2026 daylight photo awards
An international photography competition run by Daylight Books.
One top prize winner will receive a $2500 cash prize and the creation of a digital portfolio.
Juror picks will be promoted via internal and external marketing campaigns and have the opportunity to collaborate with Daylight on the creation of a monograph of their work.
Previous Daylight Photo Award winners include Elliot Ross, Verena Bruening, Takako Kido, Vikesh Kapoor, Donavon Smallwood, Bryan Thomas, Maria Sturm, Matthew Genitempo, Bryan Schutmaat, Katrin Koenning among others.
2026 Daylight Photo Awards Jury:
Mike Kamber, Bronx Documentary Center
Hideko Kataoka, Photo Editor, Newsweek Japan
Tif Ng, Magnum Foundation
Momo Takahashi, The New Yorker
James Wellford, National Geographic
Michael Kamber has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. Between 2002 and 2012 he worked for The New York Times covering conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, Somalia, the Congo and other countries. He has also worked as a writer and videographer for the Times. His photos have been published in nearly every major news magazine in the United States and Europe, as well as in many newspapers. In 2011, Kamber founded the Bronx Documentary Center, an educational space dedicated to positive social change through photography and film. Kamber is an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is the winner of a World Press Photo award, the Mike Berger Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Club Award, American Photo Images of the Year and is a member of The New York Times team that won the 2003 Overseas Press Club award. The New York Times has twice nominated Kamber’s work for the Pulitzer Prize.
Hideko Kataoka has been Director of Photography at Newsweek Japan since 2001. Hideko has also served as a lecturer in photojournalism and documentary photography at Tokyo Polytechnic University since 2013, and as a member of the External Review Committee at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum since 2016. She regularly participates in portfolio reviews and has served as a juror for prestigious international photography festivals and competitions, including the World Press Photo, the W. Eugene Smith Grant, and many others. She is also the founder and director of Miiraii Creative.
Tif Ng (She/Her) is an American-Cantonese photographer and cultural worker based in New York City. Her research and photo practice explore myth-making, Chinese celebratory and mourning rituals, and Cantonese family histories and archives. She is currently the Programs Coordinator at Magnum Foundation. She has curated exhibitions at Paris Photo, Photoville, Magnum Foundation and in community organizing spaces in Chinatown, New York. She is also the coordinating mentor for the Magnum Foundation New York City Fellowship program.
Momo Takahashi is a first-generation Japanese American photographer and photo editor based in Queens, New York. She is currently the Assistant Photo Editor at The New Yorker, where she works on stories through commissions and photo research. Previously, she was a Photo Editor Fellow at Business Insider and a researcher for author Min Jin Lee.
James Wellford is a photography editor and curator at National Geographic based in Brooklyn, New York. For 12 years he served as International Photo Editor at Newsweek, collaborating on projects recognized by the Overseas Press Club, World Press Photo, POYi, American Photo, Visa Pour L’Image, PX3, and NPPA. He has curated photography and multimedia exhibitions worldwide addressing contemporary issues, including American Photography for the Photographic Museum of Humanity and multiple exhibitions at Photoville, VII Gallery, Cortona and other international venues. James has served on juries for major photography awards, is a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, and has been a contributing photo editor to Foreign Policy and CNN.