Tasweer Awards 2025 Jurors
We are thrilled to introduce the distinguished jury of the Tasweer Awards 2025. Now in its fifth year, the Tasweer Awards bring together four leading voices in photography and contemporary art: Azu Nwagbogu (Curator and Founder, African Artists’ Foundation, AAF); Mohamed Somji (Director, Gulf Photo Plus, GPP); Shk. Maryam Hassan Al-Thani (Consultant Curator at Qatar Museums); and Tandazani Dhlakama (Curator of Global Africa, Royal Ontario Museum, ROM).
This internationally renowned panel will review submissions for both the Project Award and the Single Image Award, engaging in rigorous deliberations to select the awardees whose work will shape this year’s edition of Tasweer.
Azu Nwagbogu is an internationally acclaimed curator and founder of the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) in Lagos, Nigeria. He also founded LagosPhoto Festival, a leading international photography festival. His work focuses on decolonization, restitution, and repatriation, using exhibitions as experimental spaces for civic engagement and reflection. Nwagbogu publishes Art Base Africa, a platform for contemporary African art, and has curated major projects including the first-ever Benin Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024). He has been recognized as “Curator of the Year 2021” by the Royal Photographic Society and listed among the 100 most influential figures in the art world by ArtReview.
Mohamed Somji is the Director of Gulf Photo Plus (GPP), a Dubai-based gallery and community organization supporting photography and visual culture across the MENASA region since 2004. GPP engages the community through educational programs, exhibitions, and resources for photographers, including film processing, fine art printing, and a photobook store. Mohamed is also a documentary photographer whose work explores contemporary life, examining social and political issues with a critical lens. Through his practice and leadership at GPP, he has fostered the growth of photography as a platform for cultural dialogue and critical engagement in the region.
Shk. Maryam Hassan Al-Thani is a Consultant Curator at Qatar Museums. She previously served as Head Curator of the Tasweer Photography Festival (2020–2023). She is currently co-curating the Brigitte Lacombe exhibition, scheduled to open in 2027, and recently curated the Tasweer Awards Exhibition (2025). Her projects include co-curating Watering the Desert at Yuz Museum China (2023–2024) and initiating Tasweer’s Contemporary Heritage Projects. Maryam has commissioned public artworks by renowned artists such as Richard Serra, KAWS, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and Simone Fattal. She has contributed to major exhibitions including Qatar Contemporary: Art and Photography (Russia, 2018) and Cultural Exposures: Photography and Film from Qatar (Berlin, 2017), demonstrating her commitment to fostering contemporary visual culture in Qatar and internationally.
Tandazani Dhlakama, born in Zimbabwe, is Curator of Global Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto. She previously worked as a curator at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare. Her notable exhibitions include co-curating When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting (2022), curating Five Bhobh: Painting at the End of an Era (2018), and co-curating Seekers, Seers, Soothsayers (2023). Tandazani’s research and editorial work have contributed to numerous publications accompanying these exhibitions. She holds an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Leeds, UK (2015) and a BA in Fine Art and Political Science from St. Lawrence University, USA (2011).