Critics’ Choice 2026 – Global Photography Competition Now Open

Alex Kahl is the Online Editor of WePresent, the arts platform of WeTransfer. He runs WePresent Selects—their monthly series of eight stories about artists from around the world—leading the curation and working closely with each artist featured to find the best way to tell their story and represent their work, both digitally and through events and activations.

The WePresent Selects spotlight a wide variety of artists, from more established names to those at earlier stages in their careers, with many of them using the space to premiere new projects. The series has so far featured photographers such as Mous Lamrabat, Carolyn Drake and Simon Wheatley, and in total WePresent has featured work from over 1000 artists from more than 120 countries across the globe.

Alex has been working at WePresent since 2018 and in that time the platform has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award, Cannes Lions, Webbys, D&AD awards and a BIFA.

wepresent.wetransfer.com

Alex Pollack is the current Director of Photography at National Geographic, where she oversees the visual storytelling strategy. Known for her sharp editorial eye and deep commitment to impactful imagery, Alex has built a career shaping how stories are told through photos across both digital and print.

Before joining National Geographic, Alex served as Photo Director at Bustle Digital Group, where she led photography across seven brands—including Bustle and Nylon—and commissioned a wide range of work from emerging and established photographers. Her leadership emphasized diversity, originality, and strong visual narratives.

Her previous roles include Visual Director at Goop, as well as time at Apple, where she contributed to major campaigns and brand imagery. Earlier, during a six-year tenure as Visuals Director at Bon Appétit, Alex played a pivotal role in redefining the magazine’s photographic style. Her vision helped revolutionize how food is captured and presented in contemporary media, influencing an entire generation of editorial food photography.

Alex began her career as a photo editor at New York magazine, where she helped shape award-winning visual storytelling across news, politics, and culture under tight deadlines and limited resources.

Outside of editorial, Alex co-directed and produced NOT ROD, a short documentary that premiered at the Miami Film Festival, winning the Audience Choice Award and continuing its festival run nationwide.

www.nationalgeographic.com

After doing a masters in cultural management at Barcelona University, and a position in public relations for the major cultural event, the Universal Forum of Cultures, Barcelona, in 2004, in 2006 Anna Planas moved to Paris to concentrate on photography as her career.

She was employed by the Magnum agency and actively took part in creating the BAL, then the Magnum gallery in Saint-Germaindes-Prés, managing the artistic direction.

After more than 7 years with Magnum, Anna Planas co-founded Temple, a gallery stemming from the wish to experiment with the photographic medium. Over 4 years, she organised exhibitions of more than thirty artists, often for the first time, including Sylvain CouzinetJacques, Samuel Gratacap, Benjamin Mouly, Lotte Reinmann, Katja Stuke, Marine Peixoto or Bruno Zhu.

Through Temple’s network, and connections established with the artists, she has had the opportunity to design exhibitions in international institutions and festivals. For example she is the curator of the major collective exhibition “The Hobbyist” presented at the Fotomuseum Winterthur then the Rencontres d’Arles. Photography has been presented in all its forms in all the exhibitions she has designed, and in all its plasticity, in dialogue with other mediums.

In 2019, the Rencontres d’Arles entrusted her and Pierre Hourquet to oversee the Temple Arles Books project, a fair dedicated to the book of photography and programme space within the festival. During the opening week of the festival, this area accommodated almost sixty exhibitors, twenty round tables, performances and five exhibitions.

She has managed the Delpire & Co publishing house book shop-gallery and artistic direction since it was created in Paris in 2020. She has organised exhibitions and installations of invited artists there, such as Theaster Gates, Patti Hill, Vivian Maier, Stéphanie Solinas and William Klein, and partnerships with institutions, like the Paris Photo Book Prize – Aperture. In two years the delpire & co book shop-gallery, located in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has become one of the major players in discovering books of photography in Paris.

