Emerging photographers invited to represent Wales in new national commission

Emerging photographers are being invited to help shape how Wales is seen through a new national portrait commission.

The commission, offered by the National Library of Wales for emerging or early career photographers, will include professional mentorship and a chance for their work to be added to the National Collection. 

Made possible by CELF, the national contemporary art gallery for Wales, the commission asks applicants to create a series of ten photographic portraits that represent the people of Wales today.

The commission links in with the current Portrait and Power exhibition at the National Library, which focuses on those that have often been left out of history, and implores how traditional roles reflect the stories we tell about gender, race, class, and belonging.

After submitting pitches, successful candidates will receive the mentorship of exhibiting artists Denver Shai and Taiye Omokore, whose work is also held in the National Library of Wales.

Taiye Omokore is a Nigerian-born photographer, filmmaker, and creative director based between Cardiff. His work explores cultural identity, migration, and representation through portraiture and visual storytelling, often centring Black voices and underrepresented communities in Wales and beyond.

His work was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards and exhibited at Somerset House, among other exhibitions at Ffotogallery, the National Library of Wales, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

Taiye is the founder and Editorial Director of KLAT Magazine, a platform dedicated to spotlighting emerging creatives and building community through storytelling.

Taiye commented: “Being commissioned by the National Library of Wales to create Dyfodol Du was a defining moment in my practice. It gave me the space to ask a question I had been carrying since arriving in Wales — whose stories are held in the national archive, and whose are missing?

“Through that work, I began to understand photography not just as documentation but as an act of reclamation.

“That commission confirmed something I now believe deeply: that the visual record of Wales is incomplete without the voices, faces, and cultural objects of the communities who have made their lives here.

“That experience is directly why I am committed to this open call and to the mentorship work that follows. I came to Wales four years ago from Nigeria with no pathway, no network, and no one who had done it before me and left a map.

“What I had was a camera, a practice, and a refusal to be invisible. I want to be the person for the next generation of photographers that I did not have — someone who understands what it costs to build a creative practice as a Black diasporic artist in this country, and who can help others push their work further than they could alone.

“The archive needs these voices. Wales needs these images. And these photographers deserve to be seen.”

Denver Shai is a photographer and visual artist whose practice centres on the human figure. In 2023, she was shortlisted for the worldwide Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize for ‘Out of the Dark’, and is a commissioned contributor to Portrait and Power at the National Library of Wales.

Her preferred camera is a medium format model that uses film, which she favours especially for nude portraits, and she is currently developing her next portrait series focused on the male form.

Denver added: “Creating the photographic project ‘Legacy’ for the National Library of Wales was a great opportunity to add my creative work to their collection and contribute to the historical narrative.

“The Portrait and Power exhibition provided a space where my work could resonate alongside the nation’s archives, creating a bridge between individual experience and collective memory.

“Working alongside CELF to mentor emerging photographers is my way of paying it forward—supporting and championing the next generation of visual storytellers. For applicants, this is your chance to document the present and shape the future of Welsh heritage.”

The completed commissions will also be hosted on CELF and will be permanently preserved in the photographic collection at the National Library of Wales.

Applications

Of the applications received, two will be selected by Library staff and the artist-mentors, Denver Shai and Taiye Omokore.

The selected candidates will then develop their commission with mentorship and receive a fee of £1250 upon submission in early July.

Proposals should be sent to [email protected] and include the following:

• A proposal for the project concept, including who you would like to photograph and why. This can be a text of no more than 200 words, or a few mock images with annotations.
• Examples of previous work or links to relevant sites where this can be viewed, if possible.
• Your name and preferred pronouns, home address, contact details and a brief paragraph about yourself.

Proposals should be submitted no later than 5pm, on 24 April 2026.

Successful applicants will be contacted within a fortnight of the application deadline to discuss the commission and draw up a schedule. The final work must be completed by the 3rd of July 2026.

For more information, visit CELF’s site here.