© Flora Vever, OpenWalls 2023 single image winner
In an award held in partnership with WePresent, four photographers will be chosen to exhibit at Galerie Huit Arles in July alongside Les Rencontres d’Arles. Enter now.
In Constance Jaeggi’s portrait series Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home, the photographer celebrates the modern Latina women flipping the script on Mexico’s hyper-masculine tradition of charrería (a rodeo-style show of horse sports). Zhang Xiao’s hometown project Community Fire explores how contemporary tourism is affecting the centuries-old Chinese Spring Festival tradition of Shehuo (社火). Or Ken Grant’s documentary series No Pain Whatsoever serves as a record of the everyday working class traditions of 1980s Liverpool under threat from Thatcherism.
As the 2025 edition of OpenWalls opens for entries, all three projects might serve as rich inspiration for this year’s theme: ‘Traditions in Transition’. This year’s award seeks to shine a light on the ever-evolving interplay between heritage and contemporary life, interrogating how modernity is affecting cultural customs and practices – sometimes in ways that are harmonic and beautiful; others in ways that might be more fraught.
Now in its fifth edition, OpenWalls is an international photography award designed to elevate the careers of photographers by exhibiting their work in prestigious and historic locations around the world.
In collaboration with Galerie Huit Arles, OpenWalls is set to return to the 17th-century mansion and art space, where the winning works will be exhibited alongside Les Rencontres d’Arles, photography’s premier annual festival.


“Discovering the work of emerging photographers and exploring how artists approach existing narratives in fresh and complex ways teaches us to see the world anew, and has always been a highlight of my role”
– Holly Fraser, Editor-in-Chief of WePresent
For the first time, OpenWalls is privileged to be partnering with WePresent on a landmark edition of the award. WePresent is the Academy Award-winning arts platform of WeTransfer, acting as the company’s cultural torchbearer and creative commissioning body. Collaborating with emerging young talent as well as renowned artists, WePresent showcases the best in art, photography, film, music and more, championing diversity in everything it does.
“Discovering the work of emerging photographers and exploring how artists approach existing narratives in fresh and complex ways teaches us to see the world anew, and has always been a highlight of my role,” says Holly Fraser, editor-in-chief of WePresent, and a judge of this year’s award. “I look forward to seeing how OpenWalls entrants continue to push the boundaries of how we perceive photography today.”
As ever, the award offers a far-reaching platform for industry recognition through its judges. Joining Holly on the panel this year are Dalia Al-Dujaili, online editor of British Journal of Photography; Julia de Bierre, gallery director at Galerie Huit Arles; Daphne Chouliaraki Milner, culture director of Atmos; Tosin Adeosun, curator and founder of African Style Archive, and Ken Grant, the photographer and writer behind No Pain Whatsoever and decades of other acclaimed documentary work.


So, how to interpret ‘Traditions in Transition’? It could be simple, such as subtle changes in cultural dress, or innovative, like the fusion of ancient rituals with new technologies. It might speak to the transformation of cultural spaces and places over time, or the positive subversion of traditions that feel outdated. Maybe it captures how people are holding on to sacred parts of their history in the face of accelerated capitalism, globalisation, or digitisation; or how political shifts or climate change are impacting everyday communities. However you interpret it, at the heart of the work will be a dialogue between past and present. Change and continuity. The existing and the evolving.
“We seem to be in an age of upheaval and technological change,” muses judge Ken Grant, who trained under Martin Parr, and whose chronicling of the British working class has placed him in the same great British tradition of the likes of Chris Killip and Graham Smith. “It’s an age in which the things we thought we were sure of are often no longer certain… Photography might just be the perfect medium to engage with such changes, and to find a way to bring us new perspectives on the world we’re heading for.”
“I’m particularly excited to see entries that embrace nuance and explore the liminal spaces where transformation occurs,” says judge Daphne Milner, who, alongside her work at Atmos, also covers photography and fashion for the likes of Vogue, Dazed and i-D. “These are the moments where tradition and modernity fuse, where the old and new coexist, and where the boundaries between preservation and innovation clash. It’s in these in-between spaces that the most compelling visual stories often emerge – stories that challenge assumptions, spark dialogue, and reveal unexpected connections.”


Among last year’s OpenWalls winners were Ghanaian photographer Carlos Idun-Tawiah and Latvian-Lithuanian artist Krista Svalbonas. Responding to the theme ‘Truth’, Idun-Tawiah’s captivating series Sunday Special served as a requiem of childhood memories, using a unique cultural vernacular to capture the ‘ethos’ of Sundays throughout his Christian Ghanaian upbringing. Meanwhile, Svalbonas’ textile-inspired winning series, What Remains, studied the relationship between Soviet architecture and the tens of thousands of Baltic refugees who went years without a permanent home after fleeing a life under communism. Other OpenWalls alumni include the likes of Heather Agyepong, Maria Lax, Aria Shahrokhshahi, Frederic Aranda and many more.
In this year’s Stories category, one photographer will be selected to exhibit a full body of work at Galerie Huit Arles in July. Travel* and accommodation for Arles will be funded for them to attend the private view of their show. In the Single Image category, three photographers will be selected to exhibit standalone images. All winners will be featured on the British Journal of Photography website, and have their work circulated among our extensive press list.
Spanning generations, geographies, style and subject matter, OpenWalls Spotlight: BJP × WePresent aims to paint a portrait of a changing world. But one that champions connection to its roots. So show us stories of history and heritage, culture and identity, resilience and adaptation. Show us tradition in transition – however it looks through your lens.