Beyond the Frame: Inside the ORMS International Photography Prize at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026

The 2026 fair promises to build on this ideology by challenging the very definition of the mediums of fine art, such as photography. This significant pivot in the fair’s approach offers photographers the opportunity to reposition their work from commercial assets into collectable art, starting a new and important dialogue around cross-disciplinary mediums within the fine art space. 

Against the backdrop of this important shift for the future of the fair, ORMS in partnership with Canon are honoured to announce the introduction of the ORMS Photography Prize at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2026.

The prize which focuses on photography excellence, will be judged by a highly esteemed panel that includes Mike Ormrod, Roger Ballen and Gabrielle Kannemeyer.

In this article, we dig a little deeper and ask the judges what they expect to see as they evaluate the works of the ORMS Photography Prize for the very first time.  

Roger Ballen 

Roger Ballen is internationally recognized for his psychologically intense work that explores the subconscious and the human condition. With over five decades of practice, he brings a sharp eye for formal strength, authenticity, and lasting impact to the ORMS Photography Prize jury.

Can you share a moment when art shifted your own perspective, either as creator or observer?

I do not like to think of my development as informed by a single ‘lightbulb’ moment, but rather as incremental. I firmly believe that being an artist is like being an athlete. I take photographs every day: I train; I immerse myself in the process and dialogue with myself and my work. It is within this quiet and disciplined daily practice of working that revelations emerge, and the creator himself is changed.

What criteria will you be using to evaluate entries for the ORMS Photography Prize, and what qualities stand out to you most?

As I mentioned in a previous question, formal and technical skill, as well as coherence, are significant. Psychological depth and authenticity are also vital to me. I will be looking for a level of uniqueness and impact, and at the relevance and memorability of the work within the larger contemporary photographic context.

Telling us a little more about yourself, how do you see the role of photography in capturing not just surface appearances but deeper psychological truths?

It is true that before digital manipulation, photography carried the authority of a documenter or recorder of reality. It was assumed that the camera could show what had objectively been there. However, my photographs are not documentary. Instead, they seek to capture qualities of the unconscious mind and to activate these in the viewer. They engage with unconscious symbols and fears, and they stage processes of the deeper psyche: instinct, but also confusion and contradiction.

Image Credit: Roger Ballen

An important aspect of this is the disruption of ordinary logic. For instance, familiar elements — a room, a chair, a wall, a human figure, an animal — are placed together in ways that feel simultaneously real and unreal, factual and irrational. A drawn figure might merge with a real body; an animal may appear equal in presence to a person; a wall drawing may seem more alive than the human subject. These collisions disturb logic. This also prevents the image from settling into a single meaning.

When something that appears real begins to behave strangely, and concepts and binaries are shattered, the viewer further questions the boundary between truth and reality (this metaphysical questioning is perhaps the most profound psychological inquiry). I think it is precisely because of the truthfulness historically attributed to the camera that this deeper psychological revelation can occur.

In curating your work over many decades, what recurring themes have guided your creative evolution?

Across five decades, the core interests have remained.. My work explores the subconscious mind and the underbelly of the human condition—themes of chaos and order, control and madness, instinct and repression. I am interested in unruly states of being and in breaking through socially constructed surfaces to reveal something more primal and universal.

Within this framework, other recurring themes include: the animal and human relation, life and death, archetypal psychological symbols, and experiences of marginalization or otherness. My experimentation with various mediums has also surfaced vital philosophical questions about them. How does a drawing operate in a photograph? When does a photograph cease to be one? When do photographic installations become ‘theatrical’. 

How do you balance formal technique with emotional or conceptual impact when judging contemporary art?

For me, form has always been foundational. In other words, it is the structural organization of the artwork, from the framing and spatial relationships to the use of light and the creation of balance and tension, that communicates concepts and expresses feeling. Photography is the artform which captures a single moment in which all elements come together to create meaning. One could therefore say that form does not only create meaning; it is meaning. My eye is finely tuned to these elements to determine coherence: when form and concept feel inseparable.

Formal coherence is an essential foundation. Nonetheless, I think that psychological impact ultimately transcends this technical skill. Many photographs are certainly accomplished – but they lack authenticity. It is one thing to communicate some message successfully, but another to express a vision that comes from deep within one’s psyche, soul and experience. This work does not exist simply to be beautiful or to follow trends. There is a sense that the artist could not have made anything else, and that the work is expressed in a unique (not borrowed) visual language.

