Heidelberg/Frankfurt/Potsdam – The Hamburg photographer team Nicole Keller & Oliver Schumacher is the winner of the European Architectural Photography Prize architekturbild 2023 with the topic »Provisional│Stopgap«. A seven-member jury chose the series of images for first place. In the internationally advertised and anonymous competition, which is endowed with a total of 6000 euros, two further prizes, five awards and 20 recognitions were awarded.
Nicole Keller & Oliver Schumacher, according to jury chair Dea Ecker, »achieve the seemingly impossible with their picture quartet: an arrangement of portrait and landscape formats that, despite the different subjects, nevertheless becomes a large whole – and that with playful ease. The delicate sense of humor that resonates with every motif and the subtle play of colors combine the photographs into an intellectual-aesthetic series, despite their differences. A photographically elegant and at the same time cheerful composition, which interprets the topic ˏprovisionalˊ in a very unique way.« The duo themselves write: »We encounter provisional solutions every day, mostly we don’t even notice them. We are particularly interested in the absurd, irritating, comic provisional. They are refreshing breaks in the otherwise so ˏperfectˊ world. You make the impossible possible. At the same time there is something innocent, as if children had a hand in it. This is how problems and errors become the real eye-catchers. Even art? At least an art of quick problem solving, imagination and unwanted (?) comedy. There is a friendly warmth in these makeshift arrangements and – above all – in their humanity. We invite you to look for these everyday moments with open eyes, to discover them and to be happy about them.« Two other prizes of equal value went to Katharina Roters from Berlin for a black-and-white series set in Armenia, and to hiepler, brunier, also from Berlin, for her »Gap Stop« series. Jury member Kristin Baumert on the former: »Apparently dreary backyard scenes, a rigid arrangement, deserted and yet so intense. When I look at it, a film unfolds before my eyes: children play with a ball, their joyful laughter penetrates the streets, one shot – goal! The series of gates painted by Katharina Roter on house walls shows a provisional solution that is in no way negative. On the contrary: it enlightens and gives hope and confidence.« Jury member Brigida González on »Gap Stop«: »By reversing the topic ˏStopgapˊ to ˏGap Stopˊ, the two photographers show us their interpretation of the task. It makes it clear how complex the topic can be interpreted. Because even more important than what the photographers show is what they don’t show. Here the absence of architecture is visualized. Our image of completed architecture is broken up by visible reinforcements, for example, and at the same time tells us: Construction is continuing here. The visible open spaces between the buildings arouse curiosity about what will emerge one day. The camera circles the building in a delicate and skilful way.«
The series by Matthias Jung, Thomas Kummerow, Piet Niemann, Apostolos Tsolakidis and Sven Weber received awards. Recognition went to Swen Bernitz, Axel Beyer, Alexander Butz, Markus Dorfmüller, HGEsch, Ulla Franke, Helge Garke, Wolfgang Gerlich, Maximilian Gottwald, Michael Himpel, Wolfram Janzer, Alexander Mai & Mikula Platz, Andreas Thomas Mayer, Michael Nischke, Walter Oczlon , Emanuel Raab, Gregor Sailer, Daniel Seiffert, Albrecht Voss and Michael Zegers.
The Jury
Dea Ecker, Ecker Architects, Heidelberg (Jury Chair)
Kristin Baumert, Federal Foundation of Baukultur, Potsdam
Heike Schuler, head of the paper workshop, Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), Frankfurt am Main
Brigida González, architectural photographer, Stuttgart
Helena Huber-Doudová, curator of the National Gallery Prague Architectural Collection, Prague/Berlin
Wojciech Czaja, journalist, author, moderator, Vienna
Oliver Mezger, architect, photographer, managing director architekturbild e.v., Heidelberg
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 15th time in 2023. 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 2023, 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 and opening will take place on Friday, May 12, 2023 at 7 p.m. in the DAM Ostend, the interim quarter of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum at Henschelstraße 18 in 60314 Frankfurt am Main. The exhibition runs until July 2, 2023. The catalog (av edition) costs 28.00 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://1drv.ms/u/s!AiJbMPRFwesGgq8Kv7hZUBaw77O1Aw?e=H24Azy
Press Contact
Christina Gräwe, chairwoman of architekturbild e.v., phone 0177 4209547
c.graewe@architekturbild-ev.de
Oliver Mezger, Managing Director architekturbild e.v., phone +49 (0)6221-6521136, o.mezger@architekturbild-ev.de
Brita Köhler, Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), telephone 069 212363-18, brita.koehler@stadt-frankfurt.de
Teresa Deckert, Federal Foundation of Baukultur, telephone 0311 201259-29, deckert@bundesstiftung-baukultur.de
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