SONNTAG GRANT RECIPIENTS 2026

We are over the moon to announce the recipients of our very first Sonntag Grant: Emily Graham, Paola Jiménez Quispe, and Xiaoxiao Xu.

We want to thank our jury who put a lot of thought, care and time into reviewing 740 applications. We are deeply grateful to all the artists who shared their work with us and we wish a huge congratulations to the three grant recipients whose work we are incredibly proud to support.

CLOUDBUSTING

Emily Graham

In 1952, one August evening, floods caused by extremely heavy rain engulfed the village of Lynmouth on the southern coast of England, destroying the village and killing thirty-four people. Officially attributed to “the hand of God,” the disaster has long been shadowed by evidence from declassified government files suggesting links to early experiments in artificial rainmaking (cloud seeding), known as Operation Cumulus.

Cloudbusting uses this contested event to explore how rumours, images, and conspiracy theories circulate over time, from local testimony and archival photographs to contemporary social media narratives around geo-engineering and “chemtrails.” Through archival research, photography, and moving image, the project examines photography’s ambiguous status as evidence, and what these persistent stories reveal about trust, state secrecy, and the human need for answers in a moment when truth is increasingly unstable.

Graham is awarded a Sonntag Grant of €3,000.

Emily Graham is an artist working primarily with colour photography. Her practice often deals with elusive subject matters; a search for the unknown, a psychological state, the act of communication and interpretation. She is interested in creating a loose, expressive form of documentation that leaves room for subjective interpretations, embracing the suggestive and metaphorical potential of photographs.

She gained her BA (Hons) in Photography at the University of Brighton (graduating 2006), and has recently completed her MA with Distinction in Photography at the University of West England (graduating 2019).

Her work has been exhibited nationally & internationally, incl. Format Festival 2019, Landskrona 2020, PhotoEspana 2022. Her first book The Blindest Man was published by VOID in June 2022, and was named one of the best photobooks of 2022 by Brad Feuerhelm, Aaron Schuman, and Lensculture. It is held in collections of the V&A and MoMA.

emilygraham.co

WHEN THE SKY IS PINK,
I REGRET NOTHING

Paola Jiménez Quispe

When the sky is pink, I regret nothing confronts a wound passed quietly through the artist’s maternal lineage: sexual abuse and the devastating silences that allow it to persist. Rooted in the artist’s childhood experience, the project deepened when she discovered that other women in her nuclear family had endured similar abuse, leading her to question how trauma moves through generations and whether such wounds can be inherited.

The artist investigates personal and family archives, explores spaces within the family home, and studies literature on how sexual abuse impacts identity formation. She also examines the Peruvian political landscape surrounding family abuse, including the legal and emotional complexities of accusing someone within one’s own family.

She positions herself as the protagonist, beginning with her childhood self and moving through her Andean background and the experiences of other women in her family, revealing their connection through shared trauma and shared questioning.

Jiménez Quispe is awarded a Sonntag Grant of €1,000.

Paola Jiménez Quispe is a photographer and archivist from Lima, Peru. Her work explores memory, trauma, and personal narratives, believing that individual stories reveal universal struggles. She uses photography, text, documents, video, and painting to address themes such as sexual abuse, loss, and death.

Her photobook Rules for Fighting (2022) examines her father's murder and its familial aftermath. The book was a finalist for the Aperture Photobook Awards at Paris Photo 2022 and received the Special Jury Prize at Images Vevey Biennale 2021. Her work has been recognized with awards including Female in Focus from 1854 British Journal of Photography and has been exhibited internationally.

She teaches workshops on photographic narratives, working with people willing to question their motivations. She has learned that the most compelling work emerges when artists embrace discomfort and excavate the most difficult stories to tell.

paolajimenezquispe.com

KI KI SO SO LHA GYALO

Xiaoxiao Xu

Ki Ki So So Lha Gyalo unfolds in a landscape where glaciers are melting, livelihoods are shifting, and, despite militarisation and globalisation, ancient traditions persist. This long-term documentary project explores resilience, vulnerability, and cultural persistence in Ladakh, a remote Himalayan region in northern India rooted in Tibetan Buddhist tradition and undergoing rapid transformation. Military presence increasingly shapes the landscape, while the pressures of globalization reach even the most isolated valleys. Yet amid these challenges, the artist has encountered a quiet strength – expressed in acts both ordinary and visionary, from monks tending fragile saplings to the creation of artificial glaciers.

The project is deeply personal. As a child, the artist survived a devastating flood in Wenzhou, China, an experience that shaped her understanding of fragility, survival, and the power of community. Years later, this experience led her to Ladakh, where similar tensions between nature, culture, and endurance unfold every day. The work weaves her own memories of water and survival into the stories of Ladakhi people adapting to an uncertain future.

Xu is awarded a Sonntag Grant of €1,000.

Xiaoxiao Xu was born in Qingtian, southeastern China, and moved to the Netherlands during her teenage years. This formative transition and her experience of living between two cultures have profoundly shaped her artistic vision. Her photography moves along the delicate line between documentary and autonomous work, guided by her dual perspective as both insider and outsider.

Xu’s projects focus on individuals who, while navigating traditions and social conventions, are also driven by personal aspirations and uniqueness. Her empathetic approach fosters trust and connection, allowing her to reveal intimate perspectives within communities.

Shooting the Tiger (2022) was awarded Best Dutch Book Designs, while Aeronautics in the Backyard (2016) was selected among the best photo books by de Volkskrant and The Guardian. In spring 2025, her seventh book This Looks Better IRL: Exploring Cosplay Cons was published by The Eriskay Connection.

xiaoxiaoxu.com