The winners of the inaugural Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize have been announced at an awards presentation at Photo Museum Ireland.
The top prize of €10,000 was awarded to Conor Horgan for work from his series EDGE.
The images document barriers installed along Dublin’s Grand Canal and surrounding areas, designed to prevent homeless people seeking asylum from sleeping there.
The work focuses on the structures themselves rather than individuals.
Conor Horgan
The prize, presented in partnership with Taylor Wessing and Photo Museum Ireland and facilitated by Business to Arts, was selected from a nationwide open call that received more than 1,300 entries.
Artists were invited to respond to the 2026 theme Community – Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine (“it is in each other’s shadow that we live”), working across documentary, portraiture, conceptual and experimental photography.
Two Judges’ Selection Awards, each worth €2,500, were also presented to Laura Dunwoody and Salem Anowe Chukwuezi.
Salem Anowe Chukwuezi
Dunwoody was recognised for Nothing Lasts Forever, a long-term photographic series documenting youth and community in Ballymun.
Chukwuezi received the award for Covert, a body of work examining the everyday experiences of Black men in Ireland.
Patryk Gizicki
The Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Bursary of €10,000 was awarded to emerging artist Patryk Gizicki. His work explores youth culture, identity and masculinity, informed by his Polish heritage and upbringing in Ireland.
The prize represents the largest combined prize fund for contemporary photography in Ireland. Following the exhibition, the winning works will form part of the Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize Collection.
Laura Dunwoody
An exhibition featuring 34 works by shortlisted artists is open to the public at Photo Museum Ireland and runs until 24 May 2026. A programme of talks, tours and public events will run alongside the exhibition.
Find out more about the Taylor Wessing Irish Photo Prize here