water. Set in Zanzibar, the project documents girls and women learning to swim for the first time—challenging cultural restrictions, reclaiming their relationship with the ocean, and gaining life-saving skills. Through grassroots efforts, full-length swimsuits and aquatic training are provided, creating a ripple effect of empowerment and safety in communities where drowning is a leading cause of death. More than survival, the series captures a quiet revolution: one of courage, dignity, and the right to belong in the water—and in the world.

Kijini Primary School students learn to float

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Gwiskañ (Dress)

Aurélie Scouarnec

France

This photograph is part of the series “Gwiskañ (Dress).” This project explores the intimacy of women in Brittany through their traditional costumes. It captures their quiet, collaborative gestures as they dress one another, passing down rituals from generation to generation. These acts of care and transmission reveal more than just clothing: they carry history, culture, and the strength of sisterhood. By documenting these exchanges, the series highlights the beauty of the bonds between women, as well as the power of feminine traditions.

Women from the Celtic Circle of Auray getting dressed.

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Fat Activists

Alice Zoo

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series Fat Activism. Created in 2018, the project spotlights six fat acceptance activists and their stories, challenging stigma, discrimination, and media bias. Though briefly amplified by the body positivity movement, fat liberation remains urgent—especially today, as the rise of weight-loss drugs reignites narrow beauty standards. Through intimate portraits and personal testimonies, the series confronts harmful narratives and affirms that fat people deserve dignity, visibility, and equality—regardless of size, health, or appearance.

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Very Nice Space

Shiori Ota

Japan

This photograph is part of the series “Very Nice Space.” This collection—including Giant Pink Star (2023), Reminiscence of Tea Party (2025), and other portrait series—explores how women reclaim space and visibility. Their bodies may be at ease, but their gazes speak with quiet strength. These women are not waiting to be interpreted—they are defining themselves.

Minami lies on the ffloor wearing a pink dress.

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She Is So Hot I Wanna Clean Her Room

Anastasiia Pischanska

Ukraine

This photograph is part of the series ‘She Is So Hot I Wanna Clean Her Room’. How would the female gaze look if we, women artists, didn’t fall into the self-commodification of our beautiful bodies, sugarcoated as “emancipation” in the age of neoliberalism? What would we start looking at, and what secret would we want to open? My public secret is that girls' rooms are the nastiest, most intimate places in the world. I'm like: ‘Don’t send me nudes, show me your room.’ This voyeuristic obsession of mine turned into a full-time artwork.

3D Scan of Pardis room she shares with a girlfriend.

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I wake up but you're not there

Shanna Warocquier

France

This photograph is part of the series “I Wake Up but You’re Not There.” The series evokes the desire to escape and to float away from a world where everything seems to be falling apart. It aims to convey this desire for freedom, where the protagonists create their world. This need to escape is embodied by the intrinsic link with Nature that inhabits the images.

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Almost Ready

Valeria Sarto

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series Almost Ready. A humorous and tender nod to the awkward, messy, and deeply human moments of womanhood, the series reclaims the “not-so-perfect” with honesty and wit. From shaving cuts to wardrobe mishaps, these everyday details—often hidden in shame—are brought into the light. By embracing what we’re taught to conceal, Almost Ready reminds us that imperfection is relatable, powerful, and worth celebrating. Sometimes, we’re just almost ready—and that’s more than enough.

I forgot to take my makeup off last night.

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A Bowl of Tears to Drink

Suzie Howell

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series “A Bowl of Tears to Drink.” Howell’s work comes from the time she spent with five nuns at an Anglican convent in South Wales, UK over two years. The project is an exploration of the longing for meaning and connection to others, investigating the ways we seek to make sense of our existence through our links to places, people, rituals, and time.

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Paris Through Their Lens

Zineb Koutten

Morocco

This photograph is part of the series Paris Through Their Lens. Created during a first visit to France in 2021, the project explores the daily lives of Muslim women who wear the hijab—beyond the headlines and media stereotypes. Featuring 20 women photographed in their favorite Parisian districts, the series pairs portraits with personal testimonies, offering a nuanced glimpse into both struggles and joys. As a hijabi woman herself, the photographer relates deeply to their experiences, using the camera to foster empathy, visibility, and truth.

Sana is a 24 year old Moroccan digital marketing
social media manager born and raised in Parisian suburbs.

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Spark of a Nail

Morgan Levy

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Spark of a Nail’. The project is a collaboration with women and non-binary individuals working in the building trades. Together we craft images that seek to describe something rarely seen: women and non-binary people transforming space of their own volition, interwoven with scenes of rest and care. Combining performance, documentary, and staged photography, and in conversation with feminist photo practices, the series queers the act of building and imagining a future collectively constructed.

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To Skate Like a Girl

Sam Spence

United States of America

This photograph is part of To Skate Like a Girl, a collaborative project celebrating three powerful women—Georgia, Janthavy, and Secret—who are redefining the world of skateboarding. Captured by Sam Spence and an all-female team, the series challenges outdated gender norms, blending grit, style, and strength. It’s a tribute to the freedom found on four wheels and the women bold enough to claim their space.

Secret reveals her lack of experience wearing heels.

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Peloteras

Silvana Trevale

Venezuela

This photograph is part of the series ‘Peloteras’. Photographer Silvana Trevale captures the Venezuelan Women’s National Baseball Team at the Forum de la Guaira. In a male-dominated sport, these women train hard, work parallel jobs, and compete internationally, excelling despite the odds. The series is part of Trevale’s effort to portray Venezuela through the strength and resilience of its women, beyond narratives of crisis.

Teammates sat down in the field in La Guaira

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Innerland

Tania Shcheglova

Ukraine

This photograph is part of the series Innerland. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Tania creates one-day installations that serve as a bridge between artistic expression and the natural landscape, capturing them through medium-format film photography. Her goal is to build a global archive of portraits of creatives working across disciplines and borders. The next chapter of the project is dedicated to the Ukrainian art scene.

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Under Your Gaze

Teresa Ciocia

Italy

This photograph is part of the series ‘Under Your Gaze’. In a world where female nudity is still stigmatized and controlled, Ciocia’s work claims nudity as an act of power and not as an object of consumption. The body challenges the gaze, existing unapologetically as a ritual of freedom and resistance.

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A Duet, Lying on Behalf of All Women

Phoebe Davies

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This is an excerpt from the video a Duet, Lying on Behalf of All Women. In this intimate performance-to-camera, artist Davies turns the lens on herself—grappling with the physical and emotional weight of pregnancy and postpartum trauma. As she navigates her body into a bathtub, the scene becomes a visceral meditation on vulnerability, motherhood, and the silent mythologies surrounding female strength. Drawing from lived experience, the work exposes the brutal impact of birth on body and identity, reclaiming space for honesty, pain, and the complexity of becoming.

Watch Full Video Here

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Damascus Rose

Emma Dudlyke

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of a quiet collection of portraits, expressions, and shared moments. Through subtle gestures and attentive observation, it reflects the intimacy and complexity of looking at—and being looked at by—other women.

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Stolen Babies of Georgia

Daro Sulakauri

Georgia

This photograph is part of the series Stolen Babies of Georgia. The project investigates a black-market adoption network that, for decades, saw newborns stolen from mothers in Georgian hospitals and sold—while families were falsely told their babies had died. Through photographs, testimonies, and reunions, the series documents a growing grassroots movement seeking justice and truth. As a Georgian photojournalist and mother, the photographer bears witness to a story still unfolding—where grief, resilience, and maternal love endure beyond silence, corruption, and denial.

