Announcing the 2019 IAFOR Documentary Photography Award Judging Panel

Multiple award-winning photographers, Poulomi Basu and Jenny Matthews join our Founding Judge, Dr Paul Lowe on this year's esteemed IAFOR Documentary Photography Award Judging Panel.

The award is now inviting submissions on the theme, “Reclaiming the Future”. We hope that the broad nature of this theme will encourage photographers to submit work from a variety of perspectives.

The final submission deadline is midnight on November 25, 2019 (Greenwich Mean Time – GMT). Applicants must be 30 years old or younger on November 25, 2019 OR enrolled in part-time or full-time education on November 25, 2019 (proof may be required).

In support of up-and-coming talent, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award is free to enter.


Our 2019 Judging Panel

Poulomi Basu

Poulomi Basu is an Indian transmedia artist, photographer and activist. Widely published and exhibited, her work explores the way in which the formation of identity becomes entwined with geopolitics, revealing the hidden power structures buried deep within our societies. In 2018 the Centralia work was recognised through the award of the Photographic Museum of Humanity Grant Main Prize. A Magnum Foundation Social Justice Fellow and grantee, Poulomi is known for advocating the rights of women through her work and in 2019 Amnesty International noted her as an important and brilliant ‘human rights activist’. She also featured on ‘The Conversation’ (BBC World Service) alongside Lynsey Addario as one of the most significant contemporary war photographers. Her immersive VR films, Blood Speaks, are collected and distributed by the Tribeca Film Institute.


Jenny Matthews

Jenny Matthews has spent over 30 years photographing conflict and social issues for British newspapers, magazines and development organisations, covering momentous historical events including the guerrilla war and Independence of Eritrea, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the genocide in Rwanda. Her book Women and War was published in 2003 by Pluto Press and the accompanying exhibition toured worldwide. In 2014 Hachette published her award winning work on children and conflict, Children Growing Up with War. She was a co-founder of Format, an agency of women photographers, then was a member of Network, a respected international agency, and is now is a member of Panos Photographers.


Paul Lowe

Our Founding Judge, Dr Paul Lowe is a Reader in Documentary Photography and the Course Leader of the Masters program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, UK. Paul is an award-winning photographer who has been published in TIME, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, amongst others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the destruction of Grozny.

His book, Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and post-war situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005 by Saqi books. His research interest focuses on the photography of conflict, and he has contributed chapters to the books Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis (Reaktion, 2012) and Photography and Conflict. His most recent books include Photography Masterclass published by Thames and Hudson, and Understanding Photojournalism, co-authored with Dr Jenny Good, published by Bloomsbury Academic Press.

Paul is an Emeritus Member of VII Photo Agency.

VIDEO: "Testimonies of Light: Photography, Witnessing and History" by Dr Paul Lowe.

Posted by IAFOR