We’re excited to announce the recipient and runners-up for the Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant. This year’s grant awarded one winner $5,000 to help them further their photography practice along with a two-year Flickr Pro membership, and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership. The 10 talented runners-up will receive a one-year Flickr Pro membership and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership.

The theme for this year’s grant, The Spaces We Occupy brought about a stunning collection of photos, both beautiful and inspiring. The judging panel consisted of BWP founder, Polly Irungu; Genesis Falls, an esteemed member of both BWP and Flickr and winner of the 2023 grant; MacKenzie Joslin along with the Flickr Community team; and Frederick Van Johnson from This Week in Photo.

Meet grant recipient and grand prize winner – Eleonore Menga

About the Photographer

Eleonore Menga is a Montreal-based portrait and documentary photographer, originally from Switzerland. With a background in cultural anthropology and a commercial photography diploma from Dawson College, her work is rooted in identity, emotion, and connection. She draws inspiration from her diverse heritage and community, focusing on the beauty and resilience of Afrodescendant and diasporic stories. A mother of four, she loves capturing families in their everyday environments—where intimacy and authenticity quietly unfold.

About the winning photo 

“This image is a tribute to Carrie Mae Weems’ work, capturing the joyful chaos of life in a large family. In the photo, I am seen on the right, smiling, surrounded by my children and our cat, all vying for my attention. Through the technique of double exposure, I show myself and my children in different corners of the room, symbolizing the constant motion of family life and the fleeting nature of time. This piece reflects the spaces we occupy—those that are filled with love, noise, and the inevitable transitions as children grow up and eventually leave the home.”

Meet the amazing and talented runners – up

Love in Black August by Gabrielle Joseph 

“This photo is the epitome of what I aim to capture with my camera. It’s a raw, unprovoked and unaltered image of the black experience and how beautiful it can be.”

Making Hair by Odochi Akwani

“When I think of the spaces I occupy, I think of community and vulnerability. Hair holds deep cultural significance in Black communities, especially for women. It’s something we commiserate over, share tips about, and navigate together, shaped by both personal choice and societal beauty standards—whether natural or relaxed.  I chose this photo because it captures the shared experience of getting your hair done. My mom is the one in the chair, and my aunt is helping the hairdresser—often, it’s a collective effort, with multiple women involved. These moments are physically intimate and emotionally open. The salon or living room becomes a space of care, trust, and deep understanding—a uniquely Black, often intergenerational, space where we see and support each other.”

The spaces you occupy  by Ali Truman

“This image captures a young Black girl walking along the rocks of a creek, immersed in the quiet freedom of nature. It reflects both the physical space—an untouched natural environment—and the symbolic space of Black childhood, often constrained by societal expectations. The creek represents a place of exploration and possibility, where she can move freely, unburdened by the world’s gaze. In submitting this image, I want to highlight the importance of spaces where Black children can exist without restriction—spaces that nurture curiosity, joy, and a deep connection to the natural world. Captured on film.”

Hallelujah! by Tobi Sobowale

“This photo from The C&S Church in the United Kingdom project captures the act of worship in the context of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, a church founded in Nigeria in 1925. It highlights the personal and communal spaces that shape the lives of its young members in the diaspora. The act of lifting hands and shouting hallelujah reflects not just a spiritual engagement, but also the connection between identity, heritage, and faith in a space that blends Nigerian traditions with British life. By documenting the intimate settings of these services, the photo illustrates how the spaces we occupy—whether physical or cultural—serve as places for personal and collective expression. It also invites reflection on how spaces like these, where both the sacred and cultural intersect, offer a sense of belonging and connection for this community.”

2020 by Kimberley Coleman

“For the theme The Spaces We Occupy, I chose an image that encapsulates a period when all of us were compelled to remain within a singular space for an extended time. Confinement often teaches us something. During COVID, I learned a lot about myself, my family, and the ways in which the three of us occupied our home and our bodies—how we showed up for work, for each other, and for ourselves.  This image was taken just three weeks after lockdown began, at a time when my family—my sister, my nephew, and I—were just beginning to feel the weight of our new, yet temporary, reality. Here, we are oscillating, adjusting, and learning to flow together within a shared space. Me—restless, creating, and tinkering. My sister—focused and working. My nephew—cleaning and constantly reorganizing.  This is us, adapting.”

The Spaces we occupy : Reroute and re-root by Tariro Zinyemba

“Foolishly, I had sworn that I was never going to move back into my parent’s home especially after my father’s passing but life had other plans for me.  Like many, I overlooked how lucky I was to have a place to fall back on when times get hard, home with amai (mother). Moving back home felt like the ultimate betrayal to myself and as if my world got even smaller since I was moving from the city to a small town. I have nothing but time and space to just be here. That has pointed my campus in the direction of nature, its serenity and the slowness of it all.  Sometimes I still struggle to shake off the feeling that life is passing me by and the change being a solitary confinement of sorts as I’m mostly in my own company with my thoughts. I guess that’s what has reignited the appeal of watching birds and of late dragonflies fly all so freely while I watch from the window.   It’s already hard enough to feel a sense of belonging in spaces as an anxious introvert, however this has been an opportunity to reroute and re-root while rediscovering the spaces I occupy and spaces I could occupy.”

The Spaces We Occupy – Butter and Grace by Shakira Hunt

“The spaces we occupy are not just physical; they are also the spaces where love, care, and legacy live. This image recreates a childhood memory of my grandmother and me—an intimate ritual of care where I applied shea butter to her back each morning before school. What once felt routine now holds deep meaning. It reminds me that care is reciprocal, that softness is an inheritance, and that we occupy safe spaces with loved ones to both give and receive love. This photograph honors the ways Black women create and sustain spaces of tenderness, healing, and belonging.”

The spaces I occupy by Marissa McDowell

“I’m a music photographer and I find inspiration in not only shooting some of the world’s most talented musicians at the height of their craft, but also in the fans and concert goers who are fully in the moment at the shows. If you look out into the crowd during a concert you can see so many beautiful moments of joy and celebration. This particular photo was at Teyana Taylor’s “The Last Rose Petal Tour” and I managed to capture this moment of one of the fans in the front row, and it’s been one of my favorites photos now for the past few years. Live music and the feeling it gives you are like magic to me and I’m honored to capture these special moments.” 

Harper_AmtrakConductor by Rita Harper

“For the past year, I have been taking the Amtrak train around the country and it has been meditative, reflective, and educational. I have occupied spaces on these railroads, on these same trains that my ancestors occupied during the great migration. Trains carried us from the lush greens of Mississippi to new opportunity waiting in Chicago. From the red clay of Georgia, the new promise and hope waiting in New York. I am occupying space and navigating the same trails that have many of family members scattered in different regions in the country. For this project, I have also been interviewing and photographing Amtrak conductors and learning about the space they occupy. I hear tales of a life on the rails and what its like to hold space in world that feels so nostalgic.”

the spaces you occupy by Andréa Bailey

“My photo is about how we exist in different spaces at once: physically, emotionally, and through history. The original Coventry Cathedral was destroyed during WWII while the world fought fascism, and that history feels especially relevant now. Being there, in the rebuilt space, felt heavy with memory. Then I saw an art piece from my hometown of Cincinnati — not in the photo, but close by — and it reminded me of how our stories travel with us. Even though it was just me and the organist, I felt connected across time and place, standing in a moment that held a lot more than just hymn he gently played.”

Please join us in celebrating these photographers and the Black Women Photographers community.