www.parisphoto.com

Bindi Vora is an interdisciplinary photographic artist of Kenyan-Indian heritage, Associate Lecturer at London College of Communication and Curator at Autograph, a London-based non-profit arts charity that explores issues of identity, representation, human rights and social justice through photography. Since joining Autograph, she has curated Hélène Amouzou: Voyages (2023) Eric Gyamfi: Fixing Shadows – Julius and I (2023), Poulomi Basu: Fireflies (2022), co-curated Sasha Huber: You Name It (2022) Care I Contagion I Community – Self & Other (2021-2022); Lola Flash: [sur]passing and Maxine Walker: Untitled (both 2019); published a series artist conversations with Sasha Huber, Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, Maryam Wahid, Tobi Alexandra Falade, David Uzochukwu amongst others. She has independently curated Poulomi Basu: Centralia for Rencontres d’Arles – Louis Roederer Discovery Award (2020); Let’s Go Through This Again (2018); her writing has appeared in publications by Maryam Wahid Zaibuinnisa (MAC, 2022); Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 (Thames & Hudson); FOAM and British Journal of Photography, participating in public programmes for Tate, GRAIN Photo Hub, The Photographers’ Gallery, The Paul Mellon Centre amongst others. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the National Museums NI (Ulster Museum) as part of the 20/20 project, led by the UAL Decolonising Arts Institute.

autograph.org.uk

Cassidy Paul is the Managing Editor, Digital at Aperture. She is responsible for managing and producing editorial content for Aperture’s website, pitching and commissioning stories for the website alongside editorial features from Aperture publications. She is also the managing editor for Introducing, a web-exclusive series that highlights exciting new voices in photography, as well as an editor for Creating Stories for Tomorrow, a partnership between FUJIFILM and Aperture. Joining Aperture in 2016, she has previously held positions as the publicity associate, social editor, and digital editor. Prior to joining Aperture, she worked as a photo editor at TIME magazine. Her writing has appeared in Aperture and TIME. She holds a BFA in photography from Parsons School of Design at the New School, New York.

aperture.org

Claartje van Dijk is Senior Curator at Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam where she curated various exhibitions, including The Underground Camera (2025), Felipe Romero Beltrán - Dialect (2024), Ara Guler - A Play of Light and Shadow (2023), Mous Lamrabat - Blessings from Mousganistan (2022) and Liz Johnson Artur - of life of love of sex of movement of hope (2021). Previously, Van Dijk worked at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York where she conducted research on the museum’s collection and was a (co-)curator on numerous exhibitions, including Elliott Erwitt: Pittsburgh (2018) and Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection (2019), in collaboration with Erin Barnett. Van Dijk writes for Foam Magazine and co-authored Ara Guler - A Play of Light and Shadow (Hannibal, 2023). She has performed mentorships for the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and was a nominator for a number of awards including The Lucie Foundation, BJP International Photography Award and Prix Pictet. Claartje van Dijk lives and works in Amsterdam.

www.foam.org

Crista Dix is the Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, where she has served since 2022 following two years as Associate Director. She oversees more than fifty exhibitions annually across the museum’s Winchester campus and satellite galleries throughout New England, while advancing initiatives that include artist residencies, scholarships, and community-based public art projects. Her leadership focuses on strengthening connections between artists, patrons, and the public, and on positioning photography as a vital contemporary medium.

Prior to joining the Griffin, Dix founded and directed wall space creative, an internationally recognized gallery she led for fifteen years. There, she championed emerging and mid-career photographers and developed philanthropic partnerships supporting global and local causes. Dix continues to curate exhibitions, write about photography, jury competitions, and participate in portfolio reviews nationwide, bringing a broad perspective shaped by experience in the arts, business, and community engagement.

griffinmuseum.org

Darius Himes is the first International Head of Photographs for Christie's, joining in November 2014. Prior to that, he was Director of Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (2011-2014). In his curatorial career, he has collaborated with a wide range of photographers, from Lee Friedlander to Alec Soth and Katy Grannan. He has also worked with some of the top institutions across the United States: The Art Institute of Chicago, David Zwirner Gallery and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Himes has contributed writing to Aperture, American Photo, Blind Spot, Bookforum, BOMB, PDN, and Lay Flat. He also co-authored the title, "Publish Your Photography Book," a popular guide (now in its second edition) to the illustrated book publishing industry.

