Laia Abril (b. 1986) is an artist working across photography, writing, video and sound. Focusing on biopolitics and gender, her practice examines how systems of power shape the ways histories, bodies and forms of violence are documented and represented. Her installations have been exhibited worldwide, and her work is held in the collections of institutions including Centre Pompidou (Paris), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), MACBA (Barcelona), Photo Elysée (Lausanne) and Fotomuseum (Winterthur), among others. She has authored several acclaimed books, and won a number of awards, including Spain’s National Photography Award in 2023, the Foam Paul Huf Award (Amsterdam) and the Aperture PhotoBook Award (New York/Paris). She is a Senior Lecturer at HSLU in Lucerne, Switzerland, and is represented by the Gallery Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris and Set Espai d’Art in Valencia. 

What excites you most about this year's shortlist?
The shortlist excites me every year! The 2027 artists reflect the expansive range and power of photography today.

Can you sum up this year’s shortlist in three words?
Responsive, urgent, challenging 

Shoair Mavlian is Director of The Photographers' Gallery where she leads the strategic vision and artistic direction of the Gallery. She was previously Director of Photoworks where she oversaw the exhibitions, biennial festival, commissions, learning and engagement, publishing and digital content. Before that Mavlian was Assistant Curator, Photography and International Art at Tate Modern, London.

What excites you most about this year's shortlist? 
The group of artists is an excellent reflection of our contemporary concerns, both in terms of form and the urgency to describe and make sense of the instability of reality. 

Can you sum up this year’s shortlist in three words?
Concerned, experimental, immersive 

Damarice Amao (b.1984, France) is curator for the photography collection department at the MNAM-Centre Pompidou, Paris. Her research focuses on modern French and European photography from the interwar years, in relation to political and social issues. At the Centre Pompidou, Paris, she curated Décadrage colonial: Anticolonialisme, Surréalisme, Photographie moderne (2022), and co-curated Dora Maar (2019) and Photographie: arme de classe (2018).  At the Rencontres d’Arles, she presented Ghana! Dreaming Independence (1957-1976), Nicole Gravier: Mythes et Clichés (ENSP, 2023) and Charlotte Perriand: Politique du photomontage (2021). She has contributed to numerous publications and exhibition catalogues, including recently Wolfgang Tillmans (2025), Lisette Model (2025), Marie-Laure de Decker (2025) and Denise Bellon (2025).

What excites you most about this year's shortlist?
From photographic archives to radical contemporary experiments, the 2027 shortlist proves how urgently photography speaks to our times.

Can you sum up this year’s shortlist in three words?
Inspiring, experimental, touching 

Anne-Marie Beckmann is a German-French art historian and curator. She is the Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. Since 1999 she has curated the Art Collection Deutsche Börse, an international collection of contemporary photography, and developed the company's cultural programme. Beckmann is a lecturer and Honorary Professor at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach/Main.

What excites you about this year’s shortlist?
The selected artists bend the edges of photography and representation, expanding the image into the realm of the sensory and the experiential. Essential and urgent gestures in a world with more images produced than the capacity to read them.

Please can you sum up the shortlist in three words?
Profundity, diversity, exploration. 

Verónica Fieiras is an artist, editor and educator, and the founder of the independent publishing houses Riot Books and Chaco. 

Her editorial work has received awards including the Shannon Michael Cane Award from Printed Matter, New York (2019), the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award (2013), and First Prize for Best Photobook at the Latin American Photography Colloquium in Mexico (2017), among others. Her work has also been recognised by Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles Author Book, the Best Book of the Year at the Photobook Festival Kassel, among others.  Her books are held in public and private collections including those of Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, Erik Kessels, Joan Fontcuberta, MoMA, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico. She has curated exhibitions focusing on the creative process and conceptualisation of photobooks, in Mexico, Madrid, and Barcelona.