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Mama

Magdalena Wosinska

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Mama’. Over eight years, Wosinska photographed her mother as she aged—from a stroke that left her partially paralyzed to her passing in her arms. Once estranged, the artist found intimacy through care and the lens of the camera. Photography became their love language, a space where she felt seen again. This project is about caretaking, role reversal, and the quiet power of being present as someone you love slowly leaves—and how love can live in the act of witnessing.

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In Passing

Mariam El Gendy

Egypt

This photograph is part of the series “In Passing.” Growing up in Egypt, El Gendy has always been drawn to Egyptian women and how they choose to exist in the world. Photographing them has taught her how women take up space, move, and hold their ground. Raised by strong women, each time she picks up the camera, she finds herself turning to them again.

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I Love My Friends But They’re Killing Me

Megha Singha

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘I Love My Friends But They’re Killing Me’. Staged in urban Indian homes, the project explores the evolving representations of beauty and self-image in contemporary India’s digital age. Focusing on young Indian women who have gained visibility in these spaces—the "IT girls" of Instagram—the project examines how they adapt to the new template of beauty in India's layered post colonial system of self-representation which has long been entangled with Bollywood ideals, class hierarchies, conservatism, and familial expectations.

Lyla looking at her phone in her bedroom.

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Beyond the Compass

Lia-Lucine Cary

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the short documentary Beyond the Compass, which follows ten women over 60 as they embark on a grueling five-day sailing expedition off the coast of Maine. With no cabins, only each other and the open sea, they challenge cultural narratives around aging, proving that strength, adventure, and transformation do not belong only to the young. This film is a tribute to reinvention—and to every woman who’s been told her best years are behind her.

In collaboration with Nicki Ripple

Watch Full Video Here

ten women ages 62-87 embark on a sailing expedition on a 30-foot open sailboat with no cabins.

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Arizona Swimmers

Emmie America

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series Arizona Swimmers. Shot during a U.S. national masters synchronized swimming competition, the project captures women aged 18 to 79 joyfully participating in a sport they love—not for prizes, but for pure enjoyment. Set against the surreal backdrop of the Arizona desert, the series celebrates community, creativity, and pride. From homemade costumes to gelatin-slicked hairstyles, each detail reflects passion and dedication. What began as a childhood fascination became a weekend of laughter, learning, and admiration for these remarkable women.

Portrait of participants of the annual US national masters synchronised swimming competition.

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Grand Street Strippers

Alexis Kleshik

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Grand Street Strippers’. Alexis Kleshik’s work offers an insider look at Brooklyn strippers, capturing their professional lives and personal identities. Celebrated for self-expression and solidarity, the dancers shape a unique club atmosphere. Alexis’s close collaboration ensures their agency, while vibrant imagery reveals them as complex individuals, challenging stereotypes and humanizing sex work.

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Canal Portraits

Debora Brune

Germany

This photograph is part of the series Canal Portraits. Inspired by Rineke Dijkstra’s work, the series explores how adult women navigate visibility, confidence, and control over their bodies. Shot in a public space with body-painted swimwear, the portraits sit between the real and the staged—questioning how much of what we show is truly ours, and how much is shaped by societal expectations. The work examines the tension between self-representation and external perception, offering a quiet, layered reflection on female identity.

Mia with body-painted swimwear in a public place.

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Rhi-Entry

Rhiannon Adam

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series “Rhi-Entry.” Throughout history, 117 billion humans have gazed at the same moon, yet only 24 people – all American men – have seen its surface. In 2021, Adam was selected from a million people for dearMoon, a week-long lunar mission, taking place aboard SpaceX's Starship. For three years, she grappled with the significance of her place within the mission, and what spaceflight represents. The project's funder canceled the mission in 2024; Rhi-Entry explores her psychological recalibration of a lost dream.

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Funny Women

Kate Peters

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Clowns can be misunderstood, written off as silly or absurd, dismissed or feared for what they bring up in ourselves. What they reveal can be profound. The clown is liberated from the social masks we can’t escape but wear, they can encourage us to look and think about the world differently, they are a celebration of the vulnerable side of the human experience.

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Freedom Cries for Women

Forough Alaei

Iran

This photograph is part of the series ‘Freedom Cries for Women.’ This is the story of Iranian women who have thrived amidst patriarchy in the Middle East, defying societal norms to become champions in various fields, from sports to arts. Their struggle for freedom has given rise to the powerful slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Standing on the shoulders of previous generations, these courageous women confront oppressive laws and cultural barriers. Through my project, I aim to amplify their voices, showcasing their fight for equal rights and a brighter future.

A make-up artist applies a false beard to the face of Zeinab.

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Camo

Thandiwe Muriu

Kenya

This photograph is part of the series ‘Camo’. This vibrant body of work weaves together the artistry of elaborate traditional hairstyling, the use of everyday household items, and the diversity of the Ankara textile (also known as Dutch wax). Drawing from African proverbs, Muriu’s portraits open a visual conversation on identity, sisterhood, and the roles women carry across in both traditional and contemporary societies.

A woman sits wearinga dress made with the Ankara textile

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Wanawake

Sekera Mohamed Besta

Tanzania

This photograph is part of the series ‘Wanawake’. Formed from two series, Vijana (2024) and Tanzaniacana (2025), the project portrays African women realistically, capturing their culture and history, through pain and shine. The work explores themes of African modernity, both in the present day and in the post-colonial era, touching on aspects of beauty, music, revolution, and power. These images offer Black African women a safe space to identify with their womanhood, and subjects often overlooked are given a chance to be seen.

this image represents traditional royal influence in West Africa

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River Runs Violet

Sumi Anjuman

Bangladesh

This photograph is part of the series “River Runs Violet.” Facing daily gendered violence in Bangladesh, Sumi and Zana (a pseudonym) crafted River Runs Violet, a nonviolent protest and space for healing. Photography became their shared voice, shaped by trauma, fear, and solidarity. They stitched, pierced, wrote, and re-photographed images, crafting a layered visual correspondence that resists rape culture and reclaims agency through collaborative creation and emotional testimony.

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Hoja Santa

Maciejka Art

Poland

This photograph is part of the series ‘Hoja Santa’. Hoja Santa is a herb largely used in traditional medicine and cuisine in Costa Chica, Oaxaca. I met Juliana at a dinner at a friend's house in Oaxaca City, where she told me about her Afro community in Costa Chica, Mexico. Hoja Santa [Holy Leaf] has various reading layers: the anthropologic tale about the Afro-Mexican villages, the syncretism of the catholic and Afro cultures, curanderismo [shamanism], and my journey of exploration: feminism, colonialism, and cultural conflict.

Alejandra lies downon cushions surrounded by fruits.

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A Study of Fertility

Bodhi Shola

Italy

This photograph is part of the series 'A Study of Fertility'. Inspired by her experience with amenorrhea, Bodhi Shola's series brings awareness to menstruation, to reflect on its sacrality and fundamental role within female health. Embodying an approach of respect and caring, integrity and diversity are preserved in a balanced connection between the rhythms of human and nature. Breaking the taboo of menstruation relies on the right to information and the ability of women to talk freely about their period and sexuality, to honour it as a human right issue.

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One Another

Jip Schalkx

Netherlands

This photograph is part of the series ‘One Another’. The project focuses on the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, with identity, expectations, and personal growth at its core. Realizing that her mother is not just her mother, but also a woman with her own past, strengths, and imperfections, changed the way Schalkx views their relationship and how I look at myself — something that is both liberating and challenging. The project invites reflection on family bonds and the balance between holding on and letting go.

a patchwork relfecting on the relationship between mothers and daughters.

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Bad Skin, Doll Heart

Kate Biel

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Bad Skin, Doll Heart’. The project is a fictional recreation of the feminine masking subculture. Female masking involves men performing femininity through silicone masks, costumes, and domestic rituals. My recreations of their self-portraits reveal the tensions between feminine and masculine, human and non-human. Being a woman is a continual act of self-erasure — what emerges from this process is what drives me.

