The PORTRAITS - Hellerau Photography Award was launched in 2015 in the Garden City of Hellerau near Dresden. Every year, it receives applications from over fifty countries and awards photographic portrait series that are submitted on current topics. With the help of private sponsors, a total of EUR 90,000 in prize money was awarded to date - to photographers who use it to realize new photographic projects in their home countries. In 2024, the PORTRAITS - Hellerau Photography Award will be featuring its main exhibition at the Dresden Technical Collections for the fifth time.
Today, the PORTRAITS Award has been expanded in many ways: smaller satellite exhibitions orbit the main exhibition, in which photographers realize solo exhibitions in galleries and exhibition spaces throughout Dresden. In 2022, a PORTRAITS visiting professorship was awarded for the first time at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (to the Egyptian-British photographer Laura El-Tantawy). And the residency program, in which a photographer receives a work grant at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts every year and then presents her new works in an exhibition, is now an integral part of PORTRAITS.
The current theme of the international photography competition is »Singularity«. In the museum's temporary exhibition space and the adjacent salons and foyers, works by sixteen finalists are presented, each of which illuminates different aspects of that topic. Some works question the urge to attract attention in a world of sensory overload. Or they capture special moments in images that appear distinctive and unique. It becomes clear that portrait photography itself is developing and changing: artificial intelligence is being used, and images are being created that are borderless across media. The exhibition invites you to reflect on contemporary portrait photography. Despite all our differences, what connects us in a globally connected world?
