PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award 2026

Cash prizes of €5,000, €2,000, and €1,000 will be awarded for first, second, and third place, respectively. Additionally, selected works will be exhibited at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden, Germany, and featured in the annual catalog.

Overview

Drawing inspiration from the history of Hellerau—Germany's first garden city founded as a progressive counter-model to industrialization—the theme Escapism encourages images of imagined worlds, reconfigured identities, or poetic counter-models to current social and ecological crises.

Practical Info

The competition is open to photographers worldwide, regardless of experience, and accepts both single works and series of up to 20 images. Participants can enter with a €50 fee for a series or €30 for a single entry.

The jury is composed of international experts, including artist Sim Chi Yin, art historian Angela Matyssek, and curator Daniel Blochwitz, who will select finalists for a major exhibition at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden, alongside numerous satellite exhibitions and public events such as artist talks and portfolio reviews.

Prize recipients will be announced during the Autumn 2026 vernissage, with cash prizes including €5,000 for first place, €2,000 for second, and €1,000 for third. Selected works will also be featured in an annual catalog published by Kunstagentur Dresden.

About PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award

The PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award was created in 2015. Their output so far: fifty exhibitions, stunning works by over four hundred international artists and tens of thousands of enthusiastic visitors.