Photography has the power to confront and question – and these artists are doing exactly that, competing for a £30,000 prize
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Eachy #1 (fragment) from the ‘Encyclopaedia’ series, 2023-2025. Courtesy of the artist and Jednostka Gallery. | Credit: Weronika Gęsicka
The four shortlisted artists of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025 are using photography to slow things down. From prisons to personal histories, encyclopaedic fictions to the fluidity of identity, this year’s shortlist underscores photography’s power to confront – and question – our perceptions of reality.
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize
Founded in 1996 by The Photographers’ Gallery, the award was originally named the Citigroup Photography Prize. In collaboration with Deutsche Börse Group since 2005, it became the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2016, establishing the Foundation as a non-profit dedicated to contemporary photography.
“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…”, says Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation.
The winner will be announced on 14 May 2026 and will receive a prize of £30,000 ($40,000), with each of the other shortlisted artists awarded £5,000 ($6,670).
The shortlisted works will be exhibited at The Photographer’s Gallery, London, from March 6 to June 7 2026, before being presented at the Deutsche Börse Foundation, Eschborn/Frankfurt, from September 3 2026 to January 17 2027. For more information, visit The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation website.
Too Much Time / Trop de Peines
Black and white photograph of an unidentified couple mid embrace
Black and white photograph of a woman sat on a prison bed staring into the distance
Black and white photograph of a woman handcuffed in a bed with tubes and straps taped to her stomach
Black and white photograph of someone pouring liquid into a cup held by a prisoner through a small opening in a door
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 is a decade-long study of incarcerated women across nine countries in the 1990s. Her black-and-white images reveal harsh realities – poor hygiene, inadequate healthcare, and inequality – highlighting the need for reform as the global female prison population has risen since 2000.
Encyclopaedia
Colour photograph of a woman in cowboy attire posing with a gun in her hand. In the picture you can also see she has extended incisors and reddened eyes
Colour photograph of a man sat on a desk with a pen and paper in hand. The photo has a hologram of a woman in view
Colour photograph of three children sat at a table with lemons spread out, along with a grater and a jug
Set of three photographs of a monster-like f igure in shallow waters. The image on the far left also has a little boy paddling in the water
Weronika Gęsicka (b. 1984, Włocławek, Poland) is shortlisted for the publication Encyclopaedia, published by BLOW UP PRESS and Jednostka Gallery in November 2024.
Encyclopaedia explores fake entries inserted into reference works as copyright traps or editor jokes. Gęsicka reimagines these fabricated definitions using manipulated and AI-generated images, questioning the blurred line between fact and fiction in today’s info-saturated world, highlighting how trust in knowledge is fragile amid rising misinformation.
One Hundred and Twenty Minutes
Black and white photograph of a woman behind a net curtain, holding two babies in each of her arms
Colour photograph of a two unidentified people holding up a red dress
Black and white photograph of two children standing in the middle of a forest. The person on the right is obscuring the eyes of the person on the left, and the person on the left is obscuring the eyes of the person on the right
Black and white close-up photograph of a person’s mouth open and smiling. The person wears grills on their teeth
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).
Mahmoodian’s exhibition blends photography, poetry, and video to explore exile’s emotional landscape. Over six years, she collaborated with sixteen people from fourteen countries, translating their recurring dreams into an immersive experience. The work envisions a world without borders, where shared dreams connect memory, identity, and displaced communities.
AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH
Black and white photograph of two people kissing
Colour photograph of an elderly person walking along the street past a shuttered shop front that has “STEAL FROM THE RICH” spray-painted in front
Colour photograph of bunches of flowers around a lamppost on top of a floral arrangement of the Jamaican flag
Black and white photograph of two people kissing
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).
AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH features photographs, installations, and sound exploring identity, class, and belonging. Matić’s intimate, diaristic images and mixed media create. layered portrait of contemporary life, emphasizing vulnerability and interpersonal connection as acts of resistance amid rising populism and shifting notions of truth.
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