Der Greif Issue 18 explores the sustainment of proactivity today as we navigate the fear urgency of the now “Tomorrow Is Today” – the phrase reads like a declaration, a stark acknowledgment of the state of things we are all witnessing in our present moment. Shakespeare, in Macbeth, lamented how “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable ...

Kholo, which translates to ‘growth’ in Sesotho, is a personal reflection of my journey as an artist, a son, a brother, a lover, a friend. Spending most time by myself allows me to ponder on how I have grown in these ways. I began exploring this topic in 2022 through slow and thoughtful portraits of my friends and family. I have used various mediums throughout the years to photograph this series, ...

A new fellowship at the Photography Collection of the Münchner Stadtmuseum invites researchers to dive into the municipal museum’s holdings “Artists on Photography” is a new annual fellowship at the Münchner Stadtmuseum, initiated in 2024 by Dr. Kathrin Schönegg, Head of the Photography Department. Each year, the program invites one artist and one researcher to dive into the museum’s holdings ...

Răsu’ - plânsu’ – “laughing through tears” – is a Romanian expression deeply rooted in the national culture, capturing the coexistence of laughter and sorrow. It reflects the subtle tensions and contradictions observed in everyday urban life—particularly in a city where past and present continually collide. During the communist period, especially under Ceausescu’s systematization program ...

An exhibition travelling through Germany explores the influence of Italian photography since the 1980s on the development of European photographic history “No Place Like Home” presents the first major survey exhibition of the development of photography in Italy since the 1980s, showing how postwar Italy, born out of the economic boom, found its own credible photographic representation. In its ...

In Switzerland, the national photomonth traces past and present images reflecting human-nature entanglements Festivals bring to the surface the variety of practices and movements rooted in certain territories and beyond: they nurture the circulation of current and historical works to a wider public. They are essential indicators of the true state of the arts of photographic practices, research ...

Guest Room aims to inspire collaboration and creative exchange. In this edition, we welcome Christine Serchia and Charlotte Jansen. Together, they proposed the theme "The Dark Before Dawn". "'It's always darkest before the dawn' – so goes an old proverb, an adage that seems apt for our times. The metaphor is meaningful too in photography in a literal sense, in the darkroom where, from nothing, ...

Casa de Remesas began during my time as an undergraduate. Since then, this project has evolved into an ongoing diary documenting my family, objects, and spaces that hold memories and are in dialogue with the past and present. I was heavily inspired by my family albums, abuela Chuy, and my Ma had put together over decades. When flipping through these albums and studying my family's past, I try to ...

“The mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high” Habakkuk 3:10 Julia, my maternal grandmother, passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. She chose not to seek treatment, firmly believing that her god would heal her. Her life, always guided by Christian faith, ended as she sang her favorite song, surrounded by our entire ...

KABK Graduate Tim Ross was nominated by Der Greif for Melkweg Expo's Arty Party Tim Ross, a German visual artist and researcher, uses his grandfather’s WWII archive as a starting point to examine the politics of perception, the ethics of looking, and the uneasy intersections between personal history and collective memory. His large-scale installation Hermann, laser-engraves a reprinted wartime ...

面影, omokage (n.) from japanese: looks, vestiges, a trace of something or someone that remains even after they have disappeared or passed away. A reflection or reminder of the past. 面; mask, face, features, surface. 影; shadow, silhouette, phantom. Photographs marked by silver damage and images of abandoned shrines, of landscapes where the sacred lingers, skeletal ruins, houses caught in ...

The 2025 FUTURES talents exploring photography objectivity today through narratives on technology, the body and the invisible In an age of visual saturation, where images are primarily consumed by scrolling, where algorithms dictate our attention and where speed is mistaken for significance, a group of FUTURES talents are responding by seeking clarity and adopting an almost scientific approach ...

Aftermath is a photographic series that explores fragility, resilience, and the silence that follows chaos. Set in a frozen, desolate landscape, the images trace a solitary walk through the night, where the stark contrasts of black and white reflect an emotional state of isolation, memory, and slow transformation. The world appears frozen in time-shadows stretching over icy streets, reflections ...

Jo Bradford is a storyteller whose work echoes universal truths Jo Bradford's intimate and powerful photographic project, "If Not Now, When?" has been awarded the 2025 Solo Satellite Exhibition Prize at the prestigious PORTRAITS - Hellerau Photography Award, through Der Greif's Guest Room curated by Martin Morgenstern, Sandra Buschow, and Christina Töpfer under the evocative theme "Echoes of ...

Staying In is a meditation on home, grief, and belonging. It is an intimate photographic inquiry shaped by my movement between Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. Through a series of black-and-white images, I explore the cyclical nature of grief and healing, and the ways memory becomes embedded in landscapes, relationships, and silence. When I lost my mother in 2017, my sense of home changed ...

Guest Room aims to inspire collaboration and creative exchange. In this edition, we welcome a trio of curators from FOTO ARSENAL WIEN: Marit Lena Herrmann, Mona Schubert and Felix Hoffmann. Together, they proposed the theme "Messy". "In a world that celebrates perfection and control, we’re shifting our focus to the raw, the chaotic, the unfiltered. Unlike order, messiness ...

As a visual artist working with nudity and portraying women of different ages, I often encounter a recurring hesitation: whether or not to show the face. Many of the women I photograph are comfortable revealing their bodies — the texture of their skin, their curves, folds, scars — but only if their facial identity remains concealed. I respect this choice, even if I sometimes feel a deep desire to ...

One of the emotional conflicts shared by those who live on an island is the struggle of living with the idea that you can’t take the island out of the islander, meaning the feeling of being in a world apart, and at the same time the awareness that no one exists alone, so we are not islands. My ongoing research retraces and attempts to understand my experience as a native person from an island ...

Living in the Land of What Matters explores memory, belonging, and the emotional terrain shaped by my Ecuadorian-Mexican American identity. Rooted in family archives and intergenerational histories, my work addresses migration and identity through intimate gestures and material investigations. Themes of absence, longing, and care emerge through evolving visual narratives that blend both fiction ...

Guest Room aims to inspire collaboration and creative exchange. In this edition, Gagosian Director of Photography Joshua Chuang, partners with American artist and photographer Barney Kulok. Together, they explored the theme "Close Call". “A ‘close call’ is commonly understood as a narrow escape, often interchangeable with the term ‘near miss.’ For our open call, we’re expanding this definition ...

I grew up in an environment where interior design and architecture magazines transformed the places I lived in, but my family did not have a house of their own. As we constantly moved, embracing a home, adapting to its spaces, its textures and colors, became a process that I had to repeat more often than I expected. We were constantly faced with having to build a home, aspiring to the illusion of ...

Muvhili a si Tsimbii delves into motherhood's profound mental and physical shifts, specifically postnatal experiences. Using my body as an intimate lens, I depict the lasting impacts of pregnancy and the insidious nature of postnatal depression, which often leads to neglected mental well-being and subsequent physical consequences. My creative process is deeply personal, primarily through ...

“They say the shape of our eyes, other things I wouldn’t know” is a poetic investigation of intimacy, intergenerational trauma, and the father-son gaze Our Community Manager and Program curator recently had the pleasure of reviewing portfolios at this year’s Fotofestiwal in Łódź, Poland. She selected Davide Sartori for our Der Greif Artist Feature Award, recognizing the poignant sensitivity and ...