Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5

Expanded photography works using still and moving image, sound and installation by Roman Manfredi and Sayuri Ichida will be presented as two solo shows within one UK touring exhibition throughout 2026 as awardees of the fifth Jerwood/Photoworks Awards.

Both series of new works look at specific locations and share reflections on broader society. While both artists attempt to depict what is not always visible, Ichida explores how shifting landscapes quietly reshape the fabric of community life, and Roman reflects on how communities remain tethered to landscapes held still, frozen in time and memory.

TRA by Roman Manfredi draws inspiration from the ancient Neapolitan figure of the femminiello, a revered presence considered spiritually favourable, the work pays homage to locals who live outside binary gender expectations. The word tra, Italian for a state of being between, among and within, speaks in this work to an energetic space where masculine and feminine converge and dissolve, and categories blur into something more elemental. While dual-spirited identities have often been acknowledged in male-assigned bodies, female-born expressions of gender variance have historically been dismissed or disparaged, often carrying cultural and class-based stigma.

Sayuri Ichida’s work, 空席 (Kūseki), meaning “empty seats”, addresses Japan’s rapid population decline, with rural communities among the hardest hit. Between 2002 and 2020, nearly 9,000 schools closed, with around 450 more shutting down each year. As birth rates fall and towns shrink, schools, once central to daily life, stand empty, their presence quietly fading from the landscape. The presentation of Kūseki spans across photography, collage, sound and sculptural installation in an effort to respond to this ongoing disappearance.

Both artists will be giving a talk on Saturday 12th September at 1pm, followed by an opening reception from 2 till 4pm.

The exhibition is part of the Season of Photography 2026, a celebration of photography in Scotland running from 1st September – 20th December 2026.