Close encounters: the new wave of women photographers – in pictures

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Two people embrace intimately in a bathtub, their faces close together in warm lighting.

From Black debutantes to Bolivian matriarchs, this year’s Saltzman-Leibovitz prize shows the diverse subjects being tackled by the next generation of female storytellers

Bath bombs … Bettina Pittaluga’s No Body Is Just One Thing

Tue 12 May 2026 08.00 CEST

Miranda Barnes, Social SeasonThe Saltzman-Leibovitz Photography Prize was founded in 2025 by photographer and philanthropist Lisa Saltzman in collaboration with renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. It honours the legacy of Ralph and Muriel Saltzman, both deeply committed collectors and patrons of the arts. The 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. Works will be on display at Photo London, Olympia, 13–17 May, 2026

Miranda Barnes, Social Season 05Barnes 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 colour 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.

Miranda Barnes, Social Season 12Miranda 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.

© Marisol Mendez, Bull 2019 ‘When I told my mom about the nomination, she recognized Leibovitz’s name as someone who had left a mark on me. I was enamoured by her images, which led me to embrace fiction and storytelling in my own work, especially when approaching complex subjects. It’s usually easier to understand love or time through a poem or song than through a chemistry lesson or the manual of a clock. I’m moved by this incredible recognition. The Saltzman-Leibovitz Photography Prize allows me to continue telling my stories, and more importantly encourages me to do so on my own terms.’

Marisol Mendez, Matriarca ‘One of the defining features of contemporary Bolivian society is the visible presence of women in positions of power, a reality that would have been unimaginable in the recent past. This portrait presents Carmen Paz, a Bolivian matriarch. She never married and did not have children, an uncommon path for a woman of her generation. Yet she is recognized as the head of her family. Her authority is defined by presence and independence. Well travelled and deeply connected to her sister’s children, she embodies a form of kinship that challenges convention’

Marisol Mendez Killa 2019

Cole Ndelu, Black ChurchCole 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 witha BA in Visual Communication, specialising in Photography.

Cole Ndelu, Portrait for Nike, Johannesburg Ndelu’s 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 examineshow these intersections shape identity, memory, and ways of seeing.

Lindeka Qampi Qampi, b. 1969 in Bolotwa, South Africa 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.

Lindeka Qampi, ItapetiQampi’s photographs express the poetry and politics ofthe ‘ordinary act’ and therein the potential of imagining new possibilities for the future. Qampi’swork is part of collections in North-West University Gallery Collection (Potchefstroom, SouthAfrica), 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

Bettina Pittaluga Pittaluga is a Franco-Uruguayan photographer, specializing 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 Pittaluga, Nobody Is Just One ThingBettina’s photography, whichemphasizes authenticity, revolves around people and their stories. She primarily works with filmand handles her photo printing. The project ‘No Body Is Just One Thing’ comes from within thecommunity in Paris where she photographs. It is shaped by friendship, by conversation, by timespent together. Much of queer history has been imaged through urgency or spectacle. She isinterested in what it looks like when we are not defending ourselves. When we laugh. When we

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