The artists nominated by

Henri Kisielewski is a self-taught French-British photographer based in London. His work addresses the relationship between images to the real world – broadly speaking he makes photographs about photography. Research-led and informed by his studies in human geography, Henri’s work explores themes of memory, photographic representation and the porous boundary between fact and fiction in documentary media. Working primarily with medium format film and allowing room for chance, Henri’s practice is characterised by a documentary approach based on a conceptual framework. Henri is currently working on a new ambitious and multi-faceted project in New York State: a collective portrait of Agloe, a fictional town that came to exist in the real world. Through a variety of visual strategies – photographs, archive images, video interviews – the work probes the ‘documentary’ image in a post-truth era.

Nazlı Yıldırım was born in Ankara and is living in Ireland. She studied at Istanbul University Faculty of Letters. After teaching for a while, she worked as an editor in the publishing industry. Nazlı’s articles have been published in various magazines, newspapers and online platforms in Greece, Belgium and Turkey. Nazlı released her first photo fanzine called Hayret. Her creative journey involves documenting the impact of factors like class, culture, gender, sexual identity, and family dynamics on societies. Through the lens of her own life, she delves into subjects such as gender, cultural identity, discrimination, and the experiences of LGBTI+ communities.

Irish artist Shane Hynan holds an MFA in Photography (Ulster University, 2019). His practice centres on photography with experimental elements in sound, video, collage, and sculpture. The metaphorical exploration of place, land and architecture is a significant subtext throughout his work. He draws upon conceptual, performative and subjective documentary approaches and works primarily with analogue photography processes as it enhances an emotional and intuitive connection with landscape and topography. He has shown his work extensively in Ireland and received multiple awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Ireland, and Kildare Arts. He has exhibited internationally in China, Germany, and the UK, and was shortlisted for the Royal Photographic Society IPE162, IPE163 and IPE166. In 2024 he undertook residencies at the Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris, France), and at the Roscommon Arts Centre (Roscommon, Ireland).

Tudor Rhys Etchells uses the photograph to challenge fictions created by legal systems. Working within such a bureaucracy in his previous role as a human rights lawyer inspires his closeness to the document and the brutally mundane. For him, the photographic medium, with its own cumbersome structures of viewing and representing, appears the best match for understanding processes that construct the imagined norms of our society. Embracing photography’s performative element, he deconstructs our conceptions of visual knowledge. He achieved a Distinction in MA Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales during which he was awarded the Reginald Salisbury grant. Recently he was awarded an Arts Council of Wales Research and Development grant to fund a residency and his first solo exhibition at BayArt, Cardiff. He is based in Cardiff and an associate artist of BayArt gallery.

Zoe is a photographer from Co. Antrim, now living in Edinburgh. Zoe is interested in the relationship between humans and the environment, as well as the systems of classification that we use to make sense of the world around us. She works on long term photographic projects, drawing on scientific and historic research as well as lived experience to tell a story about a place or subject. Her background research has been informed by photography’s history as a tool of imperialism and this is something that she works to recognise and subvert within her photographic practice. She currently teaches on the Stills School, an alternative education programme for young people and is a visiting lecturer at Queen Margaret University. She has received funding from Edinburgh City Council and the Richard & Siobhan Coward Foundation and was recently included in Fantasy Island, a publication documenting the last 50 years of photography in Ireland. Zoe participated in PhotoIreland's New Irish Works III between 2019 and 2021.