Uganda Press Photo Award
A non-profit educational platform and annual competition organised by FOTEA to showcase and nurture photographic talent
MEET THE 2025 UGANDA PRESS PHOTO AWARD JUDGES
We’re proud to introduce the exceptional panel of judges for the 2025 Uganda Press Photo Award, an accomplished group of East African photojournalists and documentary photographers. Each brings a deep understanding of the trade, years of field experience, and a strong commitment to authentic visual storytelling.
With a collective dedication to documenting authentic narratives of our day to day lives, this panel brings sharp visual instincts and grounded perspectives. Their collective expertise ensures a thoughtful, rigorous evaluation process to honour the depth, diversity, and power of visual storytelling.
Maheder Haileselassie is a self-taught Ethiopian visual artist and documentary photographer whose work centers on lived experience, history, and identity. Blending documentary and conceptual approaches, she draws connections between archives and imagined futures, always grounded in an Ethiopian perspective. Her project Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, a series which examines history, personal and collective memories, won both the Seydou Keita Grand Prize (Rencontres de Bamako) and the CAP Prize.
In 2025, she was named a #BBC100Women honoree for work linking early marriage and climate change in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Maheder is also the founder of the Center for Photography in Ethiopia (CPE), supporting emerging talent.
Maheder.photography
In 2025, she was named a #BBC100Women honoree for work linking early marriage and climate change in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Maheder is also the founder of the Center for Photography in Ethiopia (CPE), supporting emerging talent.
Ala Kheir is a Sudanese photographer based in Khartoum. His photographs actively engage with the city of Khartoum, creating personal perspectives and narratives about his immediate space. His work has been showcased in various spaces in Africa and around the world. Ala Kheir is also active in photography education, He runs The Other Vision (TOV), a photography platform that focuses on photography education in Sudan, through which he assists young photographers and connects them to the continent.
Alakheir.com
Edward Echwalu is a documentary photographer and photojournalist with a decade's worth of experience. As a photojournalist, he has covered major events around Uganda and the continent principally covering health, conflict and development. He's a current contributor to Everyday Africa, part of Everyday Projects. He emerged the 1st Runner Up in the CNN African Journalist of the Year Awards 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia, for his coverage of opposition protests in Uganda. Echwalu was also a winner of Uganda's coveted Photojournalism prize, The Cranimer Mugerwa Photojournalism Award 2009.
Edward Echwalu – Documentary Photographer
MEET THE 2025 UGANDA PRESS PHOTO AWARD JUDGES
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