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Between Blood and Glitter

Jana Margarete Schuler

Germany

This photograph is part of the series ‘Between Blood and Glitter’. The Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez is one of the most dangerous places in the world for women. According to the UN, over 2500 women have been murdered here in the past three decades. Hundreds are still missing. In a city where femicides are a tragic everyday reality, a small group of female wrestlers, known as ‘Luchadoras’, refuses to hide. Every weekend, they step into the ring in glittering costumes. Their fights are more than entertainment. They fight for freedom.

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Jeg gik mig ud en sommerdag

Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen

Denmark

This is an excerpt from the video 'Jeg gik mig ud en sommerdag (A Summer Day)'. Created by artist Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen in collaboration with the women's choir Vigdis, the piece reimagines a Danish folk tale about Elves who blur the boundaries of time and memory. Through haunting visuals and ethereal choral harmonies, the video captures a dreamlike encounter between myth and modern femininity. Rooted in Nordic folklore and collective voice, the work becomes a meditation on enchantment, nature, and the quiet power of shared song.

Watch Full Video Here

This video piece is a collaboration between artist Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen and The vocal ensemble Vigdis

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Birha, stories of my sisters

Citlali Fabian

Mexico

This photograph is part of the series ‘Birha, stories of my sisters'. Fabián’s work is a co-created series that depicts indigenous women activists from Oaxaca, Mexico. Fabián also illustrated the portraits with elements that are important to the women represented in them, such as their activist work, achievements, loved ones, and/or dreams. This work aims to reflect and visualize our roles as contemporary Indigenous women in and with our communities. Creating a document that hopefully will inspire our upcoming generations.

Edith is represented with a milpa (a prehispanic agricultural system).

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The Body We Inhabit

Viridiana

Mexico

This photograph is part of the series The Body We Inhabit. A visual essay on womanhood and bodily autonomy, the project challenges reductive archetypes and reclaims space for female complexity. Born from a personal history of disordered eating, the series explores how desire, clothing, and self-perception shape the way women inhabit their bodies. Through stylized, intimate portraits, the work uses the camera to reclaim the female gaze—disrupting patriarchal narratives and asserting a sensual, unapologetic presence. Each image carries a quiet yet powerful declaration: I am here.

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Womb Holders

Angela Jones

Australia

This photograph is part of the series ‘Womb Holders’. This project is a testament to the strength and the deep love of a woman, what it means to experience pregnancy, loss, birth, and motherhood. To choose, to have no choice, to make impossible choices. Weaving together our narratives. The power of storytelling to process our journey and feel the collective shared experience. To not feel isolated, alone, or hopeless, but supported, held, and empowered. To honour our intuition, to trust it, to trust ourselves and our inner knowing.

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A Woman Is...

Gelli Pascual

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the video A Woman Is.... In a poetic dialogue between a young girl and an older woman, the film explores the inherited weight—and power—of womanhood. Through annotated manifestos and shared reflections, they challenge societal expectations that have long demanded silence, smallness, and conformity. Together, they rewrite the narrative with defiance and grace, showing that womanhood is not a fixed script, but a story told in one’s own voice. A Woman Is... is a generational hymn to resilience, resistance, and the freedom to define oneself.

Watch Full Video Here

A young girl and an older woman navigate the complexities of womanhood

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MINA

Ayomide Tejuoso Brutus Labiche

Nigeria

This photograph is part of the series ‘MINA’. The project, a living Black feminine mythology by Ayomide Tejuoso and Brutus Labiche, blends photography, film, and installation. It explores diasporic rituals, mythmaking, and belonging. Mina, a shapeshifter from the Swiss mountains, embodies the fusion of African and European traditions. Guided by guardian angels, she traverses solitude, sensuality, and spirit—offering a visual theology rooted in Black feminist thought.

In collaboration with Brutus Labiche (Rwanda)

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Sleepwalking

Roberta H Dorsett

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘Sleepwalking’. Dorsett started photographing her aunt and her daughter in their new Connecticut home, but it evolved as she included herself in the narrative. Influenced by slasher and horror films, the house became a stage to explore themes of mystery and isolation, masked by an illusion of safety. By incorporating her perspective as a Black artist, she captures the discomfort and vulnerability of these women, questioning, “Am I awake or sleepwalking?”

Two women are gazing at the camera. One is sitting on the floor

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SERITHI– The Aura of a Black Woman

Manyatsa Monyamane

South Africa

This photograph is part of the series ‘SERITHI – The Aura of a Black Woman’. The project celebrates the power and unapologetic presence of Black women. Challenging historical erasure and hyper-sexualisation, this series reclaims narrative control, showcasing individuality and shared strength. Each portrait affirms dignity, defiance, and self-authored identity, demanding recognition of their unrestrained power.

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Figure, Form

Roxana Rios

Germany

This photograph is part of the series ‘Figure, Form’. The project is a queer-feminist manifesto that reclaims the body as a site of self-determination, resistance, and transformation. Challenging dominant narratives and gender norms, it approaches gender as a performative practice. The project seeks to subvert hegemonic perspectives and affirm the body as a fluid, self-defined space of empowerment and possibility.

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Future Past - Feeling Seen

Lea Sophia Mair

Austria

This photograph is part of the series ‘Future Past - Feeling Seen’. The project explores the quiet intimacy of shared moments—captured during walks through Vienna and Paris—where trust, vulnerability, and presence unfold in front of the lens. Black-and-white portraits are layered with temporary tattoos, turning ephemeral gestures into something lasting.

Portrait taken during walks through the city.

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Near the House On the Corner

Elizabeth Haust

Russia

This photograph is part of the series ‘Near the House On the Corner.’ Haust’s project is about images of female power and battle.

we were betrayed by humanity even before we were born

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Nwanne M Nwaanyi

Chiemeka Offor

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the video 'Nwanne M Nwaanyi', which means “sister” in my native language, Igbo. Rooted in a legacy of matriarchs, from my grandmother—a native healer in Imo State—to my mother and four sisters, this piece is an ode to the women who shaped me. It honors both blood and chosen family, the quiet strength of sisterhood, and the invisible labor we carry for one another. The braid that binds the dancers is a symbol of unity and continuity—a thread of memory, resilience, and love. For the first time, I recite a poem in Igbo, calling back to the voices of those who came before me. Today, as an Igbo-American woman, I sing this song for us all.

Watch Full Video Here

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MARIA

Maria Abranches

Portugal

This photograph is part of the series 'MARIA'. The project tells the story of Ana Maria, an Angolan woman trafficked to Portugal as a child and forced into domestic labor. Her life echoes that of many racialized women whose work sustains households yet remains unseen. Combining photography with personal archives, the series reclaims erased histories and challenges Portugal’s colonial legacy. Ana Maria’s story is one of survival, dignity, and resistance—an urgent call to recognize the rights to identity, memory, and citizenship for those long denied them.

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Documento de una niña adulta

Rizandra

Cuba

This photograph is part of 'Documento de una niña adulta', a visual diary centered on Betty, an 11-year-old girl growing up in Centro Habana. Caught between childhood and adult responsibilities, Betty spends her days caring for siblings and cousins—playing house while carrying the weight of a grown-up world. Through this intimate portrait, the photographer explores their deep emotional connection and the quiet resilience of a girl forced to grow up too soon.

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Camden

Mae Mann

United States of America

This is an excerpt from 'Camden', a contemplative portrait of a woman shaped by the rural rhythms of upstate New York. Through quiet, everyday rituals—chopping wood, tending chickens, caring for her family—the film honors the strength, tenderness, and unseen labor of the women who move through the world with soft resilience.