Thames and Hudson have just published your first book in colour Spirits and Spaces. Please let me know more about this publication which you will be signing at the booth of Jonathan Ball during the Cape Town Art Fair at 12 on Saturday February 21st.

Spirits and Spaces, published by Thames & Hudson, is the first monograph to present my work in colour. For many years I expressed no interest in working with colour, but in 2016 I began experimenting with it after receiving a Leica SL camera. That shift opened new possibilities. Colour became another structural element in the construction of psychological space, allowing me to use light in more expressive and experimental ways.

The images in Spirits and Spaces, developed in close collaboration with my artistic director Marguerite Rossouw, were produced in a claustrophobic environment built from worn, wallpapered wooden panels and minimal lighting. Within this dense and oppressive setting, animals, Art Brut-like drawings, and fragmented human forms dominate. Humanity is often reduced to partial presences, while absurdity, chaos, comedy, and tragedy coexist without clear resolution. The book represents both a visual revelation and a natural evolution of the Ballenesque world — a continuation of the same existential psychodrama, now intensified through colour.

Gabrielle Kannemeyer

Gabrielle Kannemeyer’s practice is rooted in community collaboration and archival engagement, with a strong focus on ethics and context. As a juror, she looks for work that shows depth, accountability, and meaningful contribution to contemporary photography.

 How does your own practice inform the way you assess others’ work in a competitive art prize?

My practice is rooted in long term community collaboration and archival thinking. Because of that, when I assess work, I’m less interested in surface aesthetics alone and more attentive to intention and depth of engagement.

I look for evidence of sustained inquiry rather than a single striking image. A clarity of relationship between photographer and subject. Ethical awareness, especially when working within communities. Whether the work contributes something valuable to a visual conversation.

I’m particularly attentive to how photographers position themselves within their work and why they are making the work. Are they extracting? Fetishizing? Observing? Participating? Reframing? Are they a part of what they are photographing? That positionality is something I’m constantly considering when looking out. 

Competitions can reward spectacle for spectacle’s sake. My practice pushes me to look for substance.

What trends or themes are you most excited to see emerging from the submissions to the ORMS Prize?

Without seeing submissions yet, I’d be most excited by hybrid practices (still image / text / audio / installation). Work that engages archives, especially personal, community or family archives. Photographers reclaiming local histories in unexpected ways. A move away from purely aestheticized “beautiful” imagery toward layered storytelling.

In your view, how does an art fair environment shape audience engagement with new work?

It’s expected that Art fairs accelerate attention to artist’s practices and to the industry in general. 

As audiences move quickly through the space, they encounter work briefly and in fragments. This often results in making rapid judgments. That environment can flatten nuance but can definitely also democratize access. 

What role does community context play in your understanding of contemporary photography?

Community context is central. Contemporary photography, especially in South Africa, cannot be separated from history. Colonial image-making, documentary traditions, visual stereotypes and power imbalances all sit beneath the surface.

I am always thinking of the following when looking: who gets to represent whom? Who benefits from the image? Who sees themselves reflected?

I’m interested in work that feels accountable, work that understands the histories it inherits and either interrogates or reimagines them. Photography doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It circulates socially. It affects people. That awareness is part of contemporary practice to me.

I’m drawn to projects that balance formal innovation with emotional resonance, work that feels both conceptually rigorous and human at the same time. I’d like to see work that pushes against formal conventions.

Image Credit: Gabrielle Kannemeyer

How can artists integrate storytelling with visual innovation to expand the reach of their practice?

Storytelling doesn’t need to be literal narrative. It can be embedded in sequencing, material choices, titles and captions, collaboration with subjects etc.

Visual innovation without emotional grounding can feel empty and story without formal strength can feel didactic. I think visual experimentation helps to explore different ways to expand the reach of one’s language.

Storytelling expands reach when it creates entry points so when audiences can recognize themselves or feel invited into a lived world rather than observing it from a distance.

This significant change marks an exciting new direction for the photography industry as a whole. The introduction of the ORMS Photography Prize signals more than a shift in our understanding of fine art, it signifies the momentum of what is to come.

Cover image credit: Investec Cape Town Art Fair