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Voices and Visions Photo Essay Competition

Voices and Visions

Black History Month 2025 Photo Essay Competition

The Chude Jideonwo Prize for Creativity 2025

Theme: VOICES & VISIONS

Black History Month Photo Essay Competition

The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa invites you to participate in the Black History Month 2025 Photo Essay Competition, open to black and/or African students, professionals, and community members across the UK.

Building on the hugely successful inaugural competition culminating in a published anthology, we invite you to tell your story through a photo essay, a combination of an image and words. Your essay may be fictional or non-fictional, but it should be inspired by your photograph and engage with the theme Voices & Visions.

This year’s theme invites us to see and to hear differently. It is about amplifying the quiet voices that often go unheard and recognising the visions that shape how we live, dream, and imagine. We are searching for the extraordinary in everyday lives and the ordinary within moments that may seem extraordinary.

Your photo and the essay could capture resilience, joy, longing, protest, memory, or simply the texture of daily life. What matters most is the perspective— your voice, your vision – and how you allow us to glimpse the world anew.

The competition is run by the Programme for African Leadership in partnership with the LSE Student Union, LSE EmbRace, LSE ACS and the Africa Centre.

Submission Guidelines:

Eligibility:

Open to Black and/or African students, professionals, and community members across the UK. Submissions may be individual or collaborative, but no more than two people may collaborate on a submission.

“Black and/or African” includes individuals of Black African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, mixed heritage, and those who identify with African diasporic experiences.

Entries:

  • Submissions may be individual or collaborative (maximum two people per entry).
  • Each entrant may submit only one entry, which must be their own original work and for which they hold the rights.
  • You may submit only one (1) photograph. Each photograph must be accompanied by:
  • A title
  • A caption (up to 50 words)
  • An essay describing or inspired by the photograph (fiction or non-fiction, maximum 300 words)
  • Submit your work as a single Microsoft Word document (Times New Roman, 12pt, 1.15 spacing for text), with photographs inserted into the document. Please also attach the original image files (JPEG or PNG) to your email.
  • In the email body, include: YOUR NAME(S), ADDRESS, CITY, TITLE(S), EMAIL ADDRESS, and CONTACT PHONE NUMBER.

Conditions:

  • Entries must be original and unpublished.
  • Judging will be anonymous: do not include your name(s) in the document itself.
  • By submitting, you grant the organisers a perpetual, royalty-free licence to publish, reproduce, and distribute your work, in whole or in part, in print and online.
  • Your work will always be attributed to you, but you may not withdraw it once submitted and longlisted.

Submissions are now closed.

Prizes

  • First Prize: £150 bookshop voucher
  • Second Prize: £100 bookshop voucher
  • Third Prize: £50 bookshop voucher

All winners will also receive electronic certificates of achievement. Selected works from the longlist and shortlist will be published in an anthology and featured in a special exhibition.

*Voucher details (e.g., Waterstones, Amazon, or another major retailer) will be confirmed with winners.