Luis Ferreira Alves Photography Award 2026 Open Call

A competition where photography becomes more than a record of architecture, becoming instead a lens through which we engage with, question, and understand the build environment in all its complexity.

Overview

“The LFA Award is not just a competition. It is a call to reflect on the act of seeing. Luis Ferreira Alves showed us that architectural photography could be poetic without being romantic, precise without being dry, and political without being polemic. A visual clarity that was both analytical and humane and which derived from the way his structural decisions in composition, framing, and sequencing never overshadowed the architecture itself.” Pedro Leão Neto (Founder)

Open to photographers of all nationalities, working individually or collectively, the competition invites the submission of a photographic series engaging with a single work of architecture, a group of works or a broader architectural context. Projects may be produced through analogue or digital photographic processes, in colour or black and white, and should demonstrate a clear authorial position and a considered relationship between photography, architecture and the experience of space.

Practical Info

Applicants should submit one photographic series of 9 to 11 images. The series will be evaluated as a whole and should demonstrate visual coherence, technical quality and a meaningful engagement with architecture and the experience of space.

The international jury for the 2026 edition comprises Paolo Rosselli, photographer and architect; Valeria Carullo, Photographs Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects; and João Pedro Serôdio, architect and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto.

The members of the jury will select a shortlist of 10 projects. The First Prize is €10,000. The Second Prize is €4,000, with the support of “la caixa” Foundation/BPI, and the Third Prize is a €1,500 voucher for photographic equipment, with the support of Canon. The 2026 edition also introduces the Portuguese Emerging Photography Prize, created to recognise and give visibility to a new national talent.

Selected projects will become part of the official exhibition and publication. The Award is conceived as a wider cultural and editorial programme, with LFA Talks (public event and podcast) extending the competition beyond the moment of selection and creating further contexts for discussion around photography and architecture.

About Luis Ferreira Alves Photography Award

Luis Ferreira Alves was one of Portugal’s most significant architectural photographers. His photographs gave enduring visual form to the work of Álvaro Siza Vieira, Eduardo Souto de Moura and many other architects, contributing to the international visibility of modern and contemporary Portuguese architecture. 

Inspired by this legacy, the LFA AWARD promotes a deeper understanding of architecture through photography and encourages visual narratives capable of revealing spatial, social, material and atmospheric dimensions that conventional architectural representation may leave unseen. It aspires to communicate the significant and unique relationship that a photographer can establish with architects and their work. 

The Award is promoted by the Municipality of Porto and Cityscopio - Associação Cultural, with FAUP and Casa da Arquitectura as members of the Organising Committee, and with the support of a wider network of cultural, institutional and strategic partners.