African-Irish Artist Residency Award 2024-25

Photo Museum Ireland is delighted to announce the selected recipients of the African-Irish Artist Residency Award 2024-25. African-Irish artists and artists with African heritage living or making work in Ireland were invited to apply by submitting a recent photographic series or body of work on a coherent theme or subject.

We are proud to congratulate Ishmael Claxton, Sabrina Faria, and Tolu Ogunware on being selected for this prestigious award. These three talented artists were chosen by an international panel of curators with expertise in African photography.

Ismael Claxton

Sabrina Faria

Tolu Ogunware

The 3 selected award-winning artists will each receive:

An exhibition opportunity to exhibit their submitted work as part of the Contemporary African Photography Prize exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland in July/August 2024.
Curatorial mentoring from our expert curatorial team and selected guest mentors to develop their artistic practices and create a new body of work for exhibition at the end of the 9-month presidency as part of our New Talents Exhibition and publication in 2025

Specialist artists’ professional development and training workshops

The African-Irish Artist Residency Award is a prestigious initiative established by Photo Museum Ireland to support and amplify the voices of African-Irish artists and those with African heritage living in Ireland. This award seeks to foster creativity, artistic exchange, and professional growth by providing artists with the resources and opportunities needed to advance their artistic practices. Designed to highlight and showcase these artists’ unique perspectives, this award provides a platform to present and develop their work. We believe that great photography is for everyone, and we are committed to supporting the creative potential within the African-Irish community.

International Curator Panel:

Ala Kheir (Copy)

Anne Nwakalor (Copy)

John Fleetwood (Copy)

Ala Kheir is a photographer based in Khartoum, Sudan. Through photography, Kheir actively engages with the city of Khartoum, creating personal perspectives and narratives about his immediate space. His work has been showcased in various African and worldwide spaces. Kheir runs The Other Vision (TOV), a photography platform that focuses on photography education and training in Sudan. Through this, he assists young photographers and connects Sudanese artists to the rest of the continent. Through TOV, Kheir engages with the public in an attempt to address social issues and change in Sudan.
Anne Nwakalor is the Founding Editor of No! Wahala Magazine is one of Africa's first-ever contemporary photography magazines dedicated to showcasing authentic visual stories by African creatives. She is also a Photo Editor and presently works as a Communication Officer within the art space in the UK.
John Fleetwood (b. 1970, South Africa) is a photography curator, educator, and director of Photo; a multi-operation platform for the development and promotion of socially engaged photography work, projects, photographers, and critical visual culture. He recently curated ‘Five Photographers: A tribute to David Goldblatt’ exhibited in various cities including Johannesburg, Maputo, and Bamako (2018-2019). In 2017, he was guest editor for Aperture’s Platform Africa edition. From 2002-2015 Fleetwood was the director of the Market Photo Workshop. He lives and works in Johannesburg.

Photo Museum Ireland - supporting diverse artists' practices in Ireland.
This African-Irish photography Award is a new initiative developed as part of our wider Artists’ Diversity support programmes established in 2022. Since then we have supported residencies, artists’ commissions, training workshops and exhibition opportunities which include; the Diversity Commission in partnership with DCC and Creative Ireland for 5 artists in Dublin; Creative Ireland Traveller Wellbeing project led by Martin Beanz Warde, Silvina Sisterna and the Napantla project, a two-year DIversity residency for Barialai Khoshhal and outreach workshops for people with special needs.

Photo Museum Ireland is the leading voice for photography in Ireland. The institution is dedicated to fostering a dynamic culture of photographic practice across a broad-range of platforms. Established as ‘The Gallery of Photography’ in 1978 by John Osman, the organisation has grown to become one of Ireland’s most loved arts organisations.