TTLC MENTORSHIP AWARD RECIPIENTS
2025/26
CELIA BOUGDAL
ALGERIA
Celia’s work explores themes of intimacy, memory, and emotions. She’s often driven by the fleeting and unnoticed moments in daily life where she finds beauty, it’s the way she found to fill the missing pieces in her soul.
Originally from a small town by the sea, she moved to Algiers to study architecture, which led her to start using photography both as a tool to document the architecture of the city and to support her studies. Architecture helped her develop a sense of detail and a sensitivity to light
and colors.For her, photography is not just a visual medium, but a way of healing, of processing what she feels and a form of expression she chose over words, which she often struggles with. In her approach, she tries to reveal the emotional depth of every scene or object that catches her eye. through storytelling she engages with themes that feel closer to her, personal, emotional and often rooted in her own lived experiences.
AMERA ELNAAL
LIBYA
Amera Elnaal is a documentary photographer and journalist exploring themes of disability, memory, and identity. As the daughter of blind parents, she uses visual storytelling to amplify overlooked voices and challenge dominant narratives.
Her practice blends photography, text, and audio, integrating traditional and experimental approaches. With a background in journalism, she merges storytelling with advocacy, highlighting systemic neglect and resilience. Her work has been supported by regional and international institutions and exhibited on various platforms.
Through her lens, Amera documents personal and collective struggles, using photography as a tool for awareness, representation, and social change.
TTLC 6 MONTH MENTORSHIP RECIPIENTS
ISSAM CHORRIB
MOROCCO
Issam Chorrib is a photographer based in Casablanca,Morocco. His practice is rooted in themes of memory, identity, and resistance, often drawing from personal geographies and overlooked social narratives. Through a restrained and poetic approach, he explores the emotional undercurrents of everyday life, using photography as a way to observe, question, and reflect. Working primarily in black and white, Chorrib is interested in slowness and ambiguity—allowing images to remain open, unresolved, and attentive to silence. He is currently developing a long-term photographic series that examines the residual presence of history in contemporary Moroccan society. His work seeks to create space for nuanced visual storytelling, contributing to a broader conversation around the role of photography in shaping cultural memory and social awareness.
EYASU SETEGN
ETHIOPIA
Eyasu Setegn is a self-taught photographer based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He began his journey in photography with a mobile phone, using it to observe and document the world around him. Over time, this simple beginning grew into a deep passion for storytelling through images. Driven by a strong personal philosophy, Eyasu seeks to preserve history by capturing the ever-changing environment, the people within it, and the subtle interactions that define everyday life. His work reflects a desire to understand and document the cultural and social dynamics of his surroundings—offering a quiet yet powerful perspective on contemporary Ethiopian life. While he works professionally in the banking sector, photography remains a n essential part of his life—both as a creative outlet and as a means to engage with the world more deeply.
SARAH EL-RAGHY
EGYPT
Sarah El-Raghy is a photographer and visual storyteller based in Alexandria Egypt who also sometimes researches, translates and writes. Sarah is interested in researching social changes and the impact of active movements on the self and social development context through creative photography. She studied veterinary medicine at Alexandria University and humanities liberal arts at Cairo Institute forHumanities & Liberal Arts in Alexandria (CILASAlex) and she is a member of Taking theHumanities on the Road (THoR) Lab. BernUniversity.
DANIELLA ALMONA
NIGERIA
I'm Daniella Almona, an Igbo photographer and visual storyteller based in Lagos, Nigeria. I am dedicated to creating a visual archive of my ever-evolving community and giving people like me the space to reclaim agency over their identities. Using portraiture as a form of connection, I find joy in documenting the beauty and love within my community as I continue to redefine home. My work is driven by an intrigue for human expression, color theory, and I explore themes of Blackness, queerness, femininity, and joy in my portrait and documentary work using analog and digital photographic methods. I earned my BFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2022, and my work has been exhibited at Photoville New York, Publics Gallery UK, and SCAD Atlanta. I am a member of Black Women Photographers, The Luupe, and Diversify Photo. My work has been recognized by and featured by Capture One, VSCO, Pinterest, GIDA Journal, Photoshelter, Kodak Professional, DEEDS Magazine, NoWahala! Mag, and Nok by Alara.
