At the LagosPhoto Festival, Tender Photos has curated Kindred, a constellation of 24 photographs and texts featured in the newsletter archive of Tender Photos. Showing an asynchronous cascade of images and blocks of text on both walls, viewers are invited to match an image with its corresponding caption.

Tender Visions is a new cross-disciplinary commissioning program for photographers and writers based on the African continent, produced by Tender Photos and supported by funding from the Open Society Foundations. 13 photographers have been commissioned to produce new work within their communities, guided by predefined themes, and in collaboration with 26 writers, who are to write original creative or critical responses to the photographic projects.

It has been a pleasure to feature the work of the Tender Photo Editorial Fellows during the past few months. Five writers based on the African continent have worked with the cofounders of Tender Photos, Emmanuel Iduma and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, to initiate and facilitate correspondence with the featured photographers.

Tender Photos is pleased to announce a call for applications to Tender Visions, a new cross-disciplinary commissioning program for photographers and writers based on the African continent, supported by funding from the Open Society Foundations.

From March to August, the Fellows will engage in a range of activities intended to deepen their engagement with photography produced on the African continent. Launched in 2024, the Fellowship supports writers and curators with interest in art writing, criticism, and arts journalism. Beginning with the April 2 issue of the newsletter,

Tender Photo has championed the work of over 145 photographers in the last three years, publishing a well-received weekly newsletter and collaborative archive of African photography. The Tender Photo Editorial Fellowship will draw from extensive dialogues on photography to support writers with interest in arts writing and arts journalism, specifically those who do not have a significant publication history.

The fellowship is targeted at early to mid-career individuals who write in English and are interested in deepening their engagement with photography about the continent. Preference will be given to those with little to no formal training in the visual arts or art criticism. A good publication history is assumed, as well as a grasp of the newsletter’s ethos and format.