LONDON - UK
BONGEREH PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2025
Theme: Cultural Heritage & Environmental Change
Theme:
Cultural Heritage & Environmental Change
Through The Lens of Emerging Artists
About the Competition
The BONGEREH open call photography competition 2025 focuses on cultural heritage and environmental change. What do disappearing rituals, vanishing landscapes, and ancestral stories have in common? They are all facing the quiet force of climate and environmental change.
This international open call invites emerging photographers to spotlight these transformations through their lens. We welcome works that reflect how traditions, places, and identities are being reshaped or protected in a changing world.
Explore the Digital Artbook
Discover the full series, artist statements, and jury reflections.
Curatorial Credits
Curated & Produced by
Curator & Project Lead:
Advisory & Pre-selection Support:
Selected Works - Winners 2025
Fernando Izaguirre
Title: Sembrando Flores
Full series, artist statement, and jury insights are available in the Digital Artbook.
Negin Jannatisefat
Title: Si-o-se-pol: Altered Context, Altered Meaning
Full series, artist statement, and jury insights are available in the Digital Artbook.
Mario Dib
Title: To walk is not to arrive but to remember.
Full series, artist statement, and jury insights are available in the Digital Artbook.
Honorable Mentions
JURY PANEL 2025
Ashley Cooper
Professional Environmental and Wildlife Photographer
Ashley Cooper has spent 14 years documenting climate change on every continent, building one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of climate change imagery. He is currently photographing every species of British bird. His work explores the intersection of climate change and wildlife, and he is particularly interested in how culture and environment are documented by participants. In 2010, he won the Climate Change category of the worldwide Environmental Photographer of the Year competition, and his acclaimed book Images From a Warming Planet (2016) was shortlisted for the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” (2021). Cooper’s images are regularly published in international books, newspapers, and magazines, including as front covers for major UK outlets. He has also served as a judge for the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2018.
Raquel Villar-Pérez
Independent Researcher and Curator
Raquel Villar-Pérez is an independent researcher and curator whose work explores expanded photography, migration, decoloniality, and the practices of women artists. She focuses on women-identified image-makers who address themes of migration, transnational feminisms, social and environmental justice through original and expansive approaches. As a juror, she is particularly excited to see visual practices of care that safeguard endangered traditions at this ecological turning point. Villar-Pérez has served on the jury of prestigious photography awards, including the Photography Network Book Prize and Project Grant Awards 2024, as well as the Hasselblad Award 2025, the largest international photography prize for a living artist.
Ali Zanjani
Multidisciplinary Artist and Visual Archivist
Ali Zanjani is a multidisciplinary artist working across landscape photography and audiovisual archives. His practice often re-examines images to uncover new perspectives on culture, identity, and the passage of time; echoing his belief that “we do not remain, yet only our photograph endures.” As a juror, he is eager to see images of nature, culture, and identity viewed through diverse perspectives. Zanjani’s projects have been shown at major venues including Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Sursock Museum, CODA Museum, and the Mucem Museum. His work Life is Too Short is part of the Salsali Private Museum Collection, and he was awarded the 2023 miramART Prize. He has taken part in international festivals and residencies in Brazil, France, and the UAE.
Discover Full Stories
Explore complete series, artist statements, and jury reflections.
About the 2025 Photography Open Call
Benefits for Selected Artists
- Publication in our Digital Artbook
- Spotlight on BONGEREH’s social platforms
- Certificate of Selection
- Invitation to BONGEREH’s 2026 Annual Exhibition in London
Keywords for inspiration:
Who can submit:
- No age limit
- No submission fee
- Digital & analog accepted
What to Submit
PHOTOS:
One photograph or a coherent series of up to 4 (must relate to each other and the theme)
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Max. 150 words
FORMAT:
3:2 ratio, min. 3000px longest side, 300 dpi, JPEG/PNG