Watch Full Video Here

quiet portrait of a woman; a flipbook of her life’s small

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Women Who Rehabilitated Rescued Fly Fox Bats at The Australian Bat Clinic

Robin Schwartz

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series 'Women Who Rehabilitated Rescued Fly Fox Bats at The Australian Bat Clinic'. Led by Trish Patterson and a team of women volunteers, the clinic rescued and rehabilitated over 300 injured flying foxes—victims of habitat loss, climate change, and human activity. Some bats returned to the wild, while others, too severely wounded, remained in lifelong care. The project honors these women’s compassion and the ecological importance of flying foxes—pollinators essential to Australia’s environment. It is also a tribute to resilience, care work, and the fragile bond between species.

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The Closest to Heaven That I'll Ever Be

Avery Norman

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Closest to Heaven That I'll Ever Be’. This body of work explores the aesthetics and emotional architecture of an imagined girlhood. The images function as self-mythologizing tools: visual constructions of the girl the artist longed to be, rather than portraits of who she was. At its core, this project is less about representing girlhood as it was, and more about creating a space for the version that never materialized—one that exists only within the frame, and only for the artist.

Rosie sits in tall grass with angel wings.

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To Reclaim Vision

Emma Tempest

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This is an excerpt from the video 'To Reclaim Vision'. A quiet visual meditation on female presence, this work captures four women standing still in open landscapes—enduring wind, rain, and sea. There is no dialogue, no overt performance—only presence. In this stillness, the film creates space for vulnerability and strength to coexist, allowing each woman to be fully seen without adornment or explanation. It is a study in quiet resistance, emotional truth, and the radical power of simply being.

Watch Full Video Here

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The Travellers

Birte Kaufmann

Germany

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Travellers’. Kaufmann’s project gives insight into the everyday life of Ireland`s largest minority group. This group has a nomadic origin, stemming from the tradition of migrant workers. As this tradition no longer exists, the travellers are looking for a new identity within the Western European society of the 21st century. Both the travellers` traditions and their way of life are so different that they are met with little acceptance by the rest of the Irish society.

Small Kathleen alone in the night after her first comunion on the backroads

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Kin

Paige Fiddes, Mariana del Carmen and Cristina Kirstein

South Africa

This is an excerpt from the short film 'Kin', shot in the South African countryside where two sisters grew up. The film offers a quiet tribute to sisterhood—its tenderness, safety, and enduring presence. In a world that often centers romantic love, Kin turns its gaze to a different kind of intimacy: the radical softness between women who protect and understand each other, especially in a country where being a woman means learning to carry fear with grace.

Watch Full Video Here

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But We Were So Strong

Fereshteh Eslahi

Iran

This photograph is part of the series ‘But We Were So Strong’. This long-term project, developed over several years, captures the persistence of Iranian women in reclaiming their denied rights. It reflects their unwavering determination not only to resist oppression but to demand what is rightfully theirs. The photographs reveal how this struggle has endured across decades, passed from one generation to the next, forming a continuous chain of resistance and hope for justice and freedom.

Parvin is dancing on a rooftop -away from the eyes of others- in Karaj.

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How To Drive

Katerina Moschou

Greece

This photograph is part of the series ‘How To Drive’. There are stories other than the triumphant victories of Le Mans racers. Or there could be no such stories in that sense. There is meaning beyond victories and losses. 24 hours of racing sounds exhilarating, but how about 365 days of driving? One’s driving routine could hold enough value to do away with heroes.

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This Too Shall Pass

Kristina Podobed

Ukraine

This photograph is part of the series ‘This Too Shall Pass’. This series traces the silent metamorphosis of the feminine. Inspired by folklore, each portrait captures a woman on the threshold between presence and disappearance, softness and strength. Through subtle gestures and stillness, the images suggest that even in quiet moments, something is always shifting, becoming, remembering.

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It's My Wound Because It's Pain For Me

Jana Islinger

Germany

This photograph is part of the series ‘It's My Wound Because It's Pain For Me’. Islinger’s project is a photographic portrait of an Armenian society shaped by trauma, seen through the perspective of women. Overshadowed by war and held together by a complex mixture of fear, resilience, and solidarity, they are at the heart of this work. The photographs reveal their stories, speaking of loss, pain, the burden of geopolitical conflict, and daily life in an often harsh reality.

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Alien

Isabel MacCarthy

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This photograph is part of the series ‘Alien’. The project explores what it means to live in a human body, and the unseen energies connecting us to the universe. Shaped by grief after her mother’s death, MacCarthy’s work turns photography into a way of seeing with love, humour precision. Blending documentary, staged portraiture, and abstraction, she reveals the strange beauty of bodies and minds, especially women’s. Her images pulse with energy, inviting viewers to find magic in the everyday.

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CALIBRATION MUM: I PREFER NOT TO

Elisa Jule Braun

Germany

This is an excerpt from the video 'CALIBRATION MUM: I PREFER NOT TO'. In this experimental documentary, artist Elisa Jule Braun uses motion capture to map the repetitive tasks of motherhood—breastfeeding, changing diapers, putting a child to bed—onto a digital avatar. The resulting choreography isolates care work from its emotional context, transforming labor into abstract movement. As more avatars appear, the film questions how many bodies it takes to perform unpaid domestic labor. Blurring the boundaries between private and public, the work critiques societal expectations of mothers and reclaims care as both political and performative.

Watch Full Video Here

A series of scenes that concentrate exclusively on the physical dimension of care-work

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Samtal Misslyckades

Björn Nilsson

Sweden

This photograph is part of the series Conversation Failed, which explores the emotional silence that arises when roles shift within long-term relationships. Inspired by personal experience and intimate interviews, the project reflects on gender expectations, power dynamics, and how love can falter when communication breaks down. Created in collaboration with poet Clara Diesen and designer Alex Pacheco, the work questions whether reconciliation is possible without dialogue.

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Pas De Deux

Jillian Freyer

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series 'Pas De Deux'. Exposed bellies, backs of knees, and two women wrestling; water streams from Morgane's eyes as she reclines in a field of crocuses: this work explores themes of platonic intimacy, collective experiences, and the power of touch. Freyes has always been drawn to these secret moments, sacred sites within our internal and most intimate worlds that reveal themselves as tender and vulnerable. Creating these photographs, it has become clear to her that she’s composing a world where she desires to exist.

Elizabeth is nearly submerged in the lake water as Sadie supports her head from falling under.

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Seaweed Women of Rameshwaram

Raajadharshini

India

This photograph is part of the series ‘Seaweed Women of Rameshwaram’. This series captures the lives of women seaweed farmers in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, who work in harmony with the ocean, combining deep ecological knowledge and resilience. Their labour, rooted in tradition and sisterhood, faces daily challenges from nature and climate. The project honors their strength and visibility while highlighting the need for better protective gear, clean water, and essential resources to sustain their health and livelihoods.

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Three Times a Week

Ofir Berman

Israel

This photograph is part of the series ‘Three Times a Week.’ Three times a week during the summer, Israel’s separate beaches open for ultra-Orthodox women, offering a space where they can bathe according to their religious beliefs and modesty rules. These beaches, inspected annually by rabbis, transform from mixed spaces to gender-segregated ones, raising questions about freedom and cultural relativism. The series explores how ultra-Orthodox women reclaim their leisure time, empowering themselves in a space free from male supervision.

A portrait of a woman enjoying her time at the segregated beach in Herzliya.

