NEW YORK, NY.- The Saltzman-Leibovitz Photography Prize was founded in 2025 by photographer and philanthropist Lisa Saltzman, through the Saltzman Family Foundation, in collaboration with the internationally renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. It honours the legacy of Ralph and Muriel Saltzman, both deeply committed collectors and longstanding patrons of the arts.

The 2026 Prize celebrates the next generation of female visual storytellers, in honour of Annie Leibovitz’s book Women, and is designed to spotlight emerging talent at a pivotal moment in their creative journeys. For this edition, five international nominators from across the photography field have each proposed an exceptional artist, whose work will be judged by an esteemed jury. A selection of works by the nominated artists will be exhibited at Photo London, Olympia, from 13–17 May, 2026.

Nominators for the 2026 edition were Emma Bowkett (Director of Photography, FT Weekend Magazine) Zanele Muholi (Visual Activist) Jennifer Pastore (Global Creative Director, Vanity Fair) Ivan Shaw (Visuals Editor, The World of Interiors and Director, Archive Strategy and Engagement) Leslie Simitch (Executive Vice President, Trunk Archive)

A Jury including Deborah Aaronson (Vice President and Group Publisher, Phaidon), Phyllis Posnick (Contributing Editor, Vogue) , David Campany (Curator and Creative Director, International Center of Photography, New York), Azu Nwagbogu (Curator; National Geographic Explorer at Large; Founder and Director of the African Artists’ Foundation; Founder of LagosPhoto Festival; Creator of Art Base Africa)

Lisa Saltzman, Founder and Director of the Saltzman Family Foundation, said “I established the Saltzman Leibovitz Prize in honour of my parents, Ralph and Muriel Saltzman — passionate art collectors, patrons and philanthropists — who taught me to pay attention: to art, to people, and to the world around us. Annie Leibovitz has spent a lifetime doing exactly that, finding the profound in the intimate and the monumental in the everyday. This prize is my way of carrying those legacies forward by supporting emerging artists as they discover their own ways of seeing. Being a photographer myself, I truly understand the importance of these opportunities.”

The nominees for 2026 are

Miranda Rae Barnes is a photo-based artist born in Brooklyn, NY. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Justice from John Jay College in 2018. Her practice borrows from vernacular photography and a fine art tradition of documenting everyday scenes of families and friends, often in communion and celebration. She has photographed across the United States and globally, both for commissions and artistic explorations. She resides and works between Brooklyn, New York and Austin, Texas. Her project offers a glimpse of a unique tradition to the world of African American cotillion and the work focuses on Black Debutante Balls. Through color photography she aims to offer a glimpse of generational Black excellence and expression. Although glamorous, the images serve as a reminder that even within our lifetimes being a well-dressed, articulate Black person was deemed inappropriate—even a dangerous offense.

Marisol Mendez is a photographer and researcher from Cochabamba, Bolivia, whose practice examines the tension between truth and fiction, and the relationship between what a photograph constructs and the (sur)reality it draws from. Driven by research-led and self-initiated projects, she questions traditional modes of representation and weaves narratives with multiple layers of meaning. Rooted in the landscapes and folklore of her culture, her work oscillates between candid and staged, naturalistic and mythical. Ultimately, her practice invites viewers to question the stories images tell and the systems of belief they sustain. Weaving together Andean folklore and Catholic iconography, the work spotlights the complexities of contemporary Bolivian identity and reflects on the country’s diverse and multifaceted culture. MADRE also includes archival photographs from her family album that depict female relatives. Ultimately, the archive functions as a bridge to reconnect to her matriarchal lineage.

Cole Ndelu is a photographer, contemporary artist, and curator based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated in 2016 from the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography with a BA in Visual Communication, specialising in Photography. Her visual practice operates at the intersection of art, fashion, documentary, and spirituality, exploring themes of love, family, womanhood, sisterhood, girlhood, ritual, and Zulu identity. Through this work, she examines how these intersections shape identity, memory, and ways of seeing.

Lindeka Qampi was born in 1969 in Bolotwa (Eastern Cape, South Africa). Qampi is self-taught and began taking photographs in 2006 when she met members of the Iliso Labantu (the eye of the people), a community-based photo collective. Qampi focuses her lens on daily township life, with particular attention on Khayelitsha, the township in which she has lived since her teens. She captures and shares what she sees, from the private sphere to the public and deals with a variety of issues such as the limited availability of land and cultural differences to creativity, cultural norms and the euphoria of child play. Her photographs express the poetry and politics of the ‘ordinary act’ and therein the potential of imagining new possibilities for the future. Qampi’s work is part of collections in North-West University Gallery Collection (Potchefstroom, South Africa), Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, United States) and the University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa). Her awards include the Mbokodo Award (2015) in the category "Creative Photographer" and the Brave Award (2016) with Muholi, acknowledging their outreach work.

Bettina Pittaluga is a Franco-Uruguayan photographer, specializes in capturing intimate and emotive life moments through her lens. Her early interest in photography emerged at age 14 when she took pictures of friends and family. After training as a photojournalist, she pursued academic excellence, earning a master’s degree in sociology at the Sorbonne and another at the Center for Applied Literary and Scientific Studies (CELSA). Bettina’s photography, which emphasizes authenticity, revolves around people and their stories. She primarily works with film and handles her photo printing. The project ‘No Body Is Just One Thing’ comes from within the community in Paris where she photographs. It is shaped by friendship, by conversation, by time spent together. Much of queer history has been imaged through urgency or spectacle. She is interested in what it looks like when we are not defending ourselves. When we laugh. When we love. When we are tired. When we are simply there.