Territory: Other
Theme: Open
Eligibility: Non-European photographic artists or Europeans citizens residing in overseas countries and territories
Entry Fees: Free
Prize: Cash Prize
Simultaneously a museum, a cultural center, and a place for research and teaching, the musée du quai Branly
– Jacques Chirac was born from the political desire to highlight non-European cultures, in the heart of Paris.
The museum gathers a collection of 370 000 objects, a considerable collection of graphic art and a collection
composed of more than 710 000 ancient and contemporary photographic pieces. The photography collections
covers the whole geographic area represented by the museum, as well as the entire historical field of the
medium, from 1842 to today.
Since it was launch in 2008, the program of Residences at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac has
provided support for contemporary photographic creation. Each year, the museum funds the works of three
laureates, selected on the basis of an original project, in coherence with their personal aesthetic path. It also
supports the final production of a selection of these works towards their entry into the museum's collection.
Focused on a demanding photography practice worldwide exercised, the program is not limited to
documentary practice and is open to extended forms of image production.
Since 2008, this support has revealed many talents and open the national collections to the whole world and
its current creation. We can mention over the years the works of artists such as Sammy Baloji, Hugo Aveta, Che
Onejoon and Lek Kiatsirikajorn (2012), Guy Tillim (2015), Gosette Lubondo, José Luis Cuevas and Luis Carlos
Tovar (2017), Fatoumata Diabaté and Emilio de Azevedo (2020) and very recently the collective Ritual
Inhabitual (2022). In 16 years, the Photography Award has allowed 41 photographic works, or the equivalent
of 695 prints, to integrate the national collections. This major collection constitutes baseline for the
international contemporary creation, in such diverse aspects as ecology (137 Years, Zhao Renhui – Singapour),
the migratory crisis (Cartographies of Escape, Luis Carlos Tovar – Colombia), the post-colonial memory
(Imaginary Trip II, Gosette Lubondo – DRC), the deconstruction of the patriarchal model (La Etapa Bruja, Liza
Ambrossio – Mexico) as well as the role of photography in the questioning of contemporary identity (Resident
and Visitors, Brook Andrew – Australia).
The works of the 47 laureates of the Photography Residencies of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
can be consulted on the website www.quaibranly.fr/en
Grant
The two winning projects will be chosen in June 2026 by an international jury made up of leading figures from the world of art and photography.
Each winning project will receive €30,000. This is a lump sum to cover expenses incurred in carrying out the project (travel, accommodation, technical costs, etc.) as well as the transfer of rights granted by the author for the photographic work to be included in the museum's collections.
Image: Xuna’an Kaab – Grandma as a beekeeper, Mónica Alcázar-Duarte © musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
