PhD student wins prestigious international award for photography work

A student has won an international award for her photography work inspired by a relative’s experience with dementia.

PhD student Eliza Stephens received an Excellent Photographer Award at the 2026 Pingyao International Photography Festival in China for her project, Phantom Mirror.

Her work was showcased in The Future is Experimental: 20 Artists Redefining Photography, a group exhibition presented through a collaboration with Barcelona’s Experimental Photo Festival.

Eliza’s work explores dementia, memory and identity through images developed in dialogue with generative artificial intelligence.

Eliza, who graduated with a BA (Hons) Photography in 2025, said: “I’m incredibly excited about winning the award, and slightly stunned.

“Phantom Mirror grew from my experience of caring for someone with dementia, so having it recognised in China means a great deal.

“I’m especially moved that people from another culture connected with something so personal. It shows how powerfully images can communicate across language and cultural boundaries.

“This project developed with the support of my photography tutors at Suffolk, and I’m incredibly grateful to them. To see work that began there reach an international audience, and receive this recognition, means a great deal to me.”

The judges said they were struck by the power of the images and the focus on dementia, a growing challenge in China that can still be difficult to discuss openly.

Phantom Mirror was exhibited in China as part of a group show, The Future is Experimental, curated by the Experimental Photo Festival in Barcelona. The group exhibition, including Eliza’s work, is now travelling to three venues in India.

Noel Bowler, Senior Lecturer in BA (Hons) Photography and Visual Media, said: “What Eliza has achieved at Pingyao is genuinely extraordinary. To be selected from over 2,600 photographers across 34 countries, and to be one of only two international recipients of the Excellent Photographer Award, speaks volumes about the ambition and power of Phantom Mirror.

“Eliza’s success is a reminder that transformative work can begin in a lecture room in Ipswich and reach an international stage.

“For our current students, seeing a recent graduate and now a PhD researcher achieve this level of recognition demonstrates what is possible when creative ambition is nurtured within a specialist programme led by people who know and love the field.”

Eliza’s work was highly commended by the jury for Source Magazine’s Graduate Photography Online 2025, published in the 20 Experimental Photographers for Analogue Magazine and shown at the Britten Pears Arts’ Summer Contemporary exhibition. She also displayed her work in a solo exhibition at the University of Suffolk earlier this year.

For more information on the BA (Hons) Photography and Visual Media course, visit the website here.

For further information about PhD study, visit the website here.