The winners of The Royal Photographic Society Awards for 2024 have been announced, and Dr Ingrid Pollard MBE, HonFRPS took the most prestigious honor.
She was awarded the RPS Centenary Medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the art of photography.
A founding member of Autograph ABP (the Association of Black Photographers), Pollard’s powerful photographic work during the 1980s evolved to use traditional genres such as portrait and landscape photography to explore important conventions and social constructs – particularly around themes such as race and identity.
The RPS was founded in 1853, when photography was in its infancy, with the aim of bringing art, science, and photography to the masses. Now in its 146th year, The Royal Photographic Society Awards are the world’s longest-running photography honors, recognizing individuals who champion both still and moving images.
Unlike some awards that recognize individual images, these awards celebrate the individual recipients themselves, highlighting their significant achievements, showcasing rising talents, and recognizing notable contributions by RPS members across a range of categories including photography, moving image, new media, science and imaging, education, publishing, and curation.
The full and extensive list of impressive recipients can be found on the RPS website, while below are a few of my favorites.
Samar Abu Elouf was the recipient of the RPS Award for Photojournalism, a new category this year, for her continuous and unwavering coverage of her home country of Palestine.
She has captured stories about gender, women’s and children's lives, and the consequences of war. She has worked as a freelance photojournalist since 2010, and completed assignments for the likes of Reuters and The New York Times among others. She covered the Great March of Return, the 2018 - 2019 Gaza border protests, and worked with Zuma Press to cover COVID-19 stories for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).
In May 2021, she covered the 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas for The New York Times in a conflict that destroyed essential infrastructure and killed more than 230 people, including several of her own relatives.
Darcy Padilla is an associate professor of art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a member photographer of Agence VU’ in Paris, and the recipient of the RPS Award for Editorial or Documentary Photography. She is known for her narrative work, and focuses on long-term projects that explore themes of struggle and the trans-generational effects of socio-economic issues.
Carolyn Mendelsohn is an artist and portrait photographer whose focus is telling stories and giving a voice to those often ignored by mainstream society and media. She is the recipient of the RPS Award for Photography with Young People.
She is recognized internationally for her work with young people, including her portrait series, exhibition, and book Being Inbetween – a series of portraits and stories of girls aged 10 - 12. She founded Through Our Lens, a workshop and mentoring program that enables people to tell their stories through the medium of photography, initially responding to the pandemic.
Sir Brian Pomeroy CBE, ARPS Chair of the judging panel, said:
"While the 2024 RPS Awards recipients reflect the diversity and breadth of the international photographic community, they are all united in celebrating photography's unique capacity to challenge societal perceptions and make complex issues both relatable and urgent."
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