The Association of Photographers’ Emerging Talent Award celebrates the very best in the new wave of photographers and image makers, who have been practicing their craft for less than three years. There’s no restriction on theme or genre, leaving the choice of work entirely up to the photographer. It means there’s a huge a range of submissions, representing the real diversity of talent that’s entering lens-based art. As in previous years, stills, moving image and the creative use of technologies and innovations make up the shortlist. Together, they’re an impressive offering, with the winners tackling major topics with a maturity that’s impressive for practitioners so early in their career: climate change and conflict.
Gold award recipient Austin Bradley wanted to address a complex, much-debated topic with his winning image. His work looks to tackle the fact that climate change is often discussed in the abstract, with tangible consequences obscured behind complex science or impersonal statistics and figures. According to a 2025 study published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, only “around four in 10 say the media do a good job of explaining causes and offering solution.” Bradley’s photography places real locations back at the heart of climate conversations, looking for a way to visually communicate glacial retreat. In response to this, he rigged a 57-metre highline across Sólheimajökull Glacier in Iceland, with the length of the line representing approximately how far the glacier retreats each year due to warming conditions. Over several days – with the entire project carbon offset – Bradley worked with highliners, a small film crew and a glaciologist to document the process, which will later be released as a documentary.
Meanwhile, Ritchie Elder’s series Saturday School won the silver prize, documenting the final day of the school term at the Ukrainian Saturday School at Leith Academy. Established more than three years ago, the school is the first of its kind in Scotland. It provides Ukrainian children displaced by the war with the opportunity to learn Ukrainian language, culture and history alongside their mainstream education and plays an important role in helping young people maintain a connection to their heritage, whilst building new lives in Scotland. Elder worked closely with the children, their parents and school staff. Kim Pappas, a 2026 judge, says; “there is a real tenderness to the Saturday School portraits, and the way the lights falls on the young subjects in beautiful. A good portrait is emotive and moving and I think the series touched us all.”
The two winners were selected from a shortlist of 15 photographers, each of whom represents the next generation of lens-based talent. Isabelle Doran, CEO of the Association of Photographers, says: “this year’s prevailing genre shining through both still and moving image submissions is undoubtedly human-focused, even when the human imprint is on places and animals. It’s an impressive selection of work, chosen by our expert panel of judges, for our 2026 Emerging Talent finalists, and I’m looking forward to seeing their career development with anticipation.” Kadeen Brown’s The Pride in the Panther places the spotlight on Black communities in the UK, using musicians and artists as her model to celebrate their contribution to culture. Caroline Lacoma also considers identity, with 13 self-portraits that explore the deconstruction and reconstruction of the Self from an Afro-Caribbean perspective. Jonny Nolan’s work is an effort to “find beauty in and amongst moments of chaos, the mundane and fleeting moments of the sublime.”
As Jason Baron, 2026 Judge, says: “Established photographers should quite rightly be slightly quaking in their boots at the younger ones coming through. Then everyone has to work harder to think different and move things forward.” That’s the ethos of this award – pushing ahead, moving the dial on the standard for photography. There’s a sense that these artists are not satisfied with the status quo, and they’re sure to be ones to watch going forward. This is the future of lens-based art, and it looks bright.
Find out more about the 2026 AOP Emerging Talent Award: aopawards.com
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Austin Bradley, 57 Metres, Iceland’s Shrinking Glacier 2 © Austin Bradley.
2. Caroline Lacoma, The Unmaking of a Woman, What Didn’t You Do to Try and Bury Me but You Forgot That I Was a Seed © Caroline Lacoma.
3. Austin Bradley, 57 Metres, Iceland’s Shrinking Glacier 1 © Austin Bradley.
4. Ritchie Elder, Belonging, Ukrainian Dancers © Ritchie Elder.