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Boobs

Nicola Maria Leddy

Ireland

This is an excerpt from the video 'Boobs'. Led by Irish artist Geraldine Carton, the film follows a bold mission to paint 100 breast portraits from the female gaze—challenging shame, reclaiming beauty, and celebrating body diversity. Centering voices across age, race, ability, and identity, Boobs becomes more than a documentary: it’s a movement toward radical self-love. Through intimate stories and fearless art, the project redefines how women see themselves—on their own terms, free from perfection and full of power.

Watch Full Video Here

An artist paints 100 nude portraits of breasts from the female gaze

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Unspoken Bodies

Alexandra Dautel

France

This photograph is part of the series “Unspoken Bodies”. The series is composed of 15 portraits capturing women beyond conventional beauty. Exploring youth, body image, and body positivity, the work focuses on subtle, intimate details—flaws as stories. Inspired by bell hooks' idea that art imagines what is possible, the series invites new narratives of beauty rooted in vulnerability, presence, and self-reclamation.

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El Nevado

Alejandra Orosco

Peru

This photograph is part of the series ‘El Nevado’. This is the story of the high-Andean alpaca herders in Peru, told through the relationship of Evelyn and Felicitas Diaz, mother and daughter who dedicate their lives to caring for alpacas and developing a maternal and intimate bond with them.

Evelyn Diaz caresses an alpaca at the El Nevado Livestock

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Sisterhood

Su Cassiano

France

This photograph is part of the series 'Sisterhood'. Set in France, the project responds to the 2022 hijab ban in basketball and the wider exclusion of visibly Muslim women from sport. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia and far-right politics, Sisterhood documents the resilience of those affected and the activism of collectives like Basket Pour Toutes. Through portraits and advocacy, the series challenges policies that silence and marginalize under the guise of secularism, affirming that the right to play—and to choose how to exist—is fundamental to gender justice.

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No Muse

Isabelle Zhao

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series ‘No Muse’. The project questions the sensationalist American fantasy of the female body by quietly documenting women in their routine, everyday spaces.

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To Be Seen, To Be Held

Ramona Jingru Wang

China

This photograph is part of the series ‘To Be Seen, To Be Held’. Jingru Wang’s ongoing body of work—spanning personal, commercial, and documentary photography— explores the complexity of Asian women’s identity. Through intimate portraits and visual storytelling, the project challenges reductive narratives and affirms self-defined ways of seeing. It’s a reflection on visibility, care, and the power of being represented on one’s own terms.

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Touch

Sarah Mei Herman

Netherlands

This photograph is part of the series 'Touch'. Begun in 2014 during an artist residency in Xiamen, China, the project traces the lives of four young women—many in secret lesbian relationships—over more than a decade. Through moments of quiet intimacy, the series explores love, friendship, secrecy, and transformation within a rapidly changing society. As the photographer returned over the years, connections deepened, crossing borders from China to Europe. Touch is a tender mosaic of trust, resistance, and evolving identity, shaped by time, distance, and shared vulnerability.

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The Offering

Irina Werning

Argentina

This photograph is part of the series 'The Offering'. Antonella promised to cut her hair when school returned after the pandemic. A year later, she kept her word. In 2024, she donated it to "Un pelito más fácil", an NGO that makes wigs for cancer patients. They collect even small locks on the street, combining matching ones into full wigs. Hers became “Antonella,” worn by Viviana and Valentina during treatment. A promise, a haircut, a wig—that’s how women care for each other. Quietly, creatively.

Antonella poses with the wig in her kitchen

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Youth Portraits

Alice Mann

South Africa

This photograph is part of the series 'Youth Portraits'. This long-term project follows young women from two Cape Town schools throughout their high school years. Part of South Africa’s ‘born free’ generation—those born after the end of Apartheid—they come of age in a democracy still marked by deep social divides. The series captures the complexity of their experience: navigating identity, race, gender, and global influences, while also grappling with the timeless challenges of adolescence. Youth Portraits is both a personal and collective reflection on what it means to grow up, inherit history, and imagine the future.

Mainelle Widikin sitting in the classroom.

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Je Te Connais De Demain (I know you from tomorrow)

Ana Margarita Flores

Peru

This photograph is part of the series ‘Je te connais de demain’. Flores’s work is a personal exploration of intimacy, focusing on the profound love, care, and empowerment found within female relationships. Collective care becomes a force for survival and transformation. It is a tribute to those bonds, nurturing spaces we build for one another, and the quiet gestures that sustain us and lay the groundwork for growth. It sees love as something active and lived, not abstract or idealised, but present in the smallest details of our connections.

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The Sacred Work of Care

Amy Woodward

Australia

This photograph is part of the series 'The Sacred Work of Care', which traces the lives of women who exist at the edges—of health, visibility, and societal value. From neurodivergent and chronically ill to postpartum and terminally ill, these intimate portraits explore how care endures and falters across bodies, generations, and systems. This is a meditation on the invisible labour that sustains us—and the urgent need for reciprocity, recognition, and rest.

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Line of Work

Fee-Gloria Grönemeyer

Germany

This photograph is part of the series 'Line of Work'. Shot in Berlin, Paris, and New York, the project offers intimate portraits of individuals—primarily women and femmes—working in the sex industry under different legal systems. Created in close collaboration with each participant, the images reject objectification and center agency, empathy, and self-representation. Interviews co-developed with writer and sex worker Liara Roux reveal how laws shape lived experience. Line of Work challenges tropes and invites viewers to see sex work for what it is: labor—worthy of dignity, complexity, and respect.

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The Divine Body

Youn Jung Kim

Korea

This photograph is part of the series ‘The Divine Body’. Growing up in South Korea, Youn Jung Kim thought motherhood would naturally follow marriage, but her first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, reshaping her understanding of motherhood’s emotional complexity. During this time, the artist began photographing her friend Leah’s journey into motherhood, documenting her transformation from wonder-filled expectant mother to creative, devoted parent. Her project explores motherhood as a powerful, transformative parallel to nurturing Mother Nature.

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By The Time She Grows Up

Quetzal Maucci

Italy

This photograph is part of the series 'By The Time She Grows Up'. Rooted in personal history, the project traces the life of the artist’s queer, migrant family—centered around two South American mothers raising a child in 1990s America. Through photography, archives, and oral histories, the work reclaims a narrative long excluded from dominant depictions of family. In a time of renewed threats to queer rights, the project offers visibility, tenderness, and resistance—honoring the complexities, strength, and enduring love that shaped a home.

My mothers and I in 2022 near my home in London

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A Little Conflict With Myself

Michiyo Yanagihara

Japan

This photograph is part of the series ‘A Little Conflict With Myself’. We used to pretend to be someone other than ourselves, so we were a little confused by the trend of "equality," but we started searching for our true selves. Now, little by little, we let go of the accessories we had been wearing to protect ourselves and were almost ready to release everything. I think women themselves are confused by the gap between the unequal world we've had up until now and the modern world where equality is on the rise. I expressed this through beauty and nudity.

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LIMINAL

Milagros Hillar

Argentina

This is an excerpt from the video 'LIMINAL'. A project for women made by women, Liminal explores transitional spaces—those silent, suspended moments where the old has vanished and the new has yet to emerge. Set against the haunting stillness of the in-between, the film becomes a meditation on transformation, vulnerability, and becoming. Through striking visuals and poetic pacing, Liminal reveals the beauty and tension of existing on the threshold—where silence speaks and identity is still being shaped.

In collaboration with @catalinagastalvetrano

Watch Full Video Here

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Star

Paoli De Luca

Italy

This is an excerpt from the video 'Star'. In a sparse audition room, Chiara—a young actress—struggles to embody a role that feels foreign: a girl in love. Her gaze falters, caught between reality and performance, between being and appearing. As the director asks her to repeat the lines, this time looking directly at him, the camera captures more than acting—it reveals a quiet unraveling. Star is a meditation on illusion, vulnerability, and the fragile distance between who we are and who we pretend to be.

