Der Greif

#OpenCall: Submit for your chance at a 250€ Guest Room Scholarship! Submit by June 6 for the chance to receive the 250 € Der Greif Guest Room Scholarship and have your work seen by curator and researcher Annet Dekker and art historian and general director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag Margriet Schavemaker (@margriet_schavemaker ). Together, they reflect on the theme: “The Brilliance of the Mundane” ✨ This edition of Guest Room invites photographic projects that reflect on the unnoticed and the unremarkable. Rather than dismissing banality as meaningless excess, we ask how everyday image-making shapes contemporary visual culture and collective memory. We welcome works that approach photography in its expanded sense, including documentary practices, found imagery, archives, moving images, AI-generated material, and hybrid forms engaging with repetition, chance, and the aesthetics of the ordinary. Why submit? • 250 € Guest Room Scholarship • Online showcase on Der Greif • Win a Face-to-Face feedback session with the curators 📷 Submit a photographic or image-based series or vídeo work for free or for a voluntary 10 € donation 📩 Via @picter_com Portrait credits:
Annet Dekker’s portrait by Mieke Gerritzen, from the series “My Friends”, 2017.
Margriet Schavemaker’s portrait by Annaleen Louwes. Der Greif is partnering with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (@dboersephotographyfoundation ) to support the Guest Room format in funding curator honoraria. #DerGreif #GuestRoom #DerGreifCommunity #DerGreifMagazine

#OpenCall: Join us in Arles 2026! 📍 Der Greif x Foundation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz present “Read Against the Machine.” Apply for a collective editing workshop or 1:1 Face-to-Face sessions during Les Rencontres d’Arles (@rencontresarles ). This open call invites work that resists automated interpretation and reclaims the social act of looking. What happens when meaning is shaped through conversation instead of algorithms? Selected artists will join an intensive group workshop on July 8 or receive tailored feedback through Face-to-Face sessions on July 10. All selected participants’ works will also be included in a collective screening presented during the festival at MRO Foundation on July 10. Jury members:
➡️ Dr. Caroline von Courten, Artistic Director, Der Greif
➡️ Alejandro León Cannock (@alejandroleoncannock ), Artistic Director, MRO Foundation (@mrofoundation )
➡️ Simon Lovermann (@simon_robert_l ), Founder, Der Greif and Co-Founder, Der Greif Studio
➡️ Ilaria Sponda (@ilariasponda ), Managing Editor, Der Greif
➡️ Francesca Hummler (@fransangle ), Programme Curator, Der Greif
➡️ Diana Poole (@diana_poole_ ), Co-Founder, Der Greif Studio and Art Advisor
➡️ Carolina Semprucci (@cachius ), Assistant Editor, Der Greif. Note: You must already be attending Arles to apply. Submit via Picter! #arles2026 #rencontresdarles #photographyopencall #callforartists

#OpenCall: Submissions for Der Greif Issue 19, guest-edited by renowned visual activist Zanele Muholi (@muholizanele ), supported by Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung (@alexander.tutsek.stiftung ), are now open. 🌍 We’re looking for submissions from photographers, writers, poets, and essayists, and we encourage collaborative work. 🗓️ Theme: “I Am Because of You, Mother Earth.” What happens when we stop seeing the environment as something outside of us? For Issue 19, Zanele Muholi invites you to rethink the environment as something we are, our bodies, our histories, our relationships, and our shared existence. We’re looking for work that feels connected, grounded, and alive, moving between the personal and the collective while holding space for struggle, displacement, joy, and shared experience. Submit work that reflects: 🌍 Earth as a co-creator 🌿 Environment as everything that makes life possible 🤲 Collaboration across disciplines, generