Adidas announces winner of £10,000 Breaking Barriers photography prize

Winner Alice Mann will create a new body of work exploring London-based women’s football clubs

The adidas Breaking Barriers commission brings together adidas’ She Breaks Barriers initiative and the British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus award, which seek to inspire the next generation of female athletes, creators and leaders, and celebrate the work of exceptional female-identifying photographers respectively.

Accompanied by a British Journal of Photography journalist, prize-winner Alice Mann will explore London’s women’s football communities and create a new narrative-led series based around the experiences and motivations of both individual players and teams as a whole. The series is intended to delve into the impact that football plays in these women’s lives both on and off the pitch.

Speaking about the upcoming project, Alice said: “The commission interests me because it centres around women. My work challenges representational stereotypes and explores notions of femininity. So, I felt really excited by this. I am interested in the human element of the story and the communities that have formed. The work does not need to be about these individuals as football players – it can be about them as people in the context of the sport.”

Studio 1854’s in-house creative team will collaborate with the photographer on the commission from conception to completion. With a strong body of work behind her, Alice’s work on the project looks to be promising.

For more information, please visit the Studio 1854 website.