The Royal Anthropological Institute, with the RAI Photography Committee, is pleased to announce that the 2026 Photographic Studies Award has been awarded to Rahaab Allana.
Rahaab Allana is Curator and Publisher at the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi, Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (UK), and was honorary Research Associate in the Department of Visual Anthropology at University College, London. A leading voice in South Asian photography and visual culture, he has curated exhibitions, commissioned publications and delivered talks internationally with institutions including Paris Photo, the Folkwang Museum, Rubin Museum (NY), The Science Museum (London), the CSMVS (Mumbai), the National Museum and National Gallery of Modern Art (Delhi).
Founder of PIX and ASAP | art (Alternative South Asia Photography & Art), pioneering platforms for South Asian visual practitioners, Allana has edited critical volumes Unframed (Harpercollins, 2023) and Another Lens (West Havens and Tulika, 2024) on lens-based practices and image histories. He was also Guest Editor for the themed issue Delhi: Looking Out/Looking In, for Aperture (Summer 2021). He serves on Asia Society’s Arts and Culture Committee (India Chapter) and was recently awarded Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Government of France.
An award ceremony will be planned for 2027, more details to follow.