The programme is open to any professional artist or photographer (including self-taught) who, for the duration of the mentorship programme, is not enrolled in another mentorship programme or academic course (including art or photography schools). Fluency in at least one of the following languages is required: French, English, Italian, Arabic, German, Farsi, Mandarin.
Registration is free, and mentees receive CHF 500 in support for their project at the end of the programme. Each person who applies to the programme can attend (for free) two online masterclasses given in English during the programme.
The 2026 mentors are: Holly Roussell, Abdo Shanan, Sabine Hess, Yann Mingard, Mahalia Taje Giotto, Hannah Darabi, Jermaine Francis, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Andrea Copetti. Each mentor selects the project that they want to accompany from the received applications.
The applications are open from 20 February to 22 March 2026. The selection will be announced by the end of April.
Applications are possible exclusively via the online form, after reading the conditions for participation.
PRESENTATION OF THE 2026 MENTORS
Holly Roussell 容思玉 (b. 1989) is an American/Swiss curator, researcher, author and museologist, specializing in photography and contemporary art from East Asia. She has organized numerous group and solo exhibitions for museums, biennales, and festivals around the world, including at the Folkwang Museum (DE), MUCEM (Marseille), NGV (Melbourne), and the MMCA—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, among others. Currently based in Paris, Roussell serves as curator at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing since 2021. Prior to this, she worked as an independent curator in China and Switzerland, and spent five years at Photo Élysée in Lausanne. In 2022, Roussell was guest curator of Paris Photo’s Curiosa sector for emerging artists. Recent projects include Slide/Show: Light Images in Chinese Contemporary Art (2023-2026); Feng Li: White Nights in Wonderland (Fotografiska Shanghai/Stockholm/Berlin, 2023–2025); Riar Rizaldi: A Phantom Ride of the Sunda Plate (Centre de la photographie Genève, 2024); the major touring exhibition and publication Civilization: The Way We Live Now (co-curated with William A. Ewing, 2018–present); and Mo Yi: Me in My Landscape (Rencontres d’Arles/UCCA, 2024). In 2026, Roussell will organize a major solo exhibition of French artist and collector Thomas Sauvin, Beijing Silvermine: Archive Anthology for Fotografiska Shanghai and co-author one of the first English language survey books on Korean photography for Thames & Hudson, UK, Shine Brightly: Korean Photography Since 1957.
Languages: French, English and Mandarin
Abdo Shanan was born in 1982 in Oran, Algeria to a Sudanese father and an Algerian mother. Abdo studied Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Sirte, Libya until 2006. In 2012, he undertook an internship at Magnum Photos Paris, which gave him the opportunity to reflect on his photographic approach. In 2015, Abdo received a nomination for Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund, the Same year he co-founded collective220, a collective for Algerian photographers. A year later in 2016 his series Diary:Exile was selected by the Addis Fotofest. Abdo in 2019 won The CAP Prize (Contemporary African Photography) for his project Dry, in the same year he was selected for Joop Swart Masterclass by World Press Photo. In 2020, he was a winner of The Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus Incipiens. In the same year, he co-curated Narratives from Algeria at Photoforum Pasquart in Bienne, Switzerland. In 2022, he was one of Sheikh Saoud Al Thani Awards for his project A Little Louder. He had the same year his first solo show at Centre de la photographie Genève.
Languages: Arabic, English, French
Sabine Hess is a Swiss/German photographer, based in Thun and Biel, Switzerland. She graduated from London College of Communication, UAL. Sabine is interested in our relationship with nature, intimate stories of life and togetherness. Alongside her documentary projects, Hess has experience in editorial and portraiture photography. Her work appeared in magazines such as the FT Weekend Magazine, Das Magazin, M le Magazine du Monde, NZZ Folio, Die Zeit, Monocle and Libération. Her first book You Felt the Roots Grow was shortlisted for the Star Photobook Dummy Award and was published by Ciao Press and Witty Books in 2023. Her second book, One Bed Two Blankets, Seventy-Six Rules, was created in collaboration with Nicolas Polli in 2023. Exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Thun, Centre de la Photographie Genève, Biennale Images Vevey, Verzasca Fotofestival, Peckham 24.
Languages: German and English
Yann Mingard lives and works in Gorgier, Switzerland. His photographic projects are focused on analysis of reality, which he approaches with documentary accuracy to create a poetic and critical reflection on our relationship with the world, memory, and the preservation of all living things. He works almost exclusively on long-term series, developed as research projects. Every image forms part of a coherent whole, conceived as a body of work rather than an individual piece. To date, he has published seven monographs. Yann Mingard’s work has been exhibited at Photo Elysée, the Finnish Museum of Photography, the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Folkwang Museum and the Lianzhou Photo Festival, among others. His photographs are included in major collections such as those of Photo Elysée, the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Folkwang Museum, Mast and various private collections. He is represented by Parrotta Contemporary Art Gallery in Germany.