Watch Full Video Here

Chiara dreams of becoming a movie star. That morning

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The Self Love Club

Mari Saxon

Russia

This photograph is part of the series 'The Self Love Club'. Saxon met Sophie at an exhibition of her paintings, which all are self-portraits. She was surprised by the contrast between her beauty and the self-hatred reflected in her art, and proposed to Sophie to work together on a project to explore this self-hatred. For the artist, being overweight does not detract from beauty; rather, it’s self-hatred that distorts it.

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SHIFTING

Johis Alacón

Ecuador

This is an excerpt from the video 'SHIFTING'. Created in close collaboration with its subjects, Shifting tells the story of a young girl separated from her mother—imprisoned in Ecuador for marijuana possession. Blending documentary, animation, and music recorded from prison, the film offers an intimate view of how incarceration affects families, especially children. Through Valentina’s daily life and memories, the work challenges drug-war narratives and sheds light on a larger crisis—where most incarcerated women are mothers—while centering tenderness, resilience, and the power of shared storytelling.

Watch Full Video Here

A short film that narrates the separation of a girl who dreams of becoming a photographer from her mother who is in prison for marijuana possession in Ecuador.

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SHOT: We the People

Kathy Shorr

United States of America

This photograph is part of the series 'SHOT: We the People'. This project is a trilogy of Shorr’s three projects about gun violence in America: “SHOT... 101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America,""SHOT: We the Mothers,” “SHOT: We the Community.” The trilogy encompasses people who were shot and survived, mothers who lost a child to gun violence and communities affected by school shootings.

Tracy lost her son Luis to gun violence in 2007.

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Acompañantas

Mahé Elipe

France

This photograph is part of the series 'Acompañantas'. This project documents transnational networks of abortion doulas in Latin America and the U.S. Amidst growing reproductive rights restrictions, these women offer medical, emotional, and legal support for safe, autonomous abortion access. Through photography and workshops, the project amplifies their voices while protecting their identities. Inspired by the "Marea Verde" movement, it combines activism and art to challenge stigma and misinformation.

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Companion of the Setting Sun

Isabela Zawistowska

United States of America

This is an excerpt from the video 'Companion of the Setting Sun'. Set in Xochimilco, Mexico City, the film follows 86-year-old Doña Susana—the last of her chinampera generation—as she reflects on the loss of ancestral knowledge and the endangered wild Axolotl. Through her daily life and quiet resilience, the film reveals the deep connection between Indigenous farming practices and ecological survival. Doña Susana becomes both witness and guardian: a keeper of memory, a voice for the wetlands, and a maternal force reminding us that caring for nature is an act of preservation, resistance, and love.

Watch Full Video Here

a short documentary that explores the transformation of Lake Xochimilco and survival of the Axolotl population.

Meet Our Official Jury

Discover the extraordinary jury of Women by Women: visionary photographers, artists, editors, and curators from around the world. Together with the Condé Nast Committee, these outstanding voices and leaders shaping the future of visual culture have guided the selection of artists for this historic project.

Photographer, Visual Artist

Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, Aïda graduated from Howard University with a degree in Communications, majoring in Film. Her photography is in major collections including MoMA, the Smithsonian, and the RISD Museum. She’s received numerous awards, including the EU Prize in Bamako, the CRAF Award, and the Royal Photographic Society Award. Aïda co-curated the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition in 2019 and was a commissioned artist in 2020. A Canon ambassador and founder of Addis Foto Fest and Africa Foto Fair, she also leads Africa Print House and advocates for health, the environment, and photography across Africa.

Photographer

Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic photographer, writer, speaker, and documentary filmmaker, Ami Vitale is one of the most influential photographers of her generation. Over three decades, her work has revealed the connections between war and the environmental crisis. Her iconic images portray the interdependence of humanity and the planet’s well-being. As founder and executive director of Vital Impacts, Ami fosters a global network of environmental storytellers, using art and advocacy to inspire planetary change-makers. Recognized as one of 50 Badass Women, her work highlights the symbiotic relationship between people and Earth.

Photographer and Director

In all of Amy Troost’s fashion photographs, there is an overriding sense of the character of her subjects. Troost’s antenna for the nuanced gestures that describe authentic attitude and personality is exceptional. Her clean and classical graphic sensibility - especially within the studio environment - brings the conventions of portraiture into her fashion work. Canadian-born Troost graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) and continues to draw upon her pluralistic knowledge of painting, sculpture, and design in her approach to photography. She applies her unique vision to editorial assignments for magazines including M le Monde, i-D, Harper’s Bazaar, Self Service and Vogue Magazine. She has collaborated with brands including Bulgari, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Zara, Swarovski, Tiffany Co. and YSL Beauty. Troost’s ongoing series of portraits - Casting Portraits - documents the character and beauty of models outside of the performance of a photographic shoot and has been independently published as limited edition books.

Photojournalist, Storyteller

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a British/Swedish photojournalist and a poet who has photographed the war in Ukraine since it started in 2014. Anastasia is a National Geographic Society Explorer, TED Fellow, and 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard university.

Photographer, Artist

Arvida Byström (b. 1991, Stockholm) is a digital native deeply connected to pink. Her work explores the internet’s social, aesthetic, and commercial impact, using a hyper-feminine aesthetic to examine femininity, body image, social dynamics, emerging technologies, and economic principles through photography, performance, and sculpture. Formerly based in London and Los Angeles, she now lives in Paris, navigating an aesthetic world of disobedient bodies, fruits in lingerie, tulips, and AI sex dolls. Her work has been shown worldwide at venues like the V&A and TATE, and she has appeared both behind and in front of the camera for influential brands and magazines.

Editor, Writer, and Creative Consultant

Ashleigh Kane is a freelance writer, editor, creative consultant, and curator based in London, UK. She is the Arts Photography Editor-at-Large at Dazed Confused and previously held the title of Arts Culture editor from 2014-2020. She is an Associate Lecturer at London College of Communication, Head of Curation for Thursday's Child, Head of Growth for Pina magazine, and the host and curator of Art After Hours in collaboration with the EDITION London, a series of monthly art gallery tours.

Photographer

Camila Falquez, a photographer and visual artist of Colombian descent based in New York, was born in Mexico and raised in Spain. Focusing on portraiture and fashion photography, she uses surrealist influences and vibrant colors to explore power, beauty, liberation, and social and gender diversity. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, El País, WSJ, and Vogue. In 2022, she held her first solo exhibition, Gods That Walk Among Us, in New York. In 2023, she was named Fashion Photographer of the Year and joined MoMA and PAMM’s permanent collections.

Photographer, Director

Carin Backoff is a New York–based photographer and director known for vibrant, playful, and intimate storytelling. Early in her career, she gained recognition from creative director Katie Grand, leading to collaborations with Love and Perfect magazines. Carin’s effortless style captures genuine connections with her subjects, inviting viewers into the moment. Frequently commissioned by fashion and beauty brands, her work appears in Vogue France, Elle, and more. She has worked with influential cultural icons such as Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Kylie Jenner, and Nicole Kidman.

Photographer

Cass Bird’s photography and film radiate joy and authenticity, focusing on genuine relationships rather than just pretty pictures. Her distinctive style has attracted brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Tiffany Co. Her editorial work has appeared in The New York Times Style Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and more. Bird’s book Rewilding explores femininity through nature and sisterhood. She’s directed music videos for Sky Ferreira and others. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

Photographer, Filmmaker

Charlotte Wales is a British fashion photographer and filmmaker known for ethereal, whimsical visuals blending nostalgia and energy. Celebrating female camaraderie, she has worked with iconic brands like Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Calvin Klein. Her editorial work has appeared in Vogue, Dazed, Pop, and The Face. Several of her images featured in the National Portrait Gallery’s The Face: Culture Shift exhibition. She has built creative partnerships with designers Area and Chopova Lowena, helping define their visual identity. Charlotte has photographed talents including Naomi Campbell, Charli XCX, Adele, FKA Twigs, and Bella Hadid.

