Munich/Frankfurt/Potsdam – The Munich photographer Dirk Härle is the winner of the European Architectural Photography Award 2019 „Joyful Architecture“. A jury voted his series of pictures first. In the internationally announced and anonymous competition, which is endowed with 6000 Euro, two further prizes, five awards and 20 recognitions were awarded.
According to jury chairman Reiner Nagel, Dirk Härle’s picture series shows „the special in seemingly unspectacular situations. Is it the coloured element in the pale environment, the human will to design in the unattractive ambience, or the foreign body in the scene? In the end, it is the smiling realization that it is something of everything.“ The series was controversially discussed by the jury, but, Nagel continued: „The architectural elements are undoubtedly not joyful, but the scenes shown are for the viewer who looks at our environment with composure and humour. This is where the jury sees the work’s outstanding contribution“.
The other two equal prizes went to the Leipzig photographer Nikolas Fabian Kammerer for and the Berlin photographers Alexander Mai and Mikula Platz (MAIPLATZ FOTOGRAFIE) for their series „CPH – Copen-hagen’s Playground Heterogeneity“.
Jury member Andreas Langen on the former: „Hurray, the pictures rock. Vertical lines are for sissies, here everything goes cross and cross, poppy colorful before cosmic black: Welcome to the universe of infinite fun in the building! And Julia Bargholz, also a member of the jury, on the series from Copenhagen: „The static of real estate is linked with the lightness of a space for mobility. In the overall view, this results in a harmonious charisma. The photographers do not take the risk of trivialisation – for example through the presence of cheerfully playing children – this makes the posture strong and the pictures too.“
The series by Swen Bernitz, Victor S. Brigola, Walter Fogel, Rainer Friedl and Daniel Müller Jansen received awards. Recognitions went to Marlene Apmann and Anja Bohnhof, Anja Bäcker, Stefan Blume, Markus Dorfmüller, Petra Gerschner, Andy Heller, Sarah Hildebrand, Enver Hirsch and Philipp Meuser, Marie Hoffmann, Marie Luisa Jünger, Julien Lanoo, Johannes Marburg, Klaus Mellenthin, Oliver Mezger, Katrin Sand-mann-Henkel, Sebastian Schlüter, Lukas Schramm, Thomas Spier, Andrea Vollmer and Michael Kuchinke-Hofer and Stefanie Zoche (Haubitz+Zoche).
The Jury
- Reiner Nagel, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Bundesstiftung Baukultur, Potsdam (Chairman of the Jury)
- Andrea Jürges, Deputy Director German Architecture Museum (DAM), Frankfurt
- Rüdiger Flöge, Member of the Board of architekturbild e.v., Ludwigsburg
- Andrea Wiegelmann Architect, publicist, publisher Triest Verlag, Zurich
- Julia Bargholz, Professor Jade University of Applied Sciences, Oldenburg
- Andreas Langen, the arge lola, Stuttgart
- Thomas Schirmböck, Director Zephyr – Space for Photography, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim
architecturbild e.v.
The European Architectural Photography Prize architekturbild is a worldwide unique and internationally beached prize. It has been awarded every two years since 1995, since 2003 by architekturbild e.v.. It will therefore be awarded for the 13th time in 2019. Series with four motifs each on a changing theme will be submitted. An interdisciplinary and international jury will select the 28 best series for each competition, for which each participant will submit a series with four pictures. These will then be shown in a travelling exhibition and presented in a catalogue. In 2019, the results again showed high quality and a wide range of interpretations on the theme.
Cooperation partners
German Architecture Museum (DAM), Frankfurt am Main
Federal Foundation for Building Culture, Potsdam
Award ceremony and exhibition opening
The award ceremony will take place on 3 May 2019 together with the opening of the exhibition on the European Architectural Photography Award 2019 „Joyful Architecture“ at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main. The exhibition runs until 1 September 2019. The catalogue (av edition) costs 24.80 euros.
Information on the prize and the 28 award-winning picture series can also be found at www.architekturbild-ev.de.
Note for editors
Pictures of the three prize-winning series as well as a short vita and copyright information can be downloaded here: https://my.hidrive.com/share/mc2xltp2tl
Press Contact
Christina Gräwe, chairwoman of architekturbild e.v., phone 0177 4209547
c.graewe@architekturbild-ev.de
Brita Köhler, Rebekka Rass, German Architecture Museum (DAM), Phone 069 212363-18
brita.koehler@stadt-frankfurt.de
rebekka.rass@stadt-frankfurt.de
Sabrina Ginter, Federal Foundation for Building Culture, Phone 0311 201259-29tung-baukultur.de
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