C/O Berlin Talent Award 2026

The C/O Berlin Talent Award provides an Artist with €5,000, a solo exhibition, and a Spector Books monograph, offering a unique European platform for international visibility and professional growth.

Overview

The C/O Berlin Talent Award is awarded each year in the categories of art and theory to individuals under thirty-five years of age. The award carries a cash prize for both winners as well as a solo exhibition and an individually designed publication. A joint artist talk rounds off this union of theory and practice.

Against the backdrop of current global and societal challenges and the ongoing transformation of photographic practices, C/O Berlin will realign the Talent Award starting in 2026. The award will be shaped by annual thematic focuses that address contemporary issues and highlight diverse perspectives within contemporary photography. As part of this repositioning, the application process will transition to an open call format.

Practical Info

The C/O Berlin Talent Award 2026 is dedicated to the theme Body Politics. The term describes the complex interplay of power, institutions, and discourses that shape, control, or render bodies (in)visible. In a time marked by multiple overlapping crises, the body once again emerges as a central site of resistance, identity, and memory. What role do photography and lens-based media play in making these tensions visible and reflecting upon them? This year’s theme invites participants to explore the body as a political field, as an archive of experience, or a medium at the intersection of the individual and society.

Eligible applicants must be under the age of 35 and specialize in photography or lens-based media. Submitted projects must align with this year’s theme and must not have been featured in a solo exhibition at a major photography institution, nor previously published as a monograph. The application must include at least 10 and a maximum of 15 images related to the project, a CV including education background and exhibition history, a project description of no more than 2,000 characters, and a letter of recommendation.

Winning the C/O Berlin Talent Award in the Artist category includes a solo exhibition at C/O Berlin and an accompanying publication published by Spector Books. The publication features an interview as well as a scholarly essay by the concurrently awarded Theorist. Both award recipients receive prize money of €5,000 each. The award provides international visibility, exchange, and networking opportunities and represents a decisive step in the careers of many recipients. This funding program, which is unique in Europe, is supervised by curator Veronika Epple. 

Since 2020, the C/O Berlin Talent Award has been made possible by the Alexander Tutsek Foundation.

About C/O Berlin

C/O Berlin is an exhibition venue for photography and visual media. As a charitable foundation, C/O Berlin presents works by renowned artists, promotes young talent and invites visitors on a journey of discovery through our visual culture. 

As a meeting place, C/O Berlin organizes artist talks, panel discussions, film screenings and guided tours, thus offering visitors a direct exchange about the exhibition program and current debates in the visual media. The promotion of young talents on their artistic path is an integral part of C/O Berlin. The C/O Berlin Talent Award is the only prize in Europe that annually honors a tandem of artist and theorist up to the age of 35.