www.christies.com

Enrico Stefanelli is the founder and artistic director of Photolux Festival, the biennial of photography in Lucca, Italy. He has curated several exhibitions including: Tim Hetherington, Jan Saudek, Horst P. Horst, VII Agency, Nobuyoshy Araki, Boris Mikhailov and David Douglas Duncan. From 2010 to 2017, he was the Italian curator of the European Photo Exhibition Award. Enrico is a photographer and journalist and teaches photography in workshops. He has written articles and contributions on photography for several catalogs, books and magazines. He participates in portfolio reviews around the world, serves on international photography juries, and is a member of the nominating committee for the Joop Swart Masterclass at World Press Photo. He is also the nominator for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and Prix Pictet.

www.photoluxfestival.it

Shields has over twenty years’ picture-editing experience across a range of newspaper titles and has served as picture editor of The Guardian for the last nine. She recently took up the role of Head of Photography for the Guardian News and Media Group. Throughout her career, she has been involved in the coverage of some of the most historic news stories of our time: 9/11, conflicts around the world, the Arab Spring and much more. Besides her work at the newspaper, she’s delivered talks at photo festivals and to students of photojournalism. She has judged the Sony World Photography Awards, the UK Picture Editors Guild Awards, and the Renaissance Photography Prize among others. Most recently she served as a nominator for the Prix Pictet and joined the jury of the highly regarded Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

www.theguardian.com

Giulia Zorzi is the co-founder and director of Micamera, a Milan-based bookstore and center dedicated to photography and visual culture, founded in 2003. Through exhibitions, talks, publications, and educational programs, her work focuses on fostering dialogue around contemporary photographic practices and encouraging critical engagement with images.

She has collaborated with several international institutions, including Le Bal in Paris and the PAC Museum in Milan. She has also written exhibition texts for Carrie Mae Weems and John Divola for La Sena Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and is co-producer of the new fair dedicated to photography SHOW LA.

Her curatorial work includes publications with photographers such as Fulvio Ventura and Matteo Di Giovanni (upcoming: a box set featuring four Italian women photographers — Ilaria Turba, Giulia Iacolutti, Francesca Todde, and Camilla de Maffei). Micamera curated the first European exhibition of Mark Steinmetz (2011) and hosted the first gallery exhibition of Imperial Courts by Dana Lixenberg and of XXYZX by Gregory Halpern and has a long-standing collaboration with Jason Fulford.

www.micamera.com

Hannah Watson is the co-founder and director of contemporary art gallery TJ Boulting, as well as the director of independent art publisher Trolley Books.

TJ Boulting was founded in 2011 by current director Hannah Watson and the late Gigi Giannuzzi, taking its name from the landmark Grade II* listed Arts & Crafts building it inhabits in Fitzrovia, central London. The gallery represents a dynamic group of emerging and mid-career contemporary artists across all mediums, and introduces more established and historic artists through thematic group shows. These are often collaborations with invited curators, such as In The Company Of in 2018 with Katy Hessel, Birth in 2019 with Charlotte Jansen and The Gaze in 2021 with Louis Wise.

TJ Boulting is also the home of independent publisher Trolley Books. Established in 2001, Trolley publish a diverse range of titles presenting unique stories in photography, photojournalism and contemporary art. In 2005 Trolley received a special commendation from the Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards for its outstanding contribution to photography book publishing. Recent awards for the books include at the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards for Siân Davey's Looking For Alice (2016) and Maisie Cousins's Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, Grass Peonie Bum (2019).

trolleybooks.com

Jane Yeomans currently works at Bloomberg, where she commissions and licenses photography for Businessweek Magazine and various special projects across the newsroom. Previously she worked as freelance photo editor and researcher for book projects, design firms and for many publications, including The Jackie Robinson Museum, Random House, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, ESPN and many others. She has been commissioning and licensing photography for many years in New York City, where she currently resides.

www.bloomberg.com

Jessie Wender is a photo editor at The New York Times on the Opinion desk. Before joining Opinion, she worked on the Culture desk at the Times and on the archival storytelling team. Jessie has worked in the photo departments of Apple, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Esquire and Time Inc. Her commissions have been recognized by American Photography, American Society of Magazine Editors, Society for News Design and Society of Publication Designers. She loves working with artists and with creative people, and supporting emerging photographers.

