Criticae 2022

Laura El-Tantawy is an award-winning British/Egyptian documentary photographer, artful bookmaker & mentor.

Born in Ronkswood (UK), Laura studied in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the US & UK. Living between East and West for much of her life inspires her work, which contemplates notions of home & belonging through exploring social & environmental issues pertinent to her background. Her photography is recognised for its characteristically painterly & lyrical eye on reality. Laura started her career as a newspaper photographer in the United States. She turned freelance in 2005, moving to Cairo and starting what became her seminal body of work In the Shadow of the Pyramids. Laura is the first Egyptian to be awarded the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund award, which she received for her long-term series I’ll Die For You. The award honours photographers whose work follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith's humanistic photography & dedicated compassion. In 2016, she was among the four artists nominated for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, awarded annually to a photographer who made the most significant contribution to the photographic medium in Europe during the past year. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Afar, Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Time, New York Times, Huck & Foam.

Laura’s visual explorations often intertwine moving images, sound and personal narratives. She has self-published five highly regarded monographs and is currently working on her latest publication LULL, a visual meditation on the two years of lockdown. She is a Canon Ambassador, representing the global camera giant’s vision & passion for visual storytelling.

Dutch graphic designer Sybren Kuiper studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Utrecht. After graduating, he studied graphic design at the art academy, also in Utrecht. Since 1994 he works as an independent graphic designer.

He works almost exclusively for a wide range of cultural clients. The first half of his career predominantly posters, flyers and programs for theatre productions & festivals, for the last fifteen years he worked on an ever-growing oeuvre of books and catalogues commissioned by museums, publishers, photographers and other artists. This site is dedicated to the latter.

Sybren is always looking for new ways to transform the reading of a (photo) book into an experience. To elevate the narrative of a project. To make it more than a collection of pictures alone. Apart from a strong approach to editing/sequencing and a keen eye for the use of text, he utilizes all the physical possibilities and characteristics of the book format itself, sometimes deceptively simple, sometimes neglecting and stretching the boundaries of bookmaking.

He also designs corporate identities and exhibitions. He is a part-time teacher and art director. Occasionally he writes on behalf of his clients. Sybren’s work has been widely recognized, nationally and internationally. And since 2017 he is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).

Amak Mahmoodian was Born in Shiraz, Iran and now lives in Bristol, UK. Amak's work questions notions of identity and home, bridging the space between personal and political. Through her journey, she explores the effects of exile and distance on memory, dreams and daily life. In 2015, she completed a practice-based doctorate in photography at the University of South Wales, having previously studied at the Art University of Tehran. Working with images, poems and archives she has shown her work extensively and won numerous awards.

She has realised two books, Shenasnameh in 2016 published by RRB Photobooks/ ICVL Studio and Zanjir published in 2019 by RRB Photobooks which in 2020 was selected as the winner of the prestigious Best Photo/Text Book Award offered by the Rencontres Arles.

Monica Allende is an independent curator/artistic director, consultant and educator. She is the Artistic Director of Landskrona Foto Festival and was GetxoPhoto International Image Festival Artistic Director from 2017 to 2019. She curated "Light" an exhibition during PhotoLondon 2021 at Peckham24.

She has also collaborated with WeTransfer as a Consultant and Creative Producer and was the FORMAT17 International Photography Festival director. She is curating the Blues Skies Project, a multidisciplinary project with artists Anton Kusters and Ruben Samama, shortlisted for the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize 2019 and exhibiting in Les Recontres d’ Arles in 2021. She collaborates with Canon Europe as an adviser on the Ambassadors and the Student Mentorship Programmes. She advises CAMPO.lat, a grassroots digital platform, on strategy and programming. Allende was the Photo Editor at the Sunday Times Magazine, where she launched Spectrum, the award-winning photography section. She is a visiting lecturer at the London College of Communication, London & EFTI in Madrid. She is a collaborator and teaches programmes in Latin America and Sarajevo for the VII Academy part of the VII Foundation. She has also produced and taught creatives labs for FIFV in Chile, Proyecto Imaginario, Argentina, ScreenLab in London and Taskheil in Saudi Arabia.

The Mentorship Business Programme for the University of Sunderland and workshop for Internazionale a Ferrara, WPP workshop Angola, Magnum Professional Practice, Grain and Format “East Meets West “ Programme among many others, and WPP JOOP Masterclass. She is dedicated to nurturing new and established talent and nominates photographers for prizes, including the Paul Huf Award, Deutsche Börse TPG Photography Prize, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, the Prix Pictet and The Joop Swart Masterclass/ WPP. Allende is also a reviewer and ambassador for Reminders Photography Stronghold in Japan and Docking Station in Holland. She is on the Board of Trustees of Photoworks advising on curatorial practices.

Born in Switzerland, Julie Bonzon (Dr.) is a London-based art historian and a specialist in South African Photography. Following a Bachelors in History of Art and Social Sciences at Université de Lausanne (2014), she completed a Masters in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (2015) and an AHRC-funded PhD in History of Art at University College London (2020).

Bonzon has worked on curatorial and education projects for the Cultural Department of Magnum Photos London, The Photographer’s Gallery, The Ian Parry Scholarship and private photography collectors. She has written for several publications, including L’Oeil de la Photographie, Nataal and the catalogue of the 10th Bamako Biennale and delivered papers in international institutions, notably the British Museum in London and l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris.

Bonzon is the Founder of The Photographic Collective, an online platform to present the work and connect lens-based artists active in Africa. She worked at Messums London as Director of Photography until 2022 and recently she joined Phillips, a Contemporary Auction house founded on innovation and dedicated to the art of collecting.

Bindi Vora is British-Indian artist working with expanded photography, visiting lecturer at University of Westminster and Curator at Autograph a London-based non-profit arts charity that explores issues of identity, representation, human rights and social justice through photography. Since joining Autograph she has curated Poulomi Basu: Fireflies (2022), co-curated Care I Contagion I Community ­– Self & Other (2021-2022); Lola Flash: [sur]passing and Maxine Walker: Untitled (both 2019) and contributed to a series of in-conversations with multidisciplinary artists include Mónica Alcázar-Duarte,Poulomi Basu, Maryam Wahid, Tobi Alexandra Falade, David Uzochukwu amongst others. She has independently curated Poulomi Basu: Centralia for Recontres d’Arles – Louis Roederer Discovery Award (2020); Let’s Go Through This Again (Portland Works, Sheffield 2018); her writing has appeared in publications by Maryam Wahid Zaibuinnisa (Midlands Art Centre, 2022); Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 (Thames & Hudson, 2022); FOAM Magazine (2020), British Journal of Photography (2021) and Loose Associations (2017), participating in public programmes for Tate Modern, Peckham24, GRAIN Photo Hub, The Photographers Gallery amongst others. She currently serves on the Curatorial Advisory Board for Amber-Side Gallery, Newcastle.

As an artist her works have been exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery (UK); Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects (UK); 180 The Strand (UK); Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood (UK); Phoenix Gallery (UK); Cultural Centre of Belgrade (RS); Benaki Museum (GR); Art Stage, (SG); amongst others. She has been commissioned by Hospital Rooms an arts and mental health charity to create new artworks for NHS Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Devon Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (2019) and will undertake a new work for Southwest London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust at Springfield Hospital, London (2022). Her works are part of collections including the Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection / MoMA (US), Guy’s & St Thomas Foundation (UK), The Hyman Collection (UK); Imperial Health Charity (UK), Self-Publish Be Happy at Maison Européenne de la Photographie (FR), The Women’s Art Library at Goldsmith’s University (UK), amongst others. www.bindivora.co.uk