STREET LIFE INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY SHANA LOPES

Shana Lopes is a highly experienced art historian and curator based at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMoMA, following roles in commercial photography studios, as well as at both the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In her current role she has organized exhibitions such as Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Sea Change, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, and the SECA 2024 Art Award.

She holds a PhD in History of Photography, and has a particular passion for work that explores identity, under-represented communities, climate change, as well as photographic work that uses alternative processes and blurs the boundaries between media.

IMAGES © SHANA LOPES / SF MoMA

PLANET EARTH INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY MYRTILLE DELAMARCHE

Myrtille Delamarche is Editor in Chief at renowned magazine and environmental photography platform GEO, where she works at the intersection of photography, journalism and environmental storytelling, and brings a strongly international background shaped by years of reporting across Africa, Asia and South America.

With a strong editorial sensibility and a passion for long-form narrative storytelling, she helps shape stories that explore the natural world and our relationship with it. Trained as a journalist before moving into photo editing and then field reporting for a variety of environmental, scientific and industrial press, she has built a career on work that requires both visual rigor and contextual awareness – balancing aesthetic strength with journalistic integrity.

Her deep experience in photography, journalism, science and global reporting makes her a thoughtful and exacting judge for a theme devoted to Planet Earth.

IMAGES © MYRTILLE DELAMARCHE / GEO

HUMANS INSPIRATIONAL GALLERY

COMPETITION JUDGED BY GMB AKASH

GMB Akash is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer whose work centres on capturing the essence of people living on the edges of society around the world. Known for his deeply human approach to visual storytelling, his photographs focus on dignity, resilience and the emotional realities of everyday life.

Working across long-term projects, Akash documents social inequality, labour, migration and survival, often spending extended periods with his subjects to build trust and understanding. His images have been widely featured in publications such as Vogue, TIME, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The Economist and Marie Claire, and have been recognized with major awards, including honours from World Press Photo, the Lucie Awards, PDN and UNESCO. He is a regular juror, public speaker, reviewer, workshop leader and teacher, founding his own non-profit Institute of Photography in Bangladesh in 2013.

Human experience lies at the core of Akash’s practice. With an unwavering focus on empathy, his work offers a powerful reminder of photography’s ability to connect us to one another, inspiring us to strive for a more just and equitable world.

IMAGES © GMB AKASH