www.nytimes.com

Rhea L. Combs, PhD is the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and works with her curatorial team along with the History, Conservation and Audience Engagement departments to grow the Portrait Gallery’s collection, develop impactful exhibitions, and draw connections between portraiture, biography and identity. Prior to this, Combs was at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture where she served as supervisory curator of photography and film and head of the museum’s Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts. She has curated numerous exhibitions related to film and photography both nationally and internationally, including: “Everyday Beauty: Photographs and Films from the Permanent Collection” (2016), “Represent: Hip-Hop Photography” (2018), and “Now Showing: African American Movie Posters” (2019). She is a co-curator of the forthcoming exhibition “Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971,” which will be presented at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She received a BA from Howard University and an MA from Cornell University before earning a PhD from Emory University.

nmaahc.si.edu

Rose Shoshana founded ROSEGALLERY in 1992, establishing a renowned space focused on works which enrich the canon of modern and contemporary photography. ROSEGALLERY has centered its programming both on pictures which instill the history of photography (such as Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Dorothea Lange) and works that ever expand the potential of photo-based art (such as John Chiara and Lebohang Kganye).

Rose Shoshana’s work with ROSEGALLERY extends beyond exhibiting photographs: often collaborating and collecting support for artists to create projects that perhaps the artists could not have realized on their own. Shoshana has worked intimately with renowned artists and institutions, including William Eggleston, Bruce Davidson, Graciela Iturbide, Evelyn Hofer and Mark Cohen. Several of these projects became a part of the Tate Modern’s rotating program, Artist Rooms.

She is one of the founding members of the Getty Museum’s Photographs Council and has worked with The J. Paul Getty Museum on several of their major exhibitions. She has published and edited several books, and she worked with Jo Ann Callis on realizing her first monograph Early Color, published by Aperture.

rosegallery.net

Dr Taous R. Dahmani (she/her) is a London-based French, British, and Algerian art historian specialising in photography. She has curated both group and solo exhibitions internationally, including the 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles (France) and the 2024 Jaou Photo Biennale in Tunis (Tunisia). Her solo curatorial projects include SMITH at NOUA (Bodø, Norway), Anastasia Samoylova at the Saatchi Gallery (London, UK), and Adam Rouhana at Kyotographie (Kyoto, Japan). Since September 2025, she is curator at the Photographers’ Gallery.

Dahmani’s writing has been widely published in photobooks and journals, with contributions to titles by Phaidon, Loose Joints, Textuel, Tate Publishing, and Pompidou, as well as features in Aperture, FOAM, Camera Austria, The British Journal of Photography, Dazed, GQ, and 1000 Words Magazine. She is the associate editor of Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain (MACK/Autograph ABP, 2024), a critically acclaimed, award-winning publication. In 2025, she also edited Assemblies (FOMU) and Feel the Sound (Barbican).

thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Since March 2000, Xavier Canonne has been the director of the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium. Before coming to the Musée, he was the director of the collection of the Province of the Hainaut (modern and contemporary art) from 1987 to 2000. He has curated many exhibitions and has edited and written various books and studies. He had curated several exhibitions, among them Intimate Man Ray (2003); Scenes of Atget (2004); Lee Miller a Life (2005); and Surrealism in Belgium in the Fine Arts Museum in Mons-BAM (March—April, 2007). Canonne is the publisher of the review "Marées de la Nuit". He is the author of the several books, including Looking at the U.S. – 1957—1986, published in 2009; Requiem pour un homme seul, Le Samouraï de Jean-Pierre Melville, 2010; and René Magritte, The revealing images, published in 2017. Xavier Canonne received his Doctorate in Art History and Archaeology from the Sorbonne University in Paris, with a doctoral thesis dedicated to Surrealism in Belgium.

www.museephoto.be

Following studies in art history, specializes in the history of modern/contemporary photography. Curator of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from 2018, through curator of Izu Photo Museum (2014-2018). Organized the exhibition Fiona Tan: Ascent (2016), Terri Weifenbach: The May Sun (2017), Forever (and again) (2018), Memories Penetrate the Ground and Permeate the Wind: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol. 18 (2021), Motohashi Seiichi and Robert Doisneau: Narrative Passages (2023). co-curated I know something about love, asian contemporary photography (2018) and life actually (2023) with KASAHARA Michiko, Reversible Destiny: Australian and Japanese contemporary photography (2021) with Natalie KING. Part-time lecturer of Meiji Gakuin University.

topmuseum.jp