Gomma Photography Grant 2025
Good Luck Around Every Turn
Photographer
Nora Handsley
Good Luck Around Every Turn
13 Mar, 2026
The GNF — Gomma New Flavour Prize, dedicated to spotting bold new photographic voices, is awarded this year to Nora Handsley for her deeply personal project Good Luck Around Every Turn.
Through a sequence of raw and intimate images, Handsley documents fragments of her life over the past three years — moments shaped by uncertainty, humour, vulnerability, and resilience. The work unfolds as a diaristic journey in which laughter, friendship, and fleeting gestures coexist with fear and the fragile awareness of time.
At the centre of the project lies a life-altering discovery: the diagnosis of a malignant tumour. Rather than retreating into darkness, Handsley transforms this experience into a photographic language of stubborn vitality and emotional honesty.
As the artist writes, «making these images helped me stay stubborn, ironic, alive.»
Good Luck Around Every Turn is ultimately a reflection on agency and self-determination — on learning to live with what cannot be changed while still finding tenderness, freedom, and humour along the way.
We were deeply moved by the soul and perspective Nora brings to her work. Her voice feels authentic, fearless, and full of life. Continuing the tradition of GNF discoveries such as David Cossini — photographers whose raw and uncompromising vision signalled the arrival of a new voice — we are confident Nora Handsley will go far.
About the photographer
Nora Handsley
Nora Lou Handsley (b. 1998, Cologne) is a photographer based in Hamburg, where she has been studying Communication Design at HAW Hamburg since 2021. Her interest in photography began in her teenage years, when she gained early experience assisting photographers and working as an intern in the field.Her projects — including Bunter Beton, a documentation of urban space appropriation, Das komische Gefühl, and her ongoing series Good Luck Around Every Turn — explore themes of youth, illness, vulnerability, and empowerment.In 2024, her work was awarded the German Youth Photography Award. Alongside her photographic practice, Handsley has been active in the ZUS Collective in Hamburg since 2023, where she helps organize exhibitions and events that engage with and challenge public space.Music and skateboarding remain important influences in her life, often shaping the rhythm and atmosphere of her work.
