Awa Konaté is an independent curator, art consultant, and founder of Culture Art Society (CAS), a platform dedicated to research, exhibitions, and critical discourse on African and diasporic visual arts. Her practice spans acquisitions, collection strategy, commissions, and exhibition-making, and is grounded in archival research, Black feminist pedagogies, and memory work. She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary and lens-based practices, with a focus on artists of African descent and their resonance within global contemporary art as a framework for relational knowledge production. Konaté has curated and co-curated several exhibitions, among them the touring retrospective James Barnor: Accra / London – A Retrospective (2021–2023), Diasporic Frequencies: Sacred Ecopoetics (2023), and Jeannette Ehlers — Archives in the Tongue: A Litany of Freedoms (2022), as well as other internationally focused projects. Her work engages critically with questions of representation, historiography, and the circulation of images across geographies. She has also served as a jury member for the Rencontres de Bamako (2024) and the BlackStar Film Festival (2023–2025). She has curated, consulted, and developed projects with institutions including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Serpentine Galleries, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Raven Row, and the Barbican. Alongside her curatorial practice, she has guest lectured at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her writing has been widely published, with contributions to Third Text, Foam Magazine, and Phaidon, as well as to publications by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Zeitz MOCAA, Sternberg Press, the Brooklyn Museum, and others. Photo credit: ©Stéphane Valére (Akekusu)

An art writer, editor, and curator at the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest since 2018, Emese Mucsi is currently undertaking a PhD in the Film, Media, and Contemporary Culture program at Eötvös Loránd University. She is also a recipient of the Director’s Fellowship (2026) at the International Center of Photography (ICP), where she is studying Curatorial Practices in Photography. She is the member of Global Photographies Network since 2020, and went on to found DOXA Budapest exhibition space and editorial den in 2022. She is a contributor of various art publications like FOMU’s Trigger magazine (2023), OVER Journal (2025), British Journal of Photography (2025), and The Routledge Companion to Global Photographies book (2025) and Hungary’s leading art magazine, Artmagazin (2012–), Glamour Hungary magazine (2022–). She is a guest lecturer at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and the University of Szeged. She served as the Artistic Director for Visual Arts at the Hungary L!ve Festival in New York City (2025).

Since 2005, the Fetart collective has championed and promoted emerging European photography. As the founder of the Circulation(s) festival, the Fetart collective also carries out original projects throughout the year, either of its own creation or commissioned by external institutions (art centers, cultural institutes abroad, galleries, etc.). In all the initiatives it implements or supports, Fetart champions a form of photography that is unconventional, free, and open to dialogue across artistic, geographical, and political boundaries. The artistic direction of the projects is led by seven women who are specialists in emerging photography. All are driven by shared convictions and a common vision: an unconditional commitment to emerging talent, an interest in exploring the new European scene, a dedication to supporting young photographers, and a desire to innovate and provoke thought. Since its inception, Fetart has organized over 40 exhibitions and presented more than 500 French and international artists. A true springboard for launching their careers, it has enabled many of them to flourish and provided them with a foothold in the art market. Over the years, Fetart has developed recognized expertise in the field of photography and has established itself as an essential reference in the French cultural scene. Photo credit: ©Juliette Paulet

Gideon Mendel is a world-renowned photographer, artist and activist. His forty years of socially engaged photographic practice amount to a profound act of witnessing. His partisan projects are made with the intention to be of use, to both record the world we live in, and also to change it. He began his career as a traditional documentary photographer, but driven by the imperatives of the issues he confronts his work has consistently evolved. He has never been content to stay wedded to one photographic genre; throughout his career he has been pushing at the limits of photographic practice, challenging himself and his audience to breach boundaries and expectations. With compassion and visual ingenuity, he has captured the human experience behind some of the most significant issues facing his generation; from the struggle against apartheid in South Africa to the tragedy and hope of HIV/AIDS through to climate change. For the last nineteen years with his Drowning World and Burning World projects he has been developing a deeply personal yet methodical approach to documenting our global climate crisis, illustrating how its impacts transcend boundaries of wealth, class, ethnicity and geography. Amongst many awards, Mendel has received the Jackson Pollock Prize for Creativity, the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography, the Greenpeace Photo Award, the Amnesty International Media Award and six World Press awards. He has been shortlisted twice for the Prix Pictet (2015 and 2019) and the Oscar Barnack Award (2017 and 2025).

