PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award 2021

The PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Awards will be presented for the sixth time in 2021. The international photo competition, for which participants from 47 countries, including Brazil, Israel, Iran, Syria, Australia, Japan and South Africa, applied in 2020, offers prizes totalling EUR 10,000.

The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 3 p.m. and will be streamed.

The opening date for the annual exhibition in the Technical Collections Dresden is tied to the reopening of the museum and will be announced at a later date.

2021 Finalists

Constanza Portnoy (AR) · Ingmar Björn Nolting (GER) · Elena Helfrecht (GER) · Ina Schoenenburg (GER) · Rafael Heygster & Helena Manhartsberger (GER) · Charlotte Sattler (GER) · Magdalena Stengel (GER) · Sandra Buschow (GER) · Yvonne Most (GER) · Yolanda del Amo (ES/US) · Manuel Frolik (GER) · Thomas Victor & Felix Adler (GER) · Jonas Dengler (GER) · Isabel Permuy (ES) · Tamara Eckhardt (GER) · Gabriele Galimberti (IT) · Andrea Frazzetta (IT) · Gabriele Micalizzi (IT) · Arianna Arcara (IT) · Steff Gruber (CH) · Tim Franco (FR/PL/KR) · Sarah Mei Herman (NL) · Natalia Kepesz (PL/GER) · Katarzyna Kalua Kryńska (PL) · Alexey Pavlov (RU) · Ashima Yadava (US)

The Residency exhibition will open on May 12, 2021 at the traditional venue of the competition, the Festspielhaus Hellerau. At the same time, the works of the 2020/21 Residency Prize winner, Agata Wieczorek (Poland), can be viewed again in the European Center for the Arts. As in previous years, smaller satellite exhibitions also flank the main exhibition. This year they will take place in the »blue factory« or the Fotoforum Dresden. PORTRAITS finalist 2021 Alexey Pavlov (Russia) is also featured in a solo exhibition entitled »Youth of the North« at nEUROPA gallery.

The annual exhibition will again take place in the Technical Collections in Dresden and will feature around two dozen contemporary photographic positions. Artists from ten countries, including Yolanda del Amo (USA), Constanza Portnoy (Argentina), Sarah Mei Herman (Netherlands) or Tamara Eckhardt (Germany) are represented with their works. Current series by Leipzig-based photographer Ingmar Björn Nolting (Vonovia Award for Photography 2020) or by the French-Polish photographer Tim Franco will also be on show.

Martin Morgenstern

The current theme »Togetherness« was chosen by the jury, which included Amsterdam-based photographer Carla van de Puttelaar and the Polish photographer Tomasz Lewandowski. In what is now the second year of the pandemic, it is important to emphasize the power of human coexistence, to seek to come together again after months of separation, perhaps to question unholy alliances and to address the consequences of loneliness and loss.

Martin Morgenstern

As in the previous year, the exhibition will stretch through the entire building: starting in the large exhibition room, through the former offices of the Heinrich Ernemann AG and the historic foyer, to the permanent exhibitions on various floors of the building. A series of public events round off the competition program.

Socially distanced? No way.

For the annual exhibition, another catalogue with the works of all finalists will be published by the Kunstagentur Dresden. It contains the work of all finalists and is available from the publisher, from the Dresden Technical Collections and from bookshops (114 pages, EUR 25.00, ISBN 978-3-9821847-0-8). Order one now and transform your living room into an exhibition that meets the gold standard of COVID19 social distancing rules. Shipping starts April 17, 2021, and is free worldwide.

Who we are

The PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award was created in 2015. Our output so far: twenty-five exhibitions, stunning photo series by over two hundred and fifty international artists and thousands of enthusiastic visitors.