The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize has nominated Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, Amak Mahmoodian and Rene Matić for the prize’s 2026 edition.
The prize, originally established in 1996, recognises artists who have made the ‘most significant contribution to photography’ in a given year. Previous winners include Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Lebohang Kganye, Samuel Fosso, Deana Lawson and Cao Fei, among others.
This year’s jury incudes 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 (Executive Director of Autograph ABP), Anne-Marie Beckmann (Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation) and Shoair Mavlian (The Photographers’ Gallery) as voting chair.
Beckmann called this year’s shortlist ‘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.’
An exhibition of the four selected artists will go on show at The Photographers’ Gallery in London from 6 March through 7 June 2026.
The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on Thursday 14 May 2026. The remaining shortlisted artists will each receive £5,000.
Explore the shortlist:
Jane Evelyn Atwood
Jane Evelyn Atwood 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. The book stems from a ten-year investigation for which she spent time with incarcerated women in forty prisons across nine countries in the 1990s.
Weronika Gęsicka
Weronika Gęsicka is picked for the publication Encyclopaedia, published by BLOW UP PRESS and Jednostka Gallery in November 2024. In the book, Gęsicka draws on fake entries intentionally inserted into encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lexicons to interrogate the ways in which cultural and institutional trust erodes.
artist
Amak Mahmoodian
Amak Mahmoodian is recognised for the exhibition One Hundred and Twenty Minutes, on view at the UK’s Bristol Photo Festival (which ran from 16 October – 17 November 2024). Spanning photography, poetry, text, drawing and video, the exhibition explores the emotional and psychological effects of exile.
Rene Matić
Rene Matić is shortlisted for the exhibition AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH at CCA Berlin in Germany (8 November 2024 – 15 February 2025). Featuring produced photographs, installations and sound pieces, AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH takes a diaristic approach to identity and belonging, subculture, class and community.
