10×10 Photobooks is very excited and pleased to announce the winners of the latest cycle of Research Grants on Photobook History. This fifth edition continues the program’s focus on research and scholarship that seeks to fill gaps and provide missing information in the history of the photobook. For this cycle, 10×10 awarded grants related to 10×10 Photobooks’ forthcoming publication on the history of photobooks from Africa and its diaspora. The three winning proposals focus on photobook research on Black identity, Africa and the African diaspora. We were again impressed by the strength and breadth of the submissions, reflecting the interest and energy in the photobook world, and for this cycle, we are very happy to award these grants.
The three recipients of this year’s research grants are:
Afi Venessa Appiah
Research Topic: Informal Photobook Practices in the Archive of ‘La Boule Noire’
Jury comment: “The exploration of the archive of La Boule Noire offers an intimate record of what third spaces have always made possible in African visual culture. The nightclub, the bar, and the social hall have always served as communal gathering places where Black urban life was photographed on its own terms, revealing political and social realities. So much of what is most vital in African photographic and filmic practice has emerged from exactly these kinds of spaces, and this research is a chance to sit with that history closely, to understand how images made in moments of pleasure and self-possession became their own form of archive and testimony.” —Amy Sall
Matseliso Motsoane
Research Topic: “Hae ke Hole”: The Transnational Visualities of Southern African Photographic Subjects
Jury comment: “The photos exchanged between migrant workers and their families in the little-known country of Lesotho reveal how photographs can recover lives and histories that might otherwise be forgotten. This is the beauty of the grants that will make all of the difference.” —Diane Frankel
Valéria Reis
Research Topic: Photobooks as Acts of Permanence: Mapping the History of Black Self-Documentation in Brazil
Jury comment: “Valéria’s proposal charts the journey of documenting the undocumented, of valuing objects, and telegraphing their stories within a Brazilian context with emphasis on religion, Black identity, and history. Her determination to uncover histories and broaden audiences was deeply compelling, and we felt that the photographs, stories and people who hold these memories would be honored by this research.” —Mariama Attah
Many thanks to our jurors, Amy Sall, Diane Frankel and Mariama Attah for their work in reviewing and considering the many proposals.
The Jurors:
Amy Sall is a writer, researcher, collector-archivist, and cultural advisor based in New York, specializing in photography, cinema, and visual culture from Africa and its diasporas. She is the author of The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power (Thames & Hudson, 2024), a comprehensive study of postcolonial and contemporary image-making in Africa. Sall is the founding editor of SUNU: Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought + Aesthetics, and founder of The Sall Collection, a private assemblage of vernacular photography, printed matter, and ephemera with a pan-African focus. She previously taught at The New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. As a cultural advisor and strategist, she partners with initiatives that advance African and diasporic artistic production and preservation. Her postdisciplinary practice fosters ethical, critical, and accessible engagement with African arts, memory work, and culture.
Diane Frankel has twenty-five years of experience in the non-profit arena, serving as the director of graduate programs in museum studies at John F. Kennedy University and the founding director of the Bay Area Discovery Museum. As a presidential appointee of President Clinton, she headed the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, DC. Frankel has served as a consultant to arts and cultural organizations, as an affiliate of Management Consultants for the Arts and as the Executive Director of the Artists’ Legacy Foundation. Ms. Frankel was president of Arttable (2003-2005) and served as chair of the San Francisco Art Institute Board of Trustees (2010- 2013) and on the Alliance of Artists Communities Board of Trustees. Frankel is a member of the board of the Museum of the African Diaspora and was a member of the Tate African Art Council and the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian. She is the chair of the George Rickey Foundation and a member of the Jay DeFeo Foundation.
Mariama Attah is a curator, writer and lecturer with a particular interest in overlooked visual histories, and understanding how photography and visual culture can be used to amplify underrepresented voices and close the gap between art and audiences. Attah is currently Exhibitions Lead at National Museums Liverpool. Previous roles include Director of Metal Culture Liverpool, Associate Curator for Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Curator at National Portrait Gallery, Head of Exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, Editor of Foam Magazine, Curator at Photoworks, and Commissioning and Managing Editor of the yearly magazine Photoworks Annual.
The jury and 10×10 congratulate the winners and look forward to sharing the results of their research with the photobook community in the next year.
The 10×10 Photobooks Grants Program is directed by Marjorie Ornston.
10×10’s Research Grants for Cycle 5 (2026-2027) are generously underwritten by Richard Sun and the Grace Jones Richardson Family Trust.