PhMuseum’s Top 14 Graduates to Watch in 2021

With the aim of mapping and discovering emerging profiles in our industry, we got in touch with more than 100 photography institutions and universities around the world and asked their tutors to nominate the most outstanding recent graduates.

With the aim of mapping and discovering emerging profiles in our industry, we got in touch with more than 100 photography institutions and universities around the world and asked their tutors to nominate the most outstanding recent graduates.

International Youth Day, celebrated every 12th of August since 1999, is an initiative that seeks to highlight the potential and active role of global youth in society today by giving voice to their concerns and pointing out the importance of their participation in pertinent issues. To mark the occasion every year, we here at PhMuseum look to promote young photographers' work by selecting the best recently graduated students. The list this year is 14-strong. Read on to learn a little bit about them.

Barbara Debeuckelaere

Graduated from KASK School of Arts Gent | Belgium

Nominated by Anne-Françoise Lesuisse

After years of development work and journalism within radio and television, Barbara Debeuckelaere (Belgium) pursued visual art and photography to express herself. In her photographic work, she is driven by hyper-capitalism and normalization, to ultimately produce images, videos and installations that are quietly critical and poetic.

Bowei Yang

Graduated from Royal College of Art | United Kingdom

Nominated by Sarah Jones

Bowei Yang (b.1994 Hangzhou China) is a photographer based in Beijing and London. His work documents the contemporary teenage queers living in China combined with staged memories of his childhood, while also trying to query the self-identity in awareness of diverse collective identifications and group traumas. His works are inspired by Chinese philosophy and literature, constructed to ponder the reality of documents through the photographic medium.

Camile Juárez

Graduated from CAMPO_Fotolibros (Gimnasio de Arte y Cultura & Proyecto Imaginario) | México/Argentina

Nominated by José Luis Cuevas

Camile Juárez was born in 1997 in Mixco, Guatemala, where she lives and works. She is a Maya K'iche' artist, and her practice stands on the intersection between feminism, art, anthropology and social change. Camile is part of the CAMPO photobooks program, where she is currently working on her first photobook.

Denis Serrano

Graduated from Gimnasio de Arte y Cultura | México

Nominated by Livia Animas

Denis Serrano (Mexico, 1990) is interested in exploring and opening a debate around mental health, misogyny and domestic violence through photography. She holds a bachelor degree in Design (2012 FAD, UNAM) and took part in art production diploma courses. Her work has been exhibited in Mexico, Spain, China and the UK.

Joselito Verschaeve

Graduated from KASK School of Arts Gent | Belgium

Nominated by Anne-Françoise Lesuisse

Joselito Verschaeve (b. 1996) is an artist living and working in Ghent, Belgium. His practice focuses on the photographic medium, often having the photobook as a point of interest. His work deconstructs reality and gives new context to these scenes that lay in themes of dystopia, literature and world-building.

Lina Van Hulle

Graduated from Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp | Belgium

Nominated by Bert Danckaert

Lina Van Hulle (Belgium, 1998) holds a master’s degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She works with different mediums such as photography, video and sound. Her work can be described as a cinematic visual translation of life in the future.

Manuela Lorente

Graduated from EFTI - Centro Internacional de Fotografía y Cine | Spain

Nominated by Ricardo Cases, Juan Valbuena & Maria Santoyo

Manuela Lorente (b. 1991) is a photographer born and based in Madrid. She’s immersed in storytelling through documentary photography in the form of photo novels. Told in a humorous and casual tone, reality and fiction are often mixed, bringing ‘costumbrismo’, popular culture, personal relationships and tradition into play, as well as the identity of her city.

Misaki Shimizu

Graduated from University of Westminster | United Kingdom

Nominated by Gavin Jack

Misaki Shimizu was born in 1998 in Kyoto, Japan. She currently lives and works across Tokyo and London. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Photography at the University of Westminster in London. In her practice, she explores the daily psychological experience of the world and transforms those intangible elements into images. Her work is influenced by how the mental state is unconsciously reflected in photography.

Ofoe Amegavie

Graduated from World Press Photo West Africa Visual Journalism Fellowship | Netherlands

Nominated by Nii Obodai, Marc Prust and Emilie Regnier

Ofoe Amegavie is a Ghanaian photographer with a passion for all things cultural and spiritual in human societies. He is inspired by his own family’s ancestry, dating back to Togbui Sri I of Anloga, and its history of migration from the Volta Region to the coast of Ada-Foah in the Greater Accra region. He created his unique style by adopting a curious approach and a spiritual perspective to fine art, fashion and documentary photography, portraying his culture and heritage through an intimate insight into everyday encounters.

Sadie Catt

Graduate from The University of the West of England | United Kingdom

Nominated by Aaron Schuman

Sadie Catt is a British photographer currently based in Bristol. Her work has been published by organisations such as The British Journal of Photography and Splash & Grab Magazine and exhibited at The Royal Photographic Society IPE 162 and Side Gallery.

Sarah Hartvigsen Juncker and Louise Herrche Serup

Graduated from The Danish School of Media and Journalism | Denmark

Nominated by Søren Pagter

Sarah Hartvigsen Juncker and Louise Herrche Serup are both Danish documentary photographers who recently graduated from the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) and are currently based in Copenhagen. Through intimate portraiture and reportage photography, their work explores social topics such as mental health, inequality and gender.

Sari Soininen

Graduated from the University of the West of England Bristol | United Kingdom

Nominated by Aaron Schuman

Sari Soininen (b. 1991) is a Finnish photographer based in Bristol, United Kingdom. Sari's colourful otherworldly photography draws from philosophical thoughts and personal mystical experiences. Her interest is in providing the viewer with alternative ways of seeing reality and the world around them.

Sean Sborlino

Graduated from Grisart Escola Internacional de Fotografia | Spain

Nominated by Enric Montes

Sean Sborlino (1994) is an Anglo-Italian photographer based in Barcelona. He conceives photography as a practice to sharpen his way of seeing reality, reducing the speed and letting himself be surprised by the extraordinary hidden in the mundane. The result is a refined form of visual story-telling that addresses the blurred boundary between reality and illusion.

Tripty Tamang Pakhrin

Graduated from photo.circle | Nepal

Nominated by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati

Tripty Tamang Pakhrin (1995) works and lives in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her work explores ideas of space, memory and youth. She is one of the recipients of the VII Foundation’s Alexandra Boulat Grant 2019 and is currently associated with Photo Kathmandu, an international photo biennale that takes place in Kathmandu. She enjoys cooking and comedy.

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If you are a university teacher, a photography school representative, or If you are interested to involve the institution where you study in our initiative, write to us at info@phmuseum.com so that we can add you to our list of contacts and send you an invitation for the 2022 edition.

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