Documentary photographer Nyancho NwaNri won the 2026 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant, now worth $10,000, for 'Of Grace and Concrete', a picture of young ballet students at a free school in Lagos.
Nigerian-born documentary photographer Nyancho NwaNri has won the 2026 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant for her image 'Of Grace and Concrete', according to Flickr's announcement of 28 September 2026. The award includes $10,000, a two-year Flickr Pro membership and a one-year SmugMug Pro membership, while ten runners-up each receive one-year Flickr Pro and SmugMug Pro memberships. For the first time, the winner was named live on stage at MODE, Flickr's inaugural photography festival in Minneapolis. Entrants submitted one photograph and a short statement on the theme 'Traces of Connection', chosen by last year's recipient, Éléonore Menga, who served as guest judge.
In an interview with Fstoppers, NwaNri said she made the picture at a free ballet school in the Ajangbadi area of Lagos, a school that drew international attention in 2020 after a video of a young student dancing in the rain went viral. She photographed a real lesson indoors, which she says was not staged, then asked the children where else they wanted to be photographed; they led her to a weathered concrete platform outside. Her grant statement describes five young ballerinas in white tutus and Ankara headwraps, with a worn building and grass pushing through the concrete behind them.
The grant, started by Flickr and Black Women Photographers (BWP) in 2022 at $1,200, rose to $2,500 in 2023 and $5,000 in 2025 before reaching $10,000 this year, which Fstoppers describes as the largest award in the programme's four cycles. BWP founder Polly Irungu told the outlet that the community has more than 2,100 photographers in over 60 countries and that the money carries no restrictions on how it is spent. NwaNri said she may use hers for professional development courses, equipment, a redesign of her online presence and research for a project linking Brazil and Nigeria; the account of the interview rests on Fstoppers' reporting and the winner's own comments.
