Since its launch in 2015, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards has become a leading biennial platform for emerging photographers in the UK. It has nurtured artists who have redefined contemporary photography and lens-based art, shaping how images influence our perception of the world. Past recipients such as Alejandra Carles-Tolra, Heather Agyepong, Joanne Coates, Joanna Piotrowska, Lúa Ribeira and Silvia Rosi and have expanded their practices from intimate exhibitions to international recognition, residencies and critical acclaim. The programme offers more than financial support, providing mentoring, guidance and touring exhibition opportunities that allow artists to develop ambitious projects at a pivotal stage in their careers. As Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director of Photoworks, states: “The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards are a rare and important opportunity with an incredible legacy, they offer career defining support through a programme of mentoring, development opportunities and exhibitions for mid-career practitioners.”
This year, Roman Manfredi and Sayuri Ichida have been awarded the prize for their innovative approaches to photography. Manfredi’s TRA and Ichida’s 空席 (Kūseki), meaning “empty seats”, examine the relationship between communities, place and memory. Both projects combine still and moving images, sound, collage and installation, highlighting aspects of life often unseen or overlooked. TRA explores Naples through the lens of personal identity and urban landscapes, while Kūseki focuses on the quiet erosion of rural Japanese communities. Each offers a distinct perspective but shares a commitment to revealing hidden realities.
TRA inhabits the liminal, capturing Naples as a city suspended between past and present. Manfredi blends portraits, film and fragmented imagery to explore how identity, memory and gender intersect with place. Boundaries between masculine and feminine converge, transformation is constant, yet directionless, and everyday life is infused with historical resonance. Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, explains: “Both of the selected artists, who were unanimously chosen by the jury, subtly engage with the hidden and errant aspects of histories personal to them.” TRA’s energy and fluidity invite audiences to consider the emotional and social dynamics of space, memory and community.
Ichida’s Kūseki confronts absence and decline in rural Japan. The project responds to the closure of nearly 9,000 schools between 2002 and 2020 and the resulting disappearance of community life. Combining photography, collage, sound and sculptural installation, Ichida transforms empty classrooms and chalkboards into visual metaphors for social erosion. Lucy Ash, trustee of the Jerwood Foundation, said: “Ichida’s innovative use of classroom chalkboards to chart the demographic crisis in rural Japan … affords the viewer insights into urgent social issues in two very different cultures.” Kūseki captures the quiet decay of infrastructure and the poignancy of absence with meticulous attention to detail. It is both political and deeply personal, transforming empty spaces into reflections on mortality and memory.
This year’s jury comprises Cindy Sissokho, curator and writer; Ingrid Pollard, artist and researcher; Lúa Ribeira, photographer and former awardee; Omar Kholeif; Lucy Ash; and Photoworks Director Louise Fedotov-Clements. The panel balances artistic, curatorial and research experience, and their selections highlight work with conceptual depth, social relevance and formal innovation. This ensures that the awards continue to champion artists whose projects engage audiences in meaningful dialogue. The process emphasises both the aesthetic and intellectual dimensions of contemporary photography.
Roman Manfredi’s approach is defined by an interest in identity, class and community. His work highlights underrepresented groups, particularly LGBTQ+ and working-class narratives, often using analogue photography alongside sound and moving images. Past projects, including We/Us (2023), documented undocumented butches and studs, situating personal experiences within broader social and historical contexts. Ichida, trained in commercial photography in Tokyo and New York, moved into art practice in 2016. She has exhibited internationally, including Unseen Amsterdam, PhMuseum Lab in Bologna and the SPARK Art Fair in Vienna, consistently interrogating memory, selfhood and community.
The power of the image lies in its capacity to reveal, provoke and resonate. TRA and Kūseki engage audiences beyond mere observation, prompting reflection on social, personal and environmental realities. Kholeif says: “The artists’ work unbuckles the ways in which spectators make sense of the self through image culture…contouring them into a view of the world that is boundless, endless, in its potential.” Both works emphasise subtlety and attentiveness over spectacle, showing that photography can illuminate what is otherwise invisible. They demand engagement, lingering long after the exhibition ends.
The touring exhibition will visit Drawing Room and Tannery Arts in London from 10 January, continuing at Barnsley Civic, Ffotogallery in Cardiff and Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow. It demonstrates the awards’ commitment to making ambitious, thoughtful photography accessible across the UK. TRA and Kūseki offer audiences immersive encounters with place, memory and absence, revealing the ethical and emotional dimensions of contemporary life. By expanding the possibilities of image-making, both artists challenge conventional approaches and assert photography’s continued relevance. Their work embodies the belief that images are not passive objects but active agents of reflection and understanding.
In exploring absence, transformation and continuity, the fifth edition of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards highlights the enduring potential of photography to shape perception. TRA and Kūseki do more than document; they provoke dialogue, empathy and contemplation. Both artists approach their practice with rigour, sensitivity and imagination, demonstrating the ways in which visual culture can interrogate the social and the personal simultaneously. These works remind audiences that photography is a medium capable of nuance, depth and resonance. In doing so, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards continues to foster a generation of artists whose vision expands both the medium and the world it observes.
Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5 | photoworks.org.uk
10 January – 8 February: Drawing Room and Tannery Arts, London
21 February – 25 April | Barnsley Civic
7 May – 4 July | Ffotogallery, Cardiff
12 September – 20 December | Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow
Words: Simon Cartwright
Image Credits:
1. Roman Manfredi, TRA.
2. Sayuri Ichida, 空席 (Kūseki).
3. Sayuri Ichida, 空席 (Kūseki).
4. Roman Manfredi, TRA.
5. Roman Manfredi, TRA.
6. Sayuri Ichida, 空席 (Kūseki).
7. Sayuri Ichida, 空席 (Kūseki).