At the crossroads of several photographic worlds, and drawing on his experience with institutions and photographers, Gilles Cargueray has developed numerous projects from their initial conception to their realization, including their structuring and production. Independent curator for the Xposure Festival in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, he had the opportunity to exhibit the documentary work of Anush Babajanyan, Fatma Almosa, Kiana Hayeri, Lys Arango, Carlo Borlenghi, M'hammed Kilito, Pascal Maitre, Philippe Chancel, and others. In just 10 editions, the Xposure Festival has become one of the world's largest photography festivals. The 2026 edition hosted over 420 international photographers, 125 conferences, and 72 workshops, including one on publishing photography books led by Gilles. Nominator for the Global Focus Project, an annual prize highlighting photographers from six different continents. Series by Ana Maria Arevelo Gosen, Alessandro Cinque, and Kechun Zhang, among others, were selected by him. Until recently, as editorial director of Éditions Odyssée, he edited forty books, each project structured individually, from editorial vision to printing, to perfectly translate the artist's vision. Under his leadership, Éditions Odyssée has gained recognition within the profession, and significant partnerships have been established with the Fondation des Treilles, the Fondation MRO, the CCFD Terre Solidaire Photography Prize, and the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie (Heritage and Photography Library). The publishing house's visibility has also increased tenfold with a greater presence in renowned bookstores and at international festivals such as the Rencontres d’Arles, Images Vevey, and Offprint. A graduate of ESSEC Business School with a Master's degree in Luxury and Creative Brand Management, he joined Leica Camera France as Brand Marketing Manager, overseeing the brand's digital and promotional activities. He then moved to Leica's global headquarters in Wetzlar as Brand Partnership Manager, where he developed strategic projects with partners such as BMW Group Culture and the Italian brand Ermenegildo Zegna. He also organized the Leica Talks for several years, allowing more than 50 international photographers to present their work at the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival. His ability to bring projects to fruition has enabled him to organize several exhibitions at the Paris Bar Association and the Durev Gallery, among others, and to develop editorial projects for foundations and photographers (Delivering Good Foundation, Fondation des Treilles, Édouard Elias, Lys Arango, Laura Bonnefous, etc.). Gilles Cargueray participates in numerous juries and portfolio reviews throughout the year (Rencontres d'Arles, Visa pour l'Image, Xposure, CCFD Terres Solidaires, Off Arles, Carré sur Seine, Fondation des Treilles, etc.).

Inês Grosso is a Portuguese curator currently based in Porto and Chief Curator of the Serralves Foundation’s Museum of Contemporary Art. She previously worked at the Inhotim Institute (Brazil) and was part of the founding curatorial team at MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon), where she coordinated international projects and contributed to defining the programme and artistic vision of the newly established museum. Her curatorial practice focuses primarily on issues of gender and sexuality, LGBTQIA+ identity, the legacies of colonialism and anti-colonial thought, as well as the politics of the body and memory. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with artists such as Anne Imhof, Zanele Muholi, Rivane Neuenschwander, Pedro Reyes, Grada Kilomba, João Pedro Vale and Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Cinthia Marcelle, Filipa César and Allora & Calzadilla, amongst others, contributing to a vision of museums as critical spaces attentive to the urgencies of the present. Photo Credit ©Vasco Stocker Vilhena

Valeria Posada-Villada is a historian and curator specialising in photography, performance and arts from Latin America & The Caribbean. She is currently responsible for managing the photography collection of the World Museum, in the Netherlands. Prior to her current position, Valeria worked as curator of Public Practice at Foam and curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Museum of Colombia, supporting the work of emerging and established talents alike through exhibitions and public programs. Photo Credit ©Milo Gil

London-based curator, writer and scholar Renée Melanie Mussai harnesses the transformative power of art for social advocacy and as a catalyst for transformation. Working through a Black feminist lens, Renée initially pursued an interdisciplinary humanities degree at the University of Vienna before transferring to London College of Printing, now known as London College of Communication, where she studied photographic practice and theory. Her approach to curation is rooted in artist-centred advocacy, immersive programming and embodied visual activism. During her 2-decade long tenure as Senior Curator and Head of Collection & Curatorial at arts charity Autograph, she organised many critically-acclaimed exhibitions worldwide – championing contemporary artists such as Zanele Muholi, Lola Flash, Lina Iris Viktor, Phoebe Boswell and Aida Silvestri through commissions, acquisitions and publications, while leading pioneering archive, research and educational initiatives. Her curated group and solo exhibitions range from the first-ever retrospective of veteran photographer James Barnor (2010) to Mickalene Thomas: All About Love (2024) and I See the Face of Things to Come (2023) for R/evolutions, 14th edition of PhotoIreland Festival. Former Artistic Director/Chief Curator of The Walther Collection, and visiting guest curator / non-resident fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Renée currently acts as Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg’s Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), Chair of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation’s advisory council, Trustee of the Centre for British Photography and Getty Images’ Black History and Culture Collection, alongside teaching. An esteemed writer, editor and educator, Renée’s publications include the award-winning monographs Lina Iris Viktor: Dark Matter—Some Are Born to Endless Night (Autograph, 2021) and Zanele Muholi: Hail, the Dark Lioness (Aperture, 2018, 2024). Her edited book Black Chronicles—Photography, Race & Difference in Victorian Britain (Thames & Hudson/Autograph) was published in 2025 and the sole-authored Eyes that Commit—A Visual Gathering (Prestel) is forthcoming in 2026.