25/07/2024

Thursday 24th July 2024

The judging panel includes last year’s competition winner Francesca Hummler, London-based artist and writer Anthony Luvera, and ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’ Vanley Burke

Following the success of last year’s photography competition and exhibition ‘Freedom’, the National Justice Museum in Nottingham has launched ‘Picture This: Hope’ - a new photography exhibition and competition at the museum, with the chance for one entrant to win a £1,000 prize. The museum has today announced the three prestigious judges who will be awarding the £1000 Creative Residency Prize, and the Young Persons Award – Anthony Luvera, Francesca Hummler and Vanley Burke.

The open call for black and white photography is open to all, from professionals to amateurs, around the theme of ‘Hope’. The submissions will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Justice Museum from November 2024, curated to explore the notion of hope from multiple perspectives. The open call is free to enter, and entries close on 15 September 2024. All entries will be presented in the exhibition, regardless of experience or equipment – whether you have an up-to-the-minute digital SLR camera or are taking photographs on your smartphone.

There are three amazing opportunities available - The People’s Choice Award, open to everyone and selected by public vote; and two prizes awarded by the judges - The Creative Residency Prize with a £1000 budget; and The Young Persons Award, open to people aged 10 to 18 years old at the point of entry, with a first prize of £100.

Anthony Luvera is a socially engaged artist, writer and educator based in London. The long-term collaborative work he creates with individuals and communities has been exhibited widely in galleries, public spaces, and festivals, including Tate Liverpool, The Gallery at Foyles, British Museum, London Underground’s Art on the Underground, National Portrait Gallery London, Four Corners, Belfast Exposed Photography, Australian Centre for Photography, PhotoIreland, Malmö Fotobiennal, Goa International Photography Festival, Oslo Negative, and Landskrona Foto Festival. His writing has appeared in a range of publications including Trigger, Photography and Culture, Visual Studies, Photoworks, Source, and Photographies.

Anthony is Associate Professor of Photography in the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University, and editor of Photography For Whom?, a periodical about socially engaged photography. Anthony is Chair of the Education Committee at the Royal Photographic Society, and a Trustee of Photofusion. He has designed education and mentorship programmes, facilitated workshops, and given lectures for the public education departments of National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Magnum, Royal Academy of Arts, The Photographers’ Gallery, Barbican Art Gallery, and community photography projects across the UK.

Winner of last year’s Creative Residency Prize, Francesca Hummler is a German-American visual artist, writer, researcher, and curator working with photography currently based in London, England. She received her B.A. in Media Arts and B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California at San Diego in 2019. She earned a Master's in Photography with distinction for her dissertation, "American Identity and Photographic Healing", from The Royal College of Art in London, England, in 2022. Interested in issues regarding identity, she draws from her experience as the daughter of German immigrants in the United States to explore the archive, familial intimacy, and generational trauma through her images. Influenced by the concept of photo-therapy Francesca often utilizes self-portraiture to untangle her sense of self. Since 2022 Hummler has been the Community Manager at Der Greif, an organization for contemporary photography based in Munich, where she leads initiatives designed to support emerging photographers on an international stage.

In 2021 she was selected as one of the laureates of the Carte Blanche Étudiants award and displayed her work at Paris Photo. In 2022, she won the Young Talent Award from the Vonovia Award for Photography and had her work displayed in the Sprengel Museum. Her work was collected by the Odunpazarı Modern Museum in Türkiye, featured in the Hamburg-based magazine Photonews, and she was interviewed by Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Her series “Das Kuckucksei” or “The Cuckoo's Egg” was also published in the January 2024 issue of Artforum magazine. Her next solo exhibition, "Rituals", will open on October 4, 2024, at the Crypt Gallery in London.

Vanley Burke has lived and worked in Birmingham since 1965, when he moved as a child to the UK from St. Thomas, Jamaica. Often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British photography,’ Burke is one of Britain’s foremost photographers, renowned for creating powerful imagery that exhibits great empathy for his subjects and challenges negative stereotypes toward British Black communities.

Over a decades-long career, Burke has received much praise within the UK and internationally, especially for his striking images of Birmingham, his home city. Burke has had recent solo shows across Birmingham, most recently at Ikon Gallery (2022 & 2015) and Soho House (2022 & 2013 as well as in more publicly accessible settings such as community centres, pubs and churches across the city. Recent London shows have included at the Victoria & Albert Museum and Whitechapel Gallery. In 2022, Burke was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award for his contribution to Visual Art. His works are held in various collections, including the Tate and the Arts Council, and his personal archive, the Vanley Burke Archive, was recently deposited at the Library of Birmingham.

Aimee Wilkinson, Head of Creative Programmes at the National Justice Museum, said “We are absolutely delighted to have such internationally recognised and renowned judges for this year’s Picture This: Hope photography competition. All bring an exciting breadth of perspectives, experience and expertise to the role. The judges will be responsible for choosing the winner of the Creative Residency Prize with a £1000 budget; and our inaugural Young Persons Award, open to people aged 10 to 18 years old at the point of entry. We’re so excited to be working with Anthony, Francesca and Vanley, raising the profile of artists, celebrating photographers throughout the UK and exhibiting their interpretation of Hope.”

Find out more