Visual Artist

Coco Capitán, born in Seville and based in London, earned her MFA in Photography with honors from the Royal College of Art in 2016. Her work blends fine and commercial art, including photography, painting, and prose. She has collaborated with Gucci, Dior, and Maison Margiela, with work featured in British Vogue, New York Times Magazine, and Dazed. Capitán’s solo exhibitions include MEP in Paris and Daelim Museum in Seoul, showcasing immersive journeys mixing photography and text, exploring themes like abandoned American landscapes and critical views on consumer society with ties to Pop Art.

Curator, Writer, and Editor-in-Chief, Foam Magazine

Elisa Medde is an Art Historian specializing in Photography and Visual Culture, focusing on image, communication, and power structures. She has chaired juries for awards like the Luma Rencontres Book Award and MAST Foundation Grant. Elisa collaborates with European universities including ECAL, HSLU, and UWE Bristol. She has curated photobooks and exhibitions, with writings in FlashArt, Time Magazine, Vogue Italia, and more. Editor-in-Chief of Foam Magazine (2012–2023), she won two Lucie Awards and received the 2023 Royal Photographic Society Award for outstanding achievement in Photography Publishing.

Photographer

In her experimental fashion and fine art photography, Elizaveta Porodina travels through time and space, extracting the underlying emotions in her entrancing productions. The Moscow born studied clinical psychologist plays with melancholic symbolism, sets connotations, sometimes ambiguous, sometimes honest and obvious - her range widely varying between cinematic, fashion and almost documentary imagery. Whether in dramatic black and white or vividly colored artworks, the Munich based photographer is a master of dark romanticism.

Photographer

Emma Summerton, an Australian-born photographer and director based in New York and London, is known for imaginative, dreamlike imagery. She calls photography “alchemy,” transforming reality into new stories. After studying Fine Art in Sydney, she moved to London in 1998, gaining attention with Polaroid self-portraits. Collaborating with Edward Enninful, she contributed to Italian Vogue and W Magazine, shooting over 50 Vogue covers since. Emma has exhibited internationally and, in 2022, became only the fifth woman to photograph the Pirelli Calendar. Her 2023 show 14 Spells merged photography and painting through self-portraits.

Photographer, Director.

Felicity Ingram is a British photographer and director known for bold, intimate fashion, beauty, and portrait photography. Her work captures unguarded moments and challenges traditional beauty through striking light and color. She has shot for Vogue, i-D, WSJ, and worked with Hermès, Valentino, and YSL. In 2024, she documented the World Nomad Games in Kazakhstan, exploring tradition and modernity. Her debut book Technophoria (2025) delves into the global rave scene, celebrating youth culture and music’s unifying power. Felicity blends high fashion with raw documentary, pushing creative boundaries with fearless vision.

Designer, art director, lecturer

Fiona Hayes (@theartdictator) is an art director, designer, consultant, and lecturer with over 30 years’ international experience in publishing, fashion, and art. She has been art director for magazines including Punch, Cosmopolitan (British and Russian), GQ India, and Russian Vogue. At Condé Nast International (2013–2019), she helped launch 14 titles, including seven Vogue editions. Fiona founded DayFour magazine (2002–2012) and contributes to the podcast A Photographic Life. She teaches at Oxford Brookes and Vogue College of Fashion, consults for commercial clients, and has worked with Phillips de Pury and Mercury LLCM.

Head of Photography, The Guardian

Fiona has over 20 years of picture editing experience across newspapers and is a curator, speaker on photojournalism, and mentor in the photography community. She was picture editor of The Guardian for ten years before becoming Head of Photography for Guardian News and Media Group. Fiona covered major historic events like 9/11, global conflicts, natural disasters, and refugee crises. She has judged awards including the Sony World Photography Awards, Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, and chaired the 2024 World Press Photo Awards jury. Fiona also serves on the board of Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.

Freelance Writer, Host, Brand Consultant, The Messy Truth Podcast

Gem Fletcher is a writer, consultant and podcaster. Her work has been published in Foam, Aperture, Dazed, Creative Review, 1000 Words and The British Journal of Photography. She also hosts The Messy Truth podcast, a series of candid conversations that unpack the future of visual culture and what it means to be a photographer today.

Director

Halina Reijn is a visionary filmmaker, producer, actress, and author known for subversive narratives. She wrote, directed, and produced the erotic thriller BABYGIRL (A24), starring Nicole Kidman, who won Best Actress at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. Reijn also directed Gucci’s short THE TIGER with Spike Jonze and A24’s BODIES BODIES BODIES, earning a Spirit Award nomination. Her debut film INSTINCT premiered at Locarno and was The Netherlands’ Oscar submission. As an actress, she starred in RED LIGHT, BLACK BOOK, and VALKYRIE, winning multiple awards. Originally from Amsterdam, she now lives in New York.

Arts, Photography, Cultural Projects; Co-founder, Pictures for Purpose

Isabella van Marle is an independent curator, creative consultant, and co-founder of Pictures for Purpose, raising funds for social causes through photography print sales. Her projects have supported causes like the Dutch Food Bank, Ukrainian war victims, and children affected by violence in Lebanon and Palestine. In 2024, she co-curated Essential Goods in Kyiv, showcasing contemporary Ukrainian photography. Isabella has collaborated with FOAM, Stedelijk Museum, and Paris Photo, and served as curator for Unseen and Foto Tallinn. She is the author and photo editor of Min Hyunwoo’s upcoming Louis Vuitton Fashion Eye book and is based in Amsterdam.

Editor, Aperture

Dr. Jane’a Johnson is Editor at Aperture and a contributor to both the magazine and its online platforms. Prior to joining Aperture, she served as Artistic Director at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and Director of the Photographic Archives Research Group at Brown University, where she received her PhD. She has also taught as Assistant Professor of Theory of Art + Design and History, Philosophy + Social Sciences at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work and writing focuses on art and design in the African Diaspora, archives, popular culture, sustainability, and museums.

Photographer, Visual Artist

Joana Choumali, born in 1974, is a visual artist and photographer based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Trained in graphic arts, she shifted from advertising to conceptual portraiture, mixed media, and documentary photography. Known for embroidering directly on her images, her work explores diverse cultures. She won the 2019 Prix Pictet, the first African recipient, and has exhibited internationally, including Venice Biennale 2017. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Harvard Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Choumali’s books include HAABRE (2016) and Ça va aller (2022).

Curator

Johanne Affricot is an independent curator and cultural maker whose work centers on radical imagination, critical dialogue, and collective cultural strategies. Since October 2023, she has been Curator-at-Large at the American Academy in Rome. She is the founder and artistic director of SPAZIO GRIOT and GRIOTmag. Recent projects include Anche dopo che tutto è finito (2025), Whiteface (2024), and A Plot A Scandal (2024). In 2025, she was dramaturg for Frank by Cherish Menzo. She holds an MA from La Sapienza and has edited several publications, including Rage Desire (2022).

Photo Editor, Director, and Creative Innovator

Kira Pollack is a creative director and photo editor pioneering visual storytelling through photography, technology, and digital media. A 2025 Walter Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, she explores AI’s role in preserving visual history. Formerly Creative Director at Vanity Fair and Director of Photography at TIME, she led iconic projects including The 100 Most Influential Photographs and TIME’s first documentary film unit. Pollack’s work earned Emmy, Lucie, Webby, and National Magazine Awards. She has served as a juror for World Press Photo and Tribeca Film Festival and is based in New York City.

