Photo London is pleased to announce the four students shortlisted for the 2026 award. This year, more than 80 students were nominated by course tutors at UK universities, with the final shortlist selected by a judging panel comprising Fiona Shields, Head of Photography at The Guardian; Lisa Springer, Curator of Photography at the V&A; photographer Mimi Mollica; and Kimberly Hoang, Picture Editor at the British Red Cross.
The shortlisted artists are Anna Bradshaw, Birmingham City University; Akanksya Dahal, Ravensbourne University London; Bo Fan, London College of Communication; and Madison Hafner, Falmouth University.
Working across documentary, conceptual photography, portraiture and constructed image-making, the shortlisted artists reflect the breadth of contemporary photographic practice emerging from UK courses today.
Anna Bradshaw’s project, I Don’t Know Where You Start and I End, explores twinhood, identity and illness through a conceptual practice that sits at the intersection of art and health. Influenced by psychology, scientific research and the principles of photo therapy, Bradshaw uses photography as a means of reflection, communication and wellbeing, with her wider practice also engaging with technologies such as thermal imaging.
Akanksya Dahal’s A Moment Left Unsaid: Stillness Amidst the Crowd draws on documentary photography and street photography to explore the quiet, often overlooked moments that shape everyday life. A London-born Nepalese photographer specialising in photojournalism and portraiture, Dahal combines patience, observation and a cinematic sense of light and atmosphere to find emotional resonance in ordinary scenes.
Bo Fan’s Wandering In The Desire Room reflects on growing up queer in East Asia, using self-portraiture to reconstruct memories of adolescence and explore the relationship between desire, identity, visibility and cultural constraint. Through a queer lens, Fan’s work transforms personal experience into emotionally charged images that move between reality, reconstruction and self-repair.
Madison Hafner’s Untitled playfully explores the space between the tangible and the fictional. Working with constructed sets and handmade paper props, Hafner reframes familiar domestic motifs through scale, shadow and form, drawing on surrealism, abstraction, fine art and fashion to create images that feel both ordinary and artificial.
The shortlisted artists will have their work exhibited as part of a special display at Photo London, taking place at Olympia from 13 to 17 May 2026. The winner of the 2026 Photo London Student Award will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 15 May at 6pm.
