Young Photographer Awards 2025
Join us in recognising the brightest young talents in photography with the Young Photographer Awards 2025. This is your chance to shine!
Isabella Danaher, 2024 Young Photographer Award Winner (Portrait) – reviews her work. Photo Siobhan McEnery-Danaher.
About the Award
The Young Photographer Awards 2025 is a national platform for young people aged 8–18 to explore and share their unique perspectives through photography. Hosted by Photo Museum Ireland and supported by IPUT, the award is dedicated to encouraging emerging talent and supporting the next generation of image-makers.
This initiative inspires creativity, celebrates originality, and provides an opportunity for young photographers to share their perspectives and exhibit their work on a national stage.
How to enter
Submissions can be made through the Young Photographer Awards Portal. The portal is now open and will close on the 28th of September 2025.
Who can enter:
Open to photographers aged 8-18 from across Ireland.
There are two age groups:
8-12 years
13-18 years
What you need:
Submissions can be made through our YPA portal.
You’ll be asked to upload:
- Up to 10 of your own original photographs
- A caption/title for your image
- Parent/guardian permission (required for all entrants)
Additional Requirements
If you are selected you will be asked for:
- High-resolution files available to share
- Short voice note explaining your work (we’ll help if needed!)
Award Categories
Young Photographer of the Year 2025
Awarded to the overall portfolio winner, recognising exceptional vision, creativity, and technical skill.
Rising Star Awards
Celebrating standout individual entries within each age group, highlighting emerging talent and originality.
Category Awards
Presented for outstanding work across a range of photographic styles — including portrait, landscape, nature, street, black & white, conceptual, and more.
Winning photographers will have their work displayed on outdoor exhibition panels in Dublin supported by IPUT, as part of a high-profile public exhibition curated by Photo Museum Ireland
Selected work will also be featured in a virtual exhibition on the Photo Museum Ireland website and shared across our social media channels – celebrating your creativity with wider audiences.
Meet the YPA 2025 Judging Panel
Ruth Medjber
Visual Artist & Professional Photographer
Dublin-born photographer Ruth Medjber has been capturing images since the age of three. From her early teens, she combined this passion with a deep love for alternative Irish music. During her honours year at Dublin Institute of Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Photography, Ruth regularly contributed to renowned publications such as Hot Press, NME, and Rolling Stone.
Operating from her portrait studio in Dublin, Ruth’s music photography portfolio boasts iconic artists including Grace Jones, Metallica, and the Foo Fighters. She has documented world tours for Hozier and Arcade Fire, and covered the Glastonbury Festival for the BBC, building close ties within the Irish and international music communities.
In recent years, Ruth’s practice has evolved towards fine art portraiture. Her debut book, Twilight Together, a poignant collection of portraits created during the Covid-19 pandemic, was nominated for an Irish Book Award.
Setanta Ballesty
Young Photographer Award Winner & Photography Student
Setanta Ballesty is a photographer currently based in Cork. In 2022, he won the Fótó na nÓg and went on to study Photography and New Media at MTU.
His work has been shown in a number of exhibitions nationally, including OXO and Radharc. Setanta’s work often focuses on themes such as the student experience and the environment, often emphasising ecological concerns and the interconnectedness of all things.
Tanya Kiang
Senior Curator, Photo Museum Ireland
Tanya Kiang is senior curator at the Photo Museum Ireland since 2022, where she previously led as Director since 1998. Photo Museum Ireland is the national centre for contemporary photography. With over twenty-five years experience, Kiang has curated exhibitions by many of the world’s major photographers, and has a keen interest in developing the audience for contemporary photography through publications, outreach and experimental digital projects. She is a jury member on numerous international photography panels and is a regular reviewer at international photo festivals.
Isabella Danaher
Young Photographer Award Winner & Journalism Student
Isabella Danaher is a student journalist and photographer from Ennis, Co. Clare. She won the Photojournalism category of the 2023 NewsBrands Ireland Press Pass Student Journalism Awards and, in 2024, the Portrait category of Photo Museum Ireland’s Young Photographer of the Year Awards. She is currently taking part in the prestigious Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Lyra McKee Bursary, a training programme for aspiring investigative journalists.
Key Dates
| Launch | Wednesday 27th of August |
| Deadline for Submissions | Sunday 28th of September |
| Winners Announced | October |