Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026

Jane Evelyn Atwood (b. 1947, New York, USA) is shortlisted for her publication ”Too Much Time / Trop de Peines”, a revised, bilingual reprint of two works originally published in 2000 and updated by Le Bec En L’Air, Marseille in 2024.

Atwood’s ”Too Much Time / Trop de Peines” stems from a ten-year investigation during which she accompanied incarcerated women in forty prisons across nine countries in the 1990s. Through research and empathy, Atwood documented the lived realities of female inmates: limited access to hygienic facilities, a lack of gynaecological and mental health care, and stark inequalities compared to their male counterparts. The intimacy of her black-and-white images is rooted in long-term commitment and unwavering advocacy for women in prison – a cause she continues to champion today. Since its original publication, Atwood’s message has only become more urgent. Globally, the female prison population has grown by 50-60% since 2000. Driven by a deep commitment to social justice and a desire to expose systems of exclusion, Atwood brings visibility to lives and stories many choose to ignore. 

Weronika Gęsicka (b. 1984, Włocławek, Poland) is shortlisted for the publication ”Encyclopaedia”, published by BLOW UP PRESS and Jednostka Gallery in November 2024. 

“Encyclopaedia” draws on a phenomenon: fake entries intentionally inserted into encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lexicons, originally devised as traps to catch copyright violations or as a playful way for editors to leave their mark on the text. These fictitious facts subtly contribute to the erosion of trust in sources once considered authoritative. In ”Encyclopaedia”, Gęsicka presents several hundred of these fabricated definitions, sourced from historical publications. 

By visually reinterpreting fake entries using manipulated stock photos and AI-generated imagery, Gęsicka highlights the tension between truth and invention, as well as the fragile line between fact and fiction. In a world saturated with information, where news, advertising, and fiction increasingly overlap, how can we distinguish what is ‘real’? 

With AI-generated content becoming a norm and images being easily altered, the project asks: what happens when even a single error appears in a source we trust? In an era marked by misinformation and manipulation, the work is a humorous reminder that knowledge, once perceived as stable and objective, is now a shifting terrain.  

Amak Mahmoodian (b. 1980, Shiraz, Iran) is shortlisted for the exhibition ”One Hundred and Twenty Minutes”, at the Bristol Photo Festival, UK (16 October – 17 November 2024).  

Spanning photography, poetry, text, drawing and video, the artist explores emotional and psychological landscapes in exile: how new lives are formed within dreams and the persistent return to the past. Over six years, Mahmoodian worked closely with sixteen collaborators from fourteen countries. Their long-term conversations focused on recurring dreams and the effects of exile on memory and identity. 

A multidisciplinary artist and educator, Mahmoodian began her career in Iran and has been based in the UK since 2010, unable to return to her homeland. For her, dreams offer a vital connection to a lost home and family, between reality and imagination. In ”One Hundred and Twenty Minutes” – the amount of time adults and children dream each night – Mahmoodian gives visual and poetic form to her collaborators’ dreams. Together, these elements invite us into an immersive experience of shared dreaming. At a time when ideological shifts continue to marginalise migrants and displaced communities, Mahmoodian imagines a world without borders, one where shared dreams form bridges across geography, politics and time. 

Rene Matić (b. 1997, Peterborough, UK) is shortlisted for the exhibition “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH”, at CCA Berlin, Germany (8 November 2024 – 15 February 2025). 

Featuring newly produced photographs, installations and sound pieces, “AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH” is rooted in identity and belonging, subculture, class and family. Their diaristic, snapshot-like photography captures everyday moments with poetic intimacy. The images, combined with collected objects, film and sound, form a vivid and layered portrait of contemporary life. 

Matić’s practice spans across photography, film, and sculpture, converging in a meeting place they describe as "rude(ness)" – an evidencing and honouring of the in-between. In a climate of rising right-wing populism and performative compassion, they turn to interpersonal relationships as spaces of resistance and care, how people hold on to one another, and learn to live with vulnerability – despite, or in defiance of, so-called contemporary “truths”. For Matić, intimacy, vulnerability and desire become tools for survival.