A recent documentary photography award has highlighted the work of this emerging photographer

Nicky Quamina-Woo

Documentary photographer

Nicky is a black and Polynesian visual researcher who divides her time between southeast Asia, the African continent and New York. The tenacity of the human spirit fascinates Nicky and influences her approach to making images.

Although Nicky initially studied photography psychology at university, she came to realise that her true interests lay in celebrating the nuances of the human story rather than in just parsing them. After initially working as a photo producer and photo assistant, Nicky became a documentary photographer threeand-a-half years ago.

Nicky won the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2020, for her project As The Water Comes. Prior to that, Nicky was a recipient of the inaugural Reuters Storytelling grant for her work on a Tanzania-based project about the intersection of western medicine and witchcraft.

www.nickywoo.com

A boy on a ruined sea wall in Saint Louis, Senegal.

Nicky Quamina-Woo

Nicky Quamina-Woo’s As The Water Comes was photographed in northern Senegal. It shines a light on the ineffective response of the Senegalese government to the plight of people suffering from the effects of rising sea levels. Some 25% of the Senegalese coast is at high risk of coastal erosion, and this figure is estimated to increase to 75% by 2080 if sea levels continue to rise. Mis-steps by the authorities have had major implications for local communities. The village of Doun Baba Dieye had to be abandoned after a channel was dug through a small peninsula that afforded its residents some protection against the surge of the ocean; families had to move inland to tented camps, away from their livelihoods near the sea.