Francesca Allen, Francesca Allen Shortlisted for PhotoVogue Women by Women 2025

We’re proud to share that Photographer Francesca Allen has been shortlisted for PhotoVogue Women by Women 2025.

Selected from nearly 100,000 submissions across 149 countries, their work joins a powerful digital exhibition spotlighting 150 photographers and video makers from around the world who present a powerful, intimate, and richly diverse reflection on womanhood through the female gaze.

This photograph is part of the series ‘Plaukai’. Once a year, hundreds of women with thousands of feet of hair flood into a Lithuanian arena for the World’s Longest Hair competition, a folkloric beauty pageant where obsession, tradition, and identity converge. Drawn to the surreal spectacle, British photographer Francesca Allen travelled to the event (known locally as Konkursas Pasaulio Ilgaplaukes) with a Lithuanian friend to document the competition firsthand.

View the full shortlist