Felix Schoeller Photo Award winners announced

This year’s winners of the Felix Schoeller Photo Award were announced at a ceremony in Osnabrück on May 4. Alain Schroeder (Belgium) won in the “Photojournalism” category with his work “Muay Thai Kids”, the “Sustainability” prize went to the Italian photographer Simone Tramonte for his series “New ways to the future” and the popular prize in the “Portrait” category went to Damian Lemanski (Poland) for his photographs of the “Kids of Lunik IX”. All three winners will receive 5,000 Euro each. Lisa Marie Asubonteng (Germany) won the “Young Photographers” category with her series “The Holy Women” and will receive 5,000 Euro. The German Peace Prize for Photography, worth 10,000 Euro, goes to Sebastian Wells (Germany) and Vsevolod Kazarin (Ukraine) for their joint project “Young people photographed in Kyiv 2022”.

“We connect our passion for the printed image with the Felix Schoeller Photo Award. We feel that our commitment is a social and cultural responsibility, but also a matter of the heart,” says Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp, CEO of Felix Schoeller. “Once again we have seen impressive entries of a high artistic standard. We would like to thank all the photographers for their great work.“

“After ten years, the Felix Schoeller Photo Award has long since arrived in the global photography community,” says Michael Dannenmann, jury chairman. “The approximately 2,000 entries from 98 countries show us once again that the photographs in all categories of this competition are of a very high standard. The wonderful wealth of exciting and substantial impressions that these works show us testifies to the great passion of the image-makers for the medium of photography.”

In addition to Dannenmann, the jury includes art historian and curator Cathérine Hug from the Kunsthaus Zürich, director of the Museumsquartier Osnabrück Nils-Arne Kässens, art advisor Simone Klein and visual director of the art magazine ART Hannah Schuh. For the German Peace Prize for Photography, the jury was extended to include Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schneckener, Professor of International Relations & Peace and Conflict Research at the University of Osnabrück.

The award-winning works of the winners and all nominees will be on show at the Museumsquartier in Osnabrück from 5 May to 6 August 2023.

The German Peace Prize for Photography was awarded to German photographer Sebastian Wells and his Ukrainian project partner Vsevolod Kazarin at a ceremony in Osnabrück on May 4. The German Peace Prize for Photography is a joint initiative of the international specialty paper manufacturer Felix Schoeller and the City of Peace Osnabrück. The prize is worth 10,000 Euro. The winning series as well as the works of all nominees will be exhibited at the Museumsquartier in Osnabrück from May 5 to August 6, 2023.

The German Peace Prize for Photography honors works that deal with the theme of peace in a photographic and conceptual way.  “This year, the German Peace Prize for Photography is in the spotlight as our hometown of Osnabrück celebrates the 375th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia,” says Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp, CEO of Felix Schoeller. “At the same time, we are witnessing a cold-blooded war of aggression in Europe. In view of today’s geopolitical situation, we feel more committed than ever. With the Peace Prize we want to make the quest for peace a photographic theme and communicate it.”

This year’s winning entry has a special story behind it. When Ukrainian fashion photographer Kazarin and German documentary photographer Wells met in Kyiv in 2022, they decided to start a joint photographic project: a series of portraits of a young generation of creative people in Kyiv, against the backdrop of growing up in the midst of revolution, conflict, and war. Using the tools of documentary photography, they portrayed the protagonists from their respective situations in their personal environments.