In 2024, the British Journal of Photography surveyed over 1,000 members of their audience. The findings revealed that, on average, women working behind the camera earned 30% less than their male counterparts, whilst 55% had experienced gender discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, only 34% of major photography award winners have been women over the past five years. This is despite the fact that an estimated 80% of photography graduates are women. In recent years, several prizes, intuitions and projects have sprung up – each one aiming to address this glaring inequality and work towards gender justice in the field of contemporary art. Places like Hundred Heroines, a gallery and charity dedicated to women in photography, present exhibitions that amplify overlooked voices. Meanwhile, prizes such as Magnum’s Inge Morath Award, Sony World Photography Award’s Alpha Female Award and the V&A Parasol Foundation Prize all champion women and nonbinary photographers from around the world.
Another prize at the forefront of this scene is Female in Focus, which was launched in 2019 by 1854 Media, the home of British Journal of Photography, to give a platform to the exceptional work of women artists. This year’s prize received thousands of submissions, with an international jury selecting winning images that fit the 2026 theme of On the Cusp. Together, the photographers explore lives and landscapes at moments of change through poignant and thought-provoking imagery. A new exhibition at Dublin’s International Centre for the Image brings together the two series winners, Laetitia Vançon and Giya Makondo-Wills, alongside a shortlist of 21 single-image winners.
Series winner Diya Mokondo-Wills’ New Scramble examines the rapid extension of data centres across South Africa in what the artist describes as a modern “scramble” for Africa. Predominantly set in Johannesburg, with work extending into the Limpopo and Cape provinces, the project considers how patterns of extraction historically tied to land and minerals may now be replicated through data infrastructure. Data centres are vast facilities housing servers that power cloud services, streaming and AI, and they demand immense energy and water resources, raising questions about sustainability and equity. New Scramble features portraits, landscapes and metaphorical imagery to reflect on how stories travel, from oral traditions to fibre-optic cables beneath the sea, and what it means to control the channels through which culture and identity are transmitted. Mokondo-Wills says: “How we communicate is changing – if we don’t own the channels we use to communicate, we don’t own the stories, language, identity and culture. What are the implications of this in 100 or 200 years? Could it erase our history?”
Fellow series winner Laetitia Vançon presents a poignant portrait of Ukrainian youth living through war. The Other Battlefields began in June 2022, six months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, when Vançon photographed graduates in Odesa dancing among sandbags erected for protection. The image became a catalyst for a wider exploration of young people “standing between two world – the life they imagines and the life the war has imposed on them.” Rather than focusing on frontlines, the artist turns her lens towards daily persistence: maritime students continuing their studies, volunteers crafting bulletproof vests and young people navigate friendship, education and love under the weight of the conflict. In the threshold between childhood and adulthood, past and future, Vançon reveals the enduring imprint of war.
Together, the winning and shortlisted artists capture life in flux. Their projects reveal the realities of today’s technological shifts and the new forms of warfare that are shaping contemporary life. It’s a rapidly changing world, and authentic photography is more important than ever. The camera documents historic moments, brings unseen lives to light and, in light of advancement in artificial intelligence, capture raw, unfiltered reality. These women are at the forefront of this movement, both proving to be vital voices.
On the Cusp is at International Centre for the Image, Dublin until 25 October: image.museum
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Laetitia Vançon, The Other Battlefields.
2. Giya Makondo-Wills, New Scramble.
3. Angela Cappetta, Unbraiding.
4. Giya Makondo-Wills, New Scramble.
5. Oda Fjellang, Whale belly in ice.
