Artist Mayed Almheiri, a student at the University of the Arts Sharjah, is a finalist for the annual Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents prize.
Since its launch in 2018, the award overseen by the French luxury maison has become an intriguing fixture on the international arts calendar, occupying the space where fashion, photography and contemporary visual culture intersect.
For this year's contest, finalists were invited to respond to the recurring theme Face to Face, a deceptively simple brief that encouraged reflection on identity, intimacy and encounter.
The resulting works ranged from quietly poetic to socially charged, exploring questions of gender, the body, memory and belonging through photography and moving image. Together, they offer a portrait of a generation of artists engaging with personal narratives while responding to broader cultural conversations.
Almheiri's entry, called Somatic Anxiety & Not Myself is a triptych of images, each compiled from multiple photographs. Made up of self-portraits, it creates a haunting view of a person, studded with small metal tubes, and is a continuation of a wider series he began in 2025.
One of his submitted works, of body parts against a black background, is an examination of introspection told via disembodied limbs through which the artist confronts “internal states such as anxiety, withdrawal into oneself and alienation”.
Almheiri has previously shown his work as part of Sikka 2026 and he was a participant at Al Jalila Cultural Centre at World Art Dubai.
The Dior award was established as an ongoing dialogue with some of the world's leading art and photography schools, offering emerging photographers and video artists an international platform at a pivotal moment in their careers.
Now in its ninth iteration, the prize continues its search for artists whose work reflects both technical confidence and a distinctive visual language. This year's jury was chaired by British photographer David Sims, whose influential editorial work has shaped contemporary fashion imagery for more than three decades.
Other members of the jury include: French photographer Vasantha Yogananthan; Julie Jones, director of the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie; as well as the award's founding members, Maja Hoffmann, founder and executive president of the Luma Foundation and Luma Arles, and Peter Philips, Dior Make-up's creative and image director.
Almheiri is one of just 10 artists to make the finals, and is joined by Andrea Besset (Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin, Mulhouse); Debora Brune (Fachhochschule Dortmund); Yuan Chen (Tokyo University of the Arts); Marcie Docherty (Central Saint Martins, London); Antoine Genoud (Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne); Hongyu Jiang (Central Saint Martins London); Milena Schilling (Fachhochschule Dortmund); Akari Takenobu (Tokyo University of the Arts); and Mohammed Zeedia (Royal College of Art London), the sole videographer among this year's finalists.
The prize will be awarded on July 9, with the winner receiving a grant worth €10,000 (Dh42,000) from Parfums Christian Dior. Meanwhile, the work of all finalists is on view at Luma Arles's Lampisterie, within the Parc des Ateliers, as part of an exhibition running until October 4.
