Foam Paul Huf Award

• a cash prize of €20.000

• a solo exhibition at Foam

Foam annually approaches around thirty nominators from various parts of the world to produce an internationally representative selection. Specialists and experts in the field of photography are each asked to select a number of talented photographers from their own region. 

The prize can be awarded for any photography: documentary, journalistic, fashion, or independent work. The winner’s work must exhibit clear visual language and contribute significantly to today's photographic community in both form and content. 

Foam is thrilled to announce that the 19th Foam Paul Huf Award goes to Myriam Boulos (1992, Lebanon). Boulos consistently elevates personal searching into something universally resonant, within the pressing context of war and political conflict within her home country of Lebanon. Her work shows how people who live outside dominant norms still manage to find one another within a social system that would rather render them invisible. As the winner of the award, she represents a new generation of visual storytellers who understand that the political is deeply personal—and that photography is far from a neutral observer; it is a vital, lived tool for resistance, reflection, and the visible claiming of the right to exist in all forms of identity.

The jury report says: “Myriam Boulos’ work is a powerful statement of personal agency and freedom amidst political tension, revolution and war. Her work speaks to the imagination of personal power and presence, reclaiming the image and redirecting repressive gazes toward the strength of inner desires and resistance.”

The chair of the jury is John Fleetwood (South Africa) is a photography curator and educator, focusing on socially engaged visual practices. He serves as Co-Head of BA Photography at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK), while also directing the Johannesburg-based platform Photo: and working within African photography contexts. Previously, Fleetwood led the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg (2002–2015).

Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopia) is a photographer, educator and cultural entrepreneur, who works together with local and international institutions. She is the founder of Addis Foto Fest (AFF), the first international photography festival in East Africa, held since 2010 in Addis Ababa, and the Africa Foto Fair, established in 2022 in Côte d’Ivoire. Her photography is included in prestigious collections like MoMA, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, and the RISD Museum.

Moshe Rosenzveig (Australia) is the founder and creative director of Head On Photo Festival, Australia's largest annual photography festival which showcases the work of international and local photographers. Moshe has over 40 years’ experience in the media as a photojournalist, award-winning television producer/director and commercial photographer.

Mikhael Subotzky (South Africa) is a Magnum photographer and artist whose works in multiple mediums engage critically with the instability of images and the politics of representation. He was the first Foam Paul Huf Award winner in 2007 together with Taryn Simon, upon which Foam presented his solo exhibition Beaufort West. Ever since, his work has been shown in a number of important international institutions, including most recently at Centre Pompidou and Victoria & Albert Museum.

Johan Trujillo Argüelles (Mexico) is a cultural manager, educator, and image theorist. She served as the Director of the Centro de la Imagen (2020–2024). She has been dedicated to cultural management for over 15 years during which she has conceptualized and organized conventions, lecture series, and academic programs to discuss visuality and Mexican contemporary photography.

The Dutch photographer Paul Huf (1924-2002) was known for his innovative photographic technique and was an important ambassador for the establishment of Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam in 2001.

To honour this special relationship, the Foam Paul Huf Award was created in 2007 in order to stimulate and support photographers on a global scale.