The German Photo Book Award 25|26

Every year, publishers, editors, artists, authors and designers submit photographic images in book form, photobooks as well as photographic texts from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other German-speaking area to the competition of the German Photo Book Award. A jury of experts will award gold, silver and bronze medals in 12 categories that showcase the diversity and vitality of the photobook medium.

For the 2025-2026 edition, 350 photo books were submitted – all of them are carefully designed and meticulously printed. After an intensive jury session, 64 photo books were selected, first being presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, then at Stuttgart, Regensburg, other European cities and finally Asia.

The prestigious Award has a tradition of over 50 years. It was established in 1975 as the Kodak Photo Book Award and was officially renamed the German Photo Book Award by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association in 2003. In 2017, the Stuttgart Media University took over the organization. Starting from 2023, it has been organized by the non-profit making association FESTIVAL FOTOGRAFISCHER BILDER e.V., based in Regensburg.

Goethe-Institut Hongkong is honored to continue the tradition in presenting the long-listed, short-listed and award-winning photobooks in Hong Kong.

The 12 Categories:
01 Photographic Exhibition / 02 Documentary Photography / 03 Artistic Photography  / 04 Monograph / 05 Coffee-Table-Book / 06 Photo History / 07 Photo Theory and Essay Writing  / 08 Photo Technology  / 09 Scientific Photography / 10 Self-Publishing/Independent Publisher/Handmade Artbook / 11 Student Project / 12 Photographic thesis 

12 categories/ 8 Gold Awardees:
 

Jury:

© Foto: Susanne Suttner, Schwandorf

from left to right : Jury members: Hans-Michael Koetzle (Fotobuchexperte, München), Prof. Wiebke Loeper (Professorin für Fotografie an der Fachhochschule in Potsdam), Alexa Becker (Kunsthistorikerin, Fotobuchexpertin und freie Beraterin für Fotograf*innen, Heidelberg), Victor Balko (Grafikdesigner, Frankfurt am Main), Dr. Johanna Spanke (Postdoktorandin am Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminar der Universität Hamburg), Dr. Peter Pfrunder (Autor und Kurator - ehem. Direktor der Fotostiftung Schweiz), Frauke Kreutler (Kuratorin im Wien Museum)

 

• Victor Balko (Photo book designer, Frankfurt am Main)
• Alexa Becker (Photo book consultant, Heidelberg)
• Hans-Michael Koetzle (Recipient of the DGPh Culture Award, author, and photography theorist, Munich)
• Frauke Kreutler (Curator, Museum Wien)
• Prof. Wiebke Loeper (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences)
• Dr. Peter Pfrunder (Former director of the Swiss Photography Foundation)
• Dr. Johanna Spanke (University of Hamburg, 2024 Gold Medalist in the “Photography Theory and Essay” category)
• Prof. Dr. Bernd Stiegler (University of Konstanz)