Language: French
Graduating with a MA in photography from ECAL in 2022, Mahalia Giotto alias taje (CH, 1992) explores topics related to the body, identity and representation. His first book, existential boner (SPBH/ECAL, 2023), was exhibited at Images Vevey, in a solo show at SPBH Space in Milan, and won the Swiss Design Awards in 2024. Through a personal approach exploring the limits of photography, he questions the binarity of norms, with a new specific focus on masculinity and its many incarnations.
Languages: French and English
Born in Tehran in 1981, Iranian photographer Hannah Darabi studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran, followed by Paris VIII-Saint-Denis University. Now based in Paris, her homeland remains the main subject of most of her photographic series. In order to reveal the complex political situation in her country, she creates series in which her photographs interact with other materials, such as texts, archival images, and objects. The artist’s book holds a special place among other forms of representation she explores. Her books are part of various public and private collections, and her work Rue Enghelab, la révolution par les livres, Iran 1979-1983, has been published in 2019 by Spector Books and Le Bal. Soleil of Persian Square, her recent research-creation project about the Iranian diaspora in Southern California and its popular music, was published by the Gwinzegal Art Centre in 2021. In 2022, Hannah Darabi received the Bernd und Hilla Becher Prize from the city of Düsseldorf for her entire artistic practice. In 2025, she was awarded the Prix Elysée for her project on popular Iranian dance, Why Don’t You Dance?.
Languages: French, English, Farsi
Jermaine Francis is a London based lens based artist/ photographer who explores our physical, historical, psychological negotiations of space, exploring issues of Power, class, race, social, political within visual culture. His work has been exhibited in shows at the International Centre of Photography New York, The National Portrait Gallery London,Haus Wien Austr, GaleriePcp Paris, Centre of British Photography London,The Saatchi Gallery London,Pembroke JCR Gallery Oxford,The Camden Arts Centre , Sherbert Green London , Peckham 24 Photo Festival 2024, The Impression Gallery Bradford, V&A Lates,Glass Tank Oxford Brookes University, Dulwich picture Gallery London, and at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery. He co-curated the group show Notes on a Native Son, After Baldwin with Emma Bowkett as part of the 2023 edition of Peckham 24 Photo Festival. His work has also appeared in monographs, The Art of Protest: Political Art and Activism, ICP Concerned Global Images for Global Crisis & Photo No’s No’s. He has also written for a 1000 words Photographic Magazine,Thames & Hudson,BoyBrother Friend and Beauty Papers… Currently an associate Lecturer in MA Media Studies at the Royal College Art, MA Documentary Photography & Photojournalism London College of Communications, and BA Fashion Communications Central St Martins School of Design.
Language: English
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah (b. 1990, Bonn) is a German-Ghanaian artist based in Zurich. Working across photographic objects, process-driven installation, and painting, her practice explores image, material, and memory as unstable, embodied fields. Recent solo exhibitions include Corner Dry Lungs at MMK Frankfurt and The House Is a Body at Bristol Photo Festival, alongside presentations at Art Basel Hong Kong and Foam Amsterdam. Her work is held in public collections including Kunsthaus Zürich, MMK Frankfurt, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. She is a recipient of the Swiss Art Award and multiple grants. In 2026, she will present solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Glarus, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris, and Deichtorhallen Hamburg.
Languages: German, English
Andrea Copetti is the founder and manager of Tipi Bookshop, an independent photography bookshop opened in Brussels in 2012. After training first in art and illustration, followed by photography at the École de Recherche Graphique in Brussels, Andrea decided to dedicate his focus to creating a space entirely devoted to photobooks, independent publishing, and experimental practices in photography. For more than a decade, Tipi Bookshop has stood out for its highly personal selection of publications: self-published photobooks, confidential publications, and projects by established and emerging artists. Andrea seeks to bring visibility to works that are often marginalised by traditional channels and has created a space where customers can spend time exploring, touching and flipping through books. In addition to the bookshop, Copetti works with authors and photographers to help them design their own publications. His advice covers visual storytelling, editorial structure and choice of materials. As part of this, he provides a wide range of paper samples that can be viewed on site, enabling artists to understand the impact of the medium on the photographic narrative. Thanks to this rigorous and generous approach, Andrea Copetti has made Tipi Bookshop a haven for independent publishing and an important gathering place for the photobook community in Brussels and beyond.
Languages: French, English, exchanges possible in Italian
