"Foam Talent" is an internationally renowned talent programme for young artists under the age of 40, which is organised by the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam since 2007. Through a biannual talent call, Foam invites artists who work with the photographic medium to submit their portfolios. From the many submissions, works by 20 outstanding artists are selected to be featured in the Talent issue of Foam Magazine. In addition, the works are shown in an exhibition touring various international institutions. The programme allows young artists to present their work to a diverse audience of professionals and the general public.

The Fotografiemuseum Foam is a worldwide operating museum for contemporary photography based in Amsterdam. In addition to its extensive, varied exhibition programme, Foam is dedicated to supporting and promoting young talents. Within the scope of its efforts, we have been a partner of the Foam Talent programme since 2017. Each edition, works by an artist from the Foam Talent programme are acquired for the Art Collection Deutsche Börse as part of the cooperation. 

Acquired artists:

2024  Aaryan Sinha (IND)
2022  Marvel Harris (NDL)
2021  Daniel Castro Garcia (UK/ESP)
2020  Philip Montgomery (US)
2019  Maisie Cousins (UK) and Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques (FR)
2018  Weronika Gęsicka (PL)

The Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam again chose 20 emerging artists whose work will be featured in the Foam Magazine #65: Talent (published in February 2024) and the accompanying Talent Programme and exhibitions in 2024. This year, the submission numbers to Foam’s Talent Call — which have steadily increased each year — reached a record high of 2,480 submissions from 106 different countries. 

The artists of the Foam Talents programme 2024 are: Eleonora Agostini, Cristóbal Ascencio, Florian Braakman, Sander Coers, Rehab Eldalil, Issam Larkat, Xin Li, Akshay Mahajan, Thero Makepe, Marisol Mendez, Ricardo Nagaoka, Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein, André Ramos-Woodard, Aaryan Sinha, MAryam Touzani, Jaclyn Wright, Shwe Wutt Hmon, Cansu Yıldıran, Sheung Yiu, Amin Yousefi.

More information about the past Foam Talent editions here. You can find the current Talent edition in the digital exhibition.

Series "La jeune photographie allemande"

With the exhibition series "La jeune photographie allemande" we have been focusing on young photographers at universities in Germany and showing current trends in photography together with the Goethe-Institut Paris since 2018. Each year, we give the students of a selected university or academy the opportunity to present their work in an exhibition at the Goethe-Institut Paris.

More Information about the last exhibition can be found here. 

Previous universities:

2024 photography class of Ricarda Roggan from the "Akademie der Bildende Künste" Stuttgart
2023 photography class of Ute Mahler and Marit Hermann from the "Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie" Berlin
2022 photography class of Beate Gütschow from the "Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln" (KHM)
2021 photography class of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin from the "Hochschule für Bildende Künste" Hamburg (HfBK)
2019 photography masterclass of Heidi Specker from the "Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst" (HGB)
2018 photography class of Martin Liebscher from the "Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach" (HfG)

Metamorphosis. States of Change

13 November 2025 to 12 January 2026
Goethe-Institut Paris

How can change be made visible? Under the title "Metamorphosis. States of Change", 11 students from the Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography programme at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts explore diverse forms of change – political, cultural, ecological and digital.

With a view to social and cultural tipping points, political crises and conflicts, and the transformation of ecological systems, the projects on display address the conditions and causes of change. The artists question fixed identities, linear narratives and apparent stability, using a variety of artistic strategies and photographic approaches.

In cooperation with the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG), we have been presenting the annual award to an exceptionally talented student of photography since 2010. The €3,000 prize for works created by a student during the course of his or her studies is awarded as part of the traditional three-day “HfG Rundgang”, during which the university opens its doors to visitors. One of the works from the show is selected by a jury. With this cooperation, we support young talent and the development of photography in the Rhine Main region.

This year, we have confered the HfG Rundgang Award to Len David Oswald for his project “Fulda Gap”. In his work, Oswald addresses a largely unknown Cold War scenario. The Fulda region, located directly on the former inner-German border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), marked the westernmost point of the Eastern Bloc and was therefore considered a potential invasion route for the Warsaw Pact into Western Europe. In the event of an escalation, NATO planned to use nuclear weapons on its own territory to stop enemy troops advancing. Oswald, who has many fond childhood memories of the region from visits to his grandmother and idyllic holidays, uses his camera to explore how this unimaginable threat is still inscribed in the landscape more than 40 years later.

Furthermore, the jury gave a special mention to the work “Heiteres aus Kamerun” by Elinor Zoë Karl. In her project, she critically examines German colonial history in Cameroon, finding an innovative approach to working with the medium of photography.

The award ceremony took place during the traditional HfG Rundgang (open house tour) in Offenbach on 18 July. The jury members were Alexandra Lechner, Managing Director at Foto Forum Frankfurt, the artist Lilly Lulay and Cornelia Siebert from the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. More information on the jury's decision and the awarded project here.

Previous winners:

2024 Haben Ghebregziabher
2023 Madlen Strebel; honorable mention to Lea Kulens
2022 Marie Schwarze; honorable mention to Mike Schäfer
2021 Lena Bils
2020 Verdiana Albano
2019 Dennis Haustein
2018 Jana Bissdorf; honorable mention to Tatjana Vdovenko
2017 Annika Grabold; honorable mention to Laura Brichta
2016 Robert Schittko; special prize to Hosam Katan
2015 Malte Sänger und Rudi Weissbeck
2014 Max Eulitz
2013 Stefan Stark und Pujan Shakupa
2012 Lilly Lulay und Karolin Back
2011 Florian Albrecht-Schoeck
2010 Oliver Dignal

The Frankfurter Verein für Künstlerhilfe e.V. has been supporting young artists in the Rhine Main region for more than 25 years. The association grants one-year scholarships to talented artists after completion of their studies, an important transitional phase in their career. We help fund the scholarships. In addition, the Art Collection’s curator is a member of the board of trustees responsible for nominating and selecting the artists to be funded. We also provide continued support to young photographers who were granted the scholarships, for example by presenting their works to the public in special exhibitions at the company’s headquarters The Cube in Eschborn.