Visual Artist, Photographer

Lebohang Kganye is a visual artist and photographer from Johannesburg, South Africa, exploring photography’s materiality through sculpture, performance, theatre, and moving images. Her work centers on personal and familial history, memory, and storytelling, often engaging South Africa’s apartheid past and oral traditions. Using her family archive, Kganye examines themes of home, belonging, and identity. She holds a Fine Arts degree from the University of Johannesburg and is completing her MFA at Witwatersrand University. Recent accolades include the 2024 Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize, Foam Paul Huf Award (2022), Grand Prix Images Vevey (2021/22), and Camera Austria Award (2019).

Photographer

Born in south-east London, Nadine Ijewere is a photographer specializing in fashion and portraiture. Her work challenges traditional beauty ideals through authentic storytelling and a unique vision. Introduced to photography in school, she later studied at London College of Fashion. Nadine’s debut book, Our Own Selves (2021), features over 160 images that deconstruct industry stereotypes and document her career. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries across London and New York. At 26, she became the first woman of color to shoot a Vogue cover.

Member of the Board of Directors, Friends of Palais de Tokyo

Olivia Anani (b. 1987, Côte d’Ivoire) is a Paris-based curator, writer, and art market expert with a background in Asian Studies and Contemporary Art. She has worked at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, contributing to the sale of major masters and the reevaluation of African artists. Olivia serves on the Board of Friends of Palais de Tokyo and leads its Young Patrons initiative. She supports institutions like the Louvre and is involved in developing a new cultural institution in Benin. Anani has contributed to major monographs and was named among France’s 100 Most Influential Women in Culture in 2021.

Photographer, Director

Paola Kudacki is an Argentinian photographer and director based in New York, known for her cinematic, emotionally powerful portraits. She has worked with Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nicole Kidman, and Serena Williams, and her work has appeared in Time, Vogue, and The New Yorker. Paola was the official Golden Globes photographer in 2019 and the only photographer to shoot the TIME 100 cover twice. Her commercial clients include Calvin Klein and Nike. She’s also an advocate for women’s rights, using her photography to highlight underrepresented voices and stories of resilience.

Writer and Editor

Samira Larouci is a London-based editor, writer, and cultural curator with over a decade at Vogue Italia. Formerly International Editor of GQ Middle East and editor at i-D, her work explores youth culture’s visual and social impact. She has contributed to L’Uomo Vogue, Dazed, and CR Fashion Book, and served as a juror for Photo Vogue and Photo LA. Samira has collaborated with Cartier, Gucci, and Rolls-Royce, and founded Artists For Morocco, supporting underrepresented Moroccan youth through arts mentorship.

Founder, Sara Hemming Studio

Sara Hemming is a London-based Creative Director, Brand Strategist, and Consultant with extensive experience across the creative industry. Throughout her career, she has held several influential roles, including Creative Director of Another Magazine and Global Visual Director at Stella McCartney. In 2017, she founded SHS Agency (formerly Sara Hemming Studios), a creative agency dedicated to shaping strategy and producing innovative creative output for a global roster of fashion and beauty brands.

Photographer, Photo Editor, Teacher; Founder, The Visual Thinking Collective

Sarah Leen became the first female Director of Photography for National Geographic in 2013. After nearly 20 years as an independent photographer and Senior Photo Editor at NGM, she transitioned in 2020 to photo book editing, curation, and mentorship. Leen teaches visual storytelling and photo editing, has edited award-winning photobooks, and serves as Co-Chair of the International League of Conservation Photographers. She is also on the Lucie Awards Board and co-founder of the Visual Thinking Collective. In 2024, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Missouri.

Director of Development and Programming at the Peter Marlow Foundation

Since 2023, Shannon has been Director of Development and Programming at the Peter Marlow Foundation and worked with the Magnum Photos Foundation on educational fundraising. Previously, she was Global Education Director at Magnum Photos for six years, leading their global education initiatives. Shannon has a 20-year career spanning content strategy at Reuters, multimedia projects, exhibitions, and socially engaged photography. She serves on the Royal Photographic Society’s Education Committee and has lectured internationally. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Photography from Queensland College of Art.

Photographer

Siân Davey, founder of The Creative Body Process, transitioned from 15 years as a humanist Buddhist psychotherapist to photography in 2011. Her work explores psychological landscapes through intimate portraits of her children and community, informed by her childhood and psychotherapy background. She has won multiple awards, including the Arnold Newman Award and the Taylor Wessing Portrait Award. Her book Looking for Alice was shortlisted for major photography prizes. Represented by Michael Hoppen Gallery, her work is held in prestigious collections such as the Victoria Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Photographer

Stef Mitchell captures arresting and intimate moments, uninhibited by the confines of conventional commercial photography, her images emanate a world of youthful joy and rebellion. Her work has appeared in i-D, US Vogue, Self Service, Mastermind, Replica and M Le Monde and she has worked with brands including Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Gucci Versace. Since 2018, Mitchell has released several self-published zines, such as Space Moves Like the Surface of the Sea, with long-standing collaborators Freja Beha Erichsen and Sydney Rose Thomas. Pushing the boundaries of creative expression across several platforms, Mitchell has cemented her status as an important voice in contemporary fashion photography. Born in Australia, she now resides in Paris.

Photographer

Venetia began as a stylist and creative director before launching her photography career in 2005. Known for her distinctive style and original casting, she regularly contributes to Vogue, W, Dazed, and more. She started at British Vogue and was Marc Jacobs’ Creative Director (2001), overseeing Marc by Marc Jacobs. Venetia’s 2019 solo exhibition and book, Fragile Face Lay Flat, features iconic portraits of models like Kate Moss and Bella Hadid. From 2017 to 2020, she was Fashion Director at British Vogue. She lives between London and Cornwall.

Photographer

Born in 1972 in Amsterdam, Sassen studied fashion design and photography at Utrecht School of the Arts and Ateliers Arnhem. Her retrospective Phosphor: Art Fashion toured Foam Amsterdam (2025), Fotografiska Shanghai (2024), and Kyotographie Japan (2024). She has exhibited widely, including at The Photographers’ Gallery London, Museum of Modern Art Zagreb, and Huis Marseille Amsterdam. Sassen won the Prix de Rome (2007), ICP Infinity Award (2011), and David Octavius Hill Medal (2015). She was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for Umbra. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Co-founder and editor-in-chief, Atmos

Willow Defebaugh is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Atmos, a climate and culture magazine. She authors The Overview, a deep ecology newsletter and book, and hosts The Nature Of podcast. A lifelong student of nature, Willow holds a creative writing degree from the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue, BBC, The Guardian, and others. She lives in Brooklyn on unceded Lenape territory.

Photographer

Zoë Ghertner, a New York native now based in Los Angeles, is known for her naturalistic photography and powerful depictions of women. Initially focused on still life, she transitioned to fashion, contributing to M Le Monde, Self Service, i-D, The Gentlewoman, W, and Vogue. Collaborating with top stylists and luxury brands like Celine, Chanel, Gucci, and Cartier, Ghertner crafts compelling visual narratives. Her exhibitions include shows at Thomas Duncan Gallery, Koenig Clinton, and Zodiac Gallery during Frieze LA 2024.

Photographer

Zoey Grossman, born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, studied fine art and photography at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work explores the intertwined forces of femininity, humanity, and emotion, capturing vulnerability, empowerment, and identity’s complexity. Zoey’s photography reveals the inner worlds of her subjects, portraying them as bold, sensual, and deeply human. Beyond image-making, her work is about connection. She is currently directing a feature-length documentary and curating her first photography book.