Women, men and drag queens

Jury statement:

Viola Dessin has taken the role of women as artists as her subject. The result is a book about the emancipation and self-determination of women in the contemporary art scene. 14 different female artists are portrayed by means of interviews and pictures of the women and their work. The women describe the form of expression of art as a means of leaving social patterns behind and expressing and developing themselves independently of predetermined male norms.

The jury particularly appreciates the fact that openly expressed emotions are valued as potential in the book. One quote is worth mentioning as an example: "In collectivity, we can transform our anger into healing processes. This enables us to give female anger space, to make it tangible as a productive force and to heal a little of the pain that patriarchal structures generate."

The jury praised the work as an innovative guide to self-empowered forms of action, an invitation to collective thinking and for its outstanding graphic design.

Jury statement:

The black and white photographs of naked men reflect an unusual reality. We are shown very different naked men, but not in the typical poses that unclothed men usually assume when they are photographed. The pictures show men who reveal their softer side or their vulnerability. Adina Harnischfeger shows us the men in an unusual close-up and from an unusual perspective.

The jury considers the work to be outstanding because it adds new facets and perspectives to the classic, socially accepted or even familiar image of men. The photographs provide an insight into a sensitive and highly intimate situation. They are images that stay in the mind, of a particularly high aesthetic quality, memorable and unique.

Jury statement:

Ella Seeger's work shows scenes from the lives of queer people in Georgia in May 2024, portraying the three founding members of the Georgian drag house collective "Ninja ETL" in their everyday lives and in their transformation into drag queens. Due to the restrictive conditions already known in May 2024, the images are politically explosive. The increasingly tense political situation is threatening. The anti-LGBTQ+ law introduced in Georgia in September 2024 restricts Pride events, the public display of LGBTQ+ symbols and media coverage, thereby enabling the increasing suppression of the visibility of queer people in the country.

The decision to show one's gender identity to the outside world is at risk. Ella Seeger has gained the confidence to take a series of photographs of vulnerable people in this precarious situation. The jury sees the work as a documentary contemporary document and thus as an outstanding contribution to support the understanding of the difficult situation of queer people in Georgia in the current political situation.