The four artists shortlisted for the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize have been announced: Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, Amak Mahmoodian, and Rene Matić.
Now in its third decade, the Prize—first established in 1996—continues to honour photographers whose recent work has pushed the medium forward, whether through books, exhibitions, or hybrid forms that challenge how photography is seen and understood. It has become one of the most closely watched awards in contemporary photography, often marking a pivotal moment in an artist’s career.
This year’s shortlist showcases a striking breadth of practice, ranging from long-term documentary investigations to collaborative projects that weave image, sound, and moving image into complex narratives. The artists probe questions of exile, identity, and belonging, as well as the quiet endurance of gender inequality and the blurred territory between fact and invention in the photographic act itself. Each project stands as a testament to photography’s continuing ability to question, reveal, and unsettle.
Work from all four shortlisted projects will be shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, from 6 March to 7 June 2026, before travelling to the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn/Frankfurt from 3 September 2026 to 17 January 2027.
The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on Thursday, 14 May 2026, with each of the other shortlisted artists receiving £5,000. Further details about the exhibition and award ceremony will follow early next year.
THE 2026 SHORTLISTED ARTISTS AND PROJECTS ARE:
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 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. (TOP PHOTO)
Encyclopedias draw on a phenomenon: fake entries intentionally inserted into encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and lexicons, devised initially 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 exhibition explores emotional and psychological landscapes in exile: how new lives are formed within dreams and the persistent return to the past. Over the course of 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, bridging the gap 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. Matić’s 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 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, where 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.
THE 2026 JURY AND STATEMENTS:
This year’s jury is: Elisa Medde (Director at Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona, Spain; former Editor-in-Chief of Foam Magazine), Newsha Tavakolian (photographer and Magnum Photos member), Mark Sealy OBE (Executive Director of Autograph ABP), Anne-Marie Beckmann (Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation) and Shoair Mavlian (The Photographers’ Gallery) as voting chair.
Shoair Mavlian, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, said: “The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026 shortlist demonstrates the pertinent themes being investigated by artists today. Whether their work was shown as a book or an exhibition, the shortlisted artists all invite us to reconsider how stories are told and who gets to tell them. We look forward to sharing their work in London in 2026.”
Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, said: “This year’s shortlist is a powerful testament to photography’s enduring ability to explore our shared social and societal circumstances. It celebrates photography’s versatility and capacity to not only document the world but to challenge our perceptions of it, giving significance to issues and communities that are often overlooked. It is an inspiration to witness the pioneering work of the shortlisted artists. Congratulations to all of them for their exceptional contributions!”
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Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Frankfurt/Main, dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and promoting contemporary photography. The Foundation is responsible for the development and presentation of the Deutsche Börse Art Collection. The collection now comprises over 2,400 photographic works by approximately 170 artists from 38 countries. The Foundation hosts several public exhibitions annually in its exhibition space in Eschborn, near Frankfurt am Main. It supports young artists through awards, scholarships and the annual Talent programme of the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam. The Foundation also works on exhibitions with international museums and institutions, as well as creating platforms for academic dialogue and research on photography.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize history
Founded in 1996 by The Photographers’ Gallery, and now in its 30th year, the Prize is one of the most prestigious international arts awards, having launched and established the careers of many photographers over the years. Previously known as the Citigroup Photography Prize, the Gallery has been in collaboration with Deutsche Börse Group since 2005. In 2016, the Prize was retitled the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, following the establishment of the Foundation as a non-profit organisation, dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and promoting contemporary photography. The winner of the 2025 Prize was Lindokuhle Sobekwa for his book I carry Her photo with Me (published by MACK in 2024). Past winners include: Lebohang Kganye, Samuel Fosso, Deana Lawson, Cao Fei, Mohamed Bourouissa, Susan Meiselas, Luke Willis Thompson, Dana Lixenberg, Trevor Paglen, Juergen Teller, Rineke Dijkstra, and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin.