Panelists:
Newsha Tavakolian
Newsha Tavakolian (1981, Tehran), a Magnum Photos member, is an Iranian photographer, visual artist, and educator known for her work that captures human emotions. Tavakolian began her career in photography at a young age, eventually becoming a prominent figure in the field. Her photography is characterized by its evocative storytelling and her keen eye for capturing the delicate emotions that shape us as humans. She has covered a wide range of topics, from the challenges faced by women in Iran and worldwide to the aftermath of tensions in conflict zones. Her work often combines artistry with documentary, blurring the lines between reality and the imagined. Throughout her career, Newsha Tavakolian has received numerous awards, such as the Carmignac Gestion Award, the Prince Claus Award (principal laureate), and several international photo prizes. Her photographs have been featured in prestigious exhibitions worldwide. Amongst others, Tavakolian’s work has found its place in the private collections of international institutions, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA), the British Museum, Sackler Gallery and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. In 2019 Tavakolian made her first short film For the Sake of Calmness. She is now preparing for the production of her first feature film in Iran and Romania. 
Bieke Depoorter
Bieke Depoorter (°1986, Belgium) received a master’s degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent in 2009. Three years later, when just 25 years old, she was made a nominee of Magnum Photos, of which she was named a full member in 2016. Depoorter has won several awards and honors, including the Magnum Expression Award, The Larry Sultan award and the Prix Levallois. She has published four books: Ou Menya, I am About to Call it a Day, As it May Be, and Sète#15. She worked together with Aperture, Editions Xavier Barral, Edition Patrick Frey, Lannoo, Hannibal and Le bec en l’air to publish these books. The relationships Depoorter establishes with the subjects of her photographs lie at the foundation of her artistic practice. Accidental encounters are the starting point, and how these interactions naturally develop dictates the nature of Depoorter’s work. But several recent projects have been the result of Depoorter questioning the medium. In As it May Be, she gradually became more aware of her status as an outsider, both culturally and as a photographer. So, in 2017, she revisited Egypt with the first draft of the book, inviting people to write comments directly onto the photographs. In Sète#15, and also Dvalemodus, a short film she co-directed, she began to see her subjects as actors. Although she portrayed them in their true environments, she tried to project her own story onto the scenes, fictionalizing the realities of her subjects in a way that blurred the lines between their world and hers. 
Elhum Shakerifar, Producer
Elhum Shakerifar is a producer, curator, writer and translator; she runs the London-based company Hakawati ('storyteller' in Arabic). Her credits include A Syrian Love Story (2015, Sean McAllister), Of Love & Law (2017, Hikaru Toda), ISLAND (2018, Steven Eastwood), Even When I Fall (2017, Sky Neal & Dara McLarnon) and Ayouni (2020, Yasmin Fedda). Her award-winning productions have garnered her awards including a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut (2016), a British Film Institute 'Vision Award' (2016) and the Women in Film & TV Factual Award (2017). As a film curator with particular focus on the SWANA region, she has worked with London Film Festival (2014-21) Shubbak – the festival of contemporary Arab culture (2015-19), BFI (Drama and Desire, the films of Youssef Chahine, 2023), Barbican (Poetry in Motion: Contemporary Iranian Cinema, 2019) and Art on the Underground. She has taught documentary at UEA, Berlin Freie, UCL as well as in Georgia, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Bosnia. Prior to working in film, Elhum worked in a community centre in Newham, on a project supporting in for unaccompanied minors; and was recipient of a Jack Petchey Young People's Champion Award in 2009. Elhum has also produced events, music and photography including The Grey Line (Jo Metson Scott, 2013) about US and UK soldiers who spoke out against the war in Iraq – recipient of the inaugural Firecracker Award for photography, a TIME, Guardian and Telegraph top photobooks of 2013. www.hakawati.co.uk 
Jemma Desai
Jemma Desai is a cultural worker across film, visual arts and performance and a somatic facilitator working with individuals and groups. Working through, or close to the body, her work encompasses first person writing and performance, as well as material and social practices to form an embodied archive of desires for change, belonging and being longing. She writes and teaches in a variety of academic and non academic contexts and is a practice-based PhD candidate at Central School of Speech and Drama with a thesis entitled "what do we want from each other after we have told our stories?" She has previously worked with the BFI, British Council, LUX and Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival. Current collaborations include Blackstar Film Festival in Philadelphia where she is a Programmer and BAM in Brooklyn NY where she is the inaugural Experience Fellow exploring through archival research, somatic facilitation and programming interventions, the possibilities of embodied organisational change. She is currently programmer in residence at The Flaherty Seminar and will be the programmer of the 2025 edition. 
