Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025

Fri 07 Mar 2025 - Sun 15 Jun 2025

We’re delighted to announce Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak and Lindokuhle Sobekwa have been shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025.

Colour photograph of a woman sat in a bathroom looking down. She holds a sponge in her hand.

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025

Fri 07 Mar 2025 - Sun 15 Jun 2025

We’re delighted to announce Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak and Lindokuhle Sobekwa have been shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025.

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025 Logo

Shortlist revealed!

Cristina De Middel
Rahim Fortune
Tarrah Krajnak
Lindokuhle Sobekwa

The shortlisted work reflects the quality, strength and diversity of the wider photography scene in Europe today.

Shoair Mavlian, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery

This long-standing annual Prize, originally established in 1996, is one of the most important international awards for contemporary photographers. The Prize spotlights outstanding, innovative and thought-provoking work by artists whose exhibitions or books have made a significant contribution to photography over the past year.  

The 2025 shortlisted projects feature documentary photography, constructed images, self-portraiture, performance and family archives. Themes of migration, community and belonging, intergenerational traditions and rituals, family memories and histories are brought together in this powerful shortlist.

Cristina De Middel (b. 1975, Spain) questions the documentary value of photography and the role it plays in creating stereotypes. Her conceptual approach often examines the delicate and loaded relationship there can be between photography and ‘truth’.

Rahim Fortune (b. 1994, USA) uses photography to ask fundamental questions about American identity. Focusing on the narratives of individual families and communities, he explores shifting geographies of migration and resettlement and the way that these histories are written on the landscapes of Texas and the American South.

Tarrah Krajnak (b.1979, Peru) uses the camera as a research tool to bend time and blurs the lines between staged self-portraiture and performance, self and other, fact and fiction.

Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b, 1995, South Africa) explores fragmentation, poverty and the long-reaching ramifications of apartheid and colonialism across all levels of South African society through his work.

The annual exhibition of work by the four shortlisted artists will be on show at The Photographers’ Gallery from 7 March to 15 June 2025.
 
The winner of the £30,000 Prize will be announced at an award ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery on 15 May 2025, with the other finalists each receiving £5,000.  

Colour photograph of the back of a greyhaired individual stood in the middle of a green body of water looking out to the surroundings.

Cristina De Middel

Cristina De Middel (b. 1975, Spain) is shortlisted for the exhibition Journey to the Center at Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France (1 July – 25 August 2024).

Learn more
Black and white photograph of a man riding a horse past a house on the street.

Rahim Fortune

Rahim Fortune (b. 1994, USA) is shortlisted for the book Hardtack, published by Loose Joints in 2024.    

Learn more
Coloured cyanotype images featuring what appears to be hands and feet.

Tarrah Krajnak

Tarrah Krajnak (b.1979, Peru) is shortlisted for the exhibition Shadowings. A Catalogue of Attitudes for Estranged Daughters at Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (28 October 2023 – 3 March 2024).

Learn more
Colour photograph of a woman sat in a bathroom looking down. She holds a sponge in her hand.

Lindokuhle Sobekwa

Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b, 1995, South Africa) is shortlisted for the book I carry Her photo with Me, published by MACK in 2024.

Learn more

The 2025 Jury

This year's jury consists of:

Gwen Lee, co-founder of the Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF) and founding Director of DECK Photography Art Centre

Dana Lixenberg, photographer

Anne-Marie Beckmann, art historian, curator and Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

Aron Mörel, founder and publisher of MÖREL

Shoair Mavlian, Director of The Photographers' Gallery

Learn more about the members of the jury here

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize   
 

Founded in 1996 by The Photographers’ Gallery, and now in its 29th year, the Prize has become one of the most prestigious international arts awards and has 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.