The Gala Night

Athens, 11th October 2026

A Recognition I Couldn’t Celebrate in Person

On the evening of 11 October, the International Photography Awards held its 2026 gala at the Benaki Museum in Athens. Among the works honoured was The Shape of Memories | Bangkok – A Kinetic Memory, which received 1st Place in the Fine Art / Collage category (Professional).
I was not in the room.

The award came with an invitation to attend the ceremony and gala in Athens, an opportunity I would have welcomed not only to receive the award in person, but also to meet fellow photographers, exchange ideas and share the experience with a wider international community. Unfortunately, time constraints and a scheduling conflict with the Siena Awards celebrations meant I could not be there.

One series, two cities

That weekend, the series was present in two cities at once: on the walls of House of Lucie in Athens, and in Siena, where it received another recognition for the same work.

It is a particular feeling to receive recognition for your work while missing the occasion that brings its recipients together. Photography awards are, of course, an opportunity to have one’s work seen and acknowledged. But the gatherings surrounding them can offer something equally valuable: the chance to encounter other ways of seeing, discover different approaches to the medium, and engage in conversations that extend beyond the images themselves.

Bangkok – A Kinetic Memory is built from fragments gathered over time and recomposed in the studio: a city that is never seen whole in a single instant, only reassembled afterwards from what remains. Following Athens from Siena felt, in a modest way, like the same process. The event reached me in pieces: emails, the programme, the names of the other winners, and I put it together from here.

Photography sometimes is a solitary process. It begins with an individual way of looking at the world and develops through choices, intuitions, memories and interpretations. Yet the moment a photograph enters the public sphere, it becomes part of a wider conversation. It meets other sensibilities, other experiences and other ways of understanding the world.
This is one of the reasons I value opportunities such as these. Recognition matters, but so does the community that forms around photography: the photographers, curators, editors and organisers who contribute to keeping that conversation alive.

Although I could not share the experience in Athens in person, I am grateful to the International Photography Awards jury for this recognition and to everyone whose work continues to expand the possibilities of photography.

My thanks go to Hossein Farmani and the IPA team for the recognition and for the care with which the work was presented in Athens, and to Elizabeth Krist for her selection. Congratulations to all the winners of IPA 2026. 

IPA Awards 2026 Winners
The Shape of Memories | Bangkok — A Kinetic Memory @ IPA 2026