Timi Akindele-Ajani, filmmaker and photographer
Timi Akindele-Ajani is an award winning British-Nigerian filmmaker and photographer based in London. Timi has worked with a range of organisations across photography and film. Clients include, Google, Meta, Financial Times, The British Film Institute and many others. His skills lie in bringing human moments to the screen and telling personal stories with distinct creative flair. His recent work includes ‘Nubia Way’ for the Architecture Foundation’ and ‘Guests’ backed by the BFI as part of their Short film Fund and is produced by Pavilion Works Originals. 
Bayryam Bayryamali, Moderator
Bayr(y)am Mustafa Bayr(y)amali is a London based (Bulgarian)Turkish visual researcher, programmer and organiser. His practice deals with issues of new world (b)orders, il/legal identities in the Balkans and beyond. He is an Education Manager at Magnum Photos - a photography co-operative - and co-runs the Old Mountain Assembly - a programming space for worlding and futuring a transitional and decolonial perspectives in South/East Europe. 
Daniel Castro Garcia
DANIEL CASTRO GARCIA is a Spanish/British multimedia artist working within the fields of photography and video. His practice utilises portraiture, landscape and journalistic techniques to explore the boundaries between conceptual art and social documentary, and demonstrates a sensitive and intimate style, often adopting a collaborative approach to image making that creates metaphorical and ethically driven representations. He is interested in the enveloping and unfolding spiritual space of creation that empowers a commitment to active citizenship, social consciousness and respect. Daniel's work has received extensive international acclaim and awards including the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Fund in Humanistic Photography, The British Journal of Photography International Photography Award, FOAM Talent, Magnum Foundation Fund, the Royal Photographic Society Vic Odden Award and the Tokyo International Photography Competition. His work has been exhibited internationally at major institutions including Les Recontres D’Arles (FR), MOCP Chicago (USA), Cortona on the Move (IT) and New York University (USA) amongst others; his archive is held in prestigious collections including the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (DE), Incite Project (UK) and MOCP Chicago (USA). 
Rafael Ramos
Rafael Ramos, is a visual artist, director and photographer born and based in Salvador , Bahia. Rafael creates images based on his family territories and encounters with subjects presented in these spaces. His research revolves around memory and the city, intertwining photography and urban intervention and investigating how new representations and imaginaries are manufactured in territories outside the so-called “formal” city. His care in dealing with photographic images is implied in close relationships with those portrayed, when not, highlighting their distance. He graduated in Design at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia (2014-2020), where he studied and practiced analog photography. After internships and experiences as filmmaker, since 2018 he has been an independent director and photographer; directed music videos by artists from Salvador that explore the fusion of Afro-diaspora rhythms, and collaborated as director of photography and editor in artistic projects, documentaries, and advertising. Since 2020, he has been part of the Práticas Desobedientes training program for young artists, and is associated with APAN (Association of Professionals Black Audiovisual). With the "New City" project, in 2019 he held a photographic exhibition in a wheatpaste format at Virada Sustentável in Salvador. Participated in 2021 of the artistic residency F(r)icções, from Intervalo Fórum de Arte (UFBA). He is creative director of the Mete Dança Digital project, a pioneering project with video-mapping in peripheral neighborhoods of Salvador, launched in 2021. 
