Taylor Wessing backs photography competition
An award to champion the excellence in Irish contemporary photography launches today.
The Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize 2026, in partnership with international law firm Taylor Wessing, Business to Arts, and Photo Museum Ireland, will celebrate outstanding photographic talent.
Bursary
The prize fund is the largest combined prize fund for contemporary photography in Ireland, offering a total of €25,000 through prizes and a new bursary.
The annual prize will provide a definitive national platform to showcase new work by photographers and lens-based artists at all stages of their careers.
In its inaugural year, the prize invites submissions responding to the theme ‘Community | Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine’ — an Irish proverb meaning “It is in each other’s shadow that we live.”
The theme asks artists to explore connection, belonging, and collective life in contemporary Ireland.
The Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Bursary 2026 is a €10,000 award established to support an artist working in photography or lens-based media who identifies as being from an underrepresented community.
Winning and shortlisted works will feature in a Photo Museum Ireland exhibition from 18 April – 24 May 2026, after which the winning works will become part of the Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize collection at the firm’s offices.
The judging panel brings together leading photography curators, writers, and critics, including Zoë Harrison, Anne Nwakalor, and Fintan O’Toole.
They are joined by Photo Museum Ireland’s Trish Lambe and Darren Campion.
The call for the photography competition and bursary opens today and the deadline for submissions is Sunday, 11 January 2026.
Entry is free and open to photographers and lens-based artists 18 and over who live on the island of Ireland.
“Taylor Wessing has a proud history of supporting the arts, for example our long-standing partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London,” said Adam Griffiths, partner and head of Taylor Wessing Dublin office.
Celebrate creativity
“Launching this photo prize allows us to celebrate Irish creativity and offer artists a new route to visibility and recognition on a national and international stage. The bursary widens that offer to ensure artists from underrepresented communities can develop their practice further and it exemplifies our commitment to inclusivity," he said.
The prize offers a total fund of €25,000, including:
- First prize: €10,000,
- Two runners-up: €2,500 each,
- A separate €10,000 bursary for a photographer from an underrepresented community,
- In addition, €100 exhibiting honorarium for up to 30 shortlisted artists who will feature in the exhibition next spring.
For full details and to enter, visit: https://photomuseumireland.ie/taylorwessingirishphotoprize/