Dummy Award 2027

The Dummy Award is an international competition for unpublished photobook dummies: the PBM/MAS Prize recipient is published by MAS Matbaa at no cost, four others get a 25% production grant, and about 50 books tour.

Overview

The Dummy Award is an international competition for the best unpublished photobook dummies of the year. Now in its 17th year, it began in 2010 as the Kassel Dummy Award, when the Kassel Fotobook Festival first invited photographers to take part. Over that period thousands of photobook prototypes have been submitted from around the world, and hundreds of shortlisted books have been exhibited at international photography events, festivals and exhibition spaces.

From all entries, around 50 books are selected for a shortlist. The shortlist jury and each exhibiting venue, by public vote or curator's choice, vote to select five winning books.

The book selected for the PBM/MAS Prize will be produced and published by the Turkish photobook printing and binding house MAS Matbaa, in cooperation with the PhotoBookMuseum. The costs will be fully covered. The other four winning books receive a production grant of 25% if they are printed at MAS Matbaa in Istanbul.

Shortlisted books are featured on the website, YouTube channel, printed catalogue and social media, and go on a world tour of around 18 venues and festivals in 15 countries, starting in April 2027. All submitted books enter the Dummy Award Library, part of the permanent collection of the PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne.

Practical Info

International artists, photographers and graphic designers who incorporate the photographic medium in their practice and have an unpublished photobook project are welcome to apply. There are no restrictions on age, level, region, gender or style, and groups may apply together. An unpublished book has no publisher and no distribution; books published digitally or self-published in print runs of up to 100 copies are still eligible, even with an ISBN.

Applicants register online, providing details of the dummy and author, a short statement, the book specification and an image of the cover. A printed copy of the registration form is added to the physical dummy, which is sent to The PhotoBookMuseum, Dummy Award, Körnerstr. 6-8 (Ladenlokal), 50823 Cologne, Germany. There are no size restrictions. The PBM/MAS Prize requires a feasible book concept that can be produced with typical photobook production methods; the jury decides on feasibility. Dummies are not returned automatically; return at the entrant's own cost can be requested at registration, after the jury session in March 2027.

Shortlisted authors must send a second copy of the dummy, for the second touring set, to arrive in Cologne within three weeks of the shortlist announcement.

About The PhotoBookMuseum

The PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne, a non-profit organisation, has been in charge of the Dummy Award since 2023. It works with MAS Matbaa in Istanbul, its printing and publishing partner. The organiser states that it believes "supporting unpublished books and ideas on an international level is an important thing to do for us as an institution".