lensCulture Portrait Photography Awards

www.nationalgeographic.com

Andrew Katz is the Deputy Photo Director of The New Yorker. An ambitious visual leader, he manages three photo editors; commissions photojournalism and portraiture; and conceptualizes and produces photo essays. He joined the team in 2021 after six years in TIME’s photography department. He has commissioned hundreds of stories by more than 200 photographers on (or above) all seven continents. The resulting photography has been recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes, American Society of Magazine Editors (National Magazine Awards), Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, Overseas Press Club, Society of Publication Designers, World Press Photo, Visa pour l’Image, Pictures of the Year International, and more. In 2021, he was a POYi finalist for Visual Editor of the Year.

www.newyorker.com

Francesca Marani is the Senior Photo Editor of Vogue Italia.

From 2015 to 2023 she has been the Visual Editor of Global PhotoVogue and co-curator of the PhotoVogue Festival (2016-2022), the first conscious fashion photography festival dedicated to the common ground between ethics and aesthetics.

In 2018 she curated a talk series about contemporary photography at the Affordable Art Fair (Milan), she co-curated the exhibition “Italian Panorama” at the Armani/Silos and was a juror of the Ooshot Award (Paris). Over the past few years Francesca has been a portfolio lecturer for the Blink Portfolio Review (New York) and a juror of the Photolucida’s Critical Mass. In 2019 Francesca took part in “Scouting for India”(Mumbai), the Vogue Talents’ project in collaboration with FAD International Academy. In 2020 she was a member of the jury of Fresh Eyes (GUP magazine), PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant and Photoville FENCE.

In 2020 she was a juror of the PHmuseum 2020 Mobile Photo Prize, Photoville FENCE and did portfolio reviews for Eddie Adams Portfolio Review, Perimetro Collective Review and Italy Photo Award. In 2021 she was a member of the jury of LensCulture Portrait Awards and did portfolio reviews for Fotografia Europea - Reggio Emilia, SI Fest - Savignano sul Rubicone, Eddie Adams Workshop and PhMuseum Days. In 2022 she did portfolio reviews for the Biennale della Fotografia Femminile di Mantova, Planches Contact Deauville Photography Festival, Fotografia Europea and FUTURES conversation. In 2024 she curated photography exhibitions in Rome for Leica's initiative ‘Roma ChilometroZero’ (in collaboration with Contrasto) and was a portfolio reviewer for PHEST Monopoli.

Francesca regularly collaborates with several photography festivals and schools as portfolio reviewer and lecturer.

As art director she has curated advertising campaigns for Benetton, Huawei, Yuzen and special projects for Off-White, Audi, Diesel, Dyson, Mazda, Martini, Sensai, Xiaomi, Crivelli, Pomellato, Kiko, Loewe, Vespa, Adidas.

www.vogue.it

Katherine Pomerantz is the Director of Photography at TIME where she oversees the assigning of visual storytellers around the world, along with the curation of imagery across all of TIME’s platforms. Her work has received recognition by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the Overseas Press Club, and World Press Photo. Collaborations with photographers have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, and Fotografiska New York.

time.com

Nadav Kander is a London-based photographic artist and director, renowned for his portraiture and large-format landscape photographs. Selected past projects include Yangtze – The Long River, winner of the Prix Pictet award in 2009; Dust, which explored the vestiges of the Cold War through the radioactive ruins of secret cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia; Bodies. 6 Women, 1 Man, a series of monumental photographic figure studies drawing references from Renaissance sculpture; Dark Line – The Thames Estuary, a reflective exploration of the dark waters of the UK’s storied Thames river; and Obama’s People, an acclaimed 52 portrait series commissioned by the New York Times Magazine.

In 2026, Kander—recent recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant—will debut Nadav Kander: The Edge of Things, the first major survey of his work spanning four decades. Developed in collaboration with the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and curated by David Campany, the exhibition will begin its international tour at FOAM Amsterdam in September 2026.

Kander’s work is housed in major public collections including the National Portrait Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The New York Public Library, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. He has exhibited internationally at institutions including the Barbican Centre, Somerset House and The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Recent awards include an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society, the World Photography Organisation’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography (2019), and the inaugural Hendrik teNeues Distinguished Photographer Award (2025).

www.nadavkander.com

Ruby Rees-Sheridan has been Assistant Curator, Photographs, at the National Portrait Gallery since 2024, where she has worked on the exhibitions The Face Magazine: Culture Shift (2025), and the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize (2024, 2025). Previously a curator at Four Corners, an east London-based film and photography centre, her past exhibitions have included Daniel Meadows: Shuttles, Steam and Soot (2025), Photography on the Move: The Half Moon Touring Shows 1976-84 (2023) and Photographing Protest: Resistance Through a Feminist Lens (2022). She holds an MA in Museum Curating with Photography from the University of Sussex, where her research focused on photography and digital cultures.

www.npg.org.uk

Laura Sackett is the creative director and co-founder of LensCulture, one of the leading sites committed to discovering and publishing the best in the contemporary photography. She leads all aspects of design including strategy, brand, website, print, communications, screenings and exhibitions. Besides leading the creative direction for LensCulture, she also designs and co-curates LensCulture exhibitions and the online galleries. Laura is a juror, reviewer & nominator in several international Photo Awards and Festivals. She is a founding Board Member of PhotoAlliance, and earned an MFA in photography from the California College of the Arts. She currently lives in Oakland, CA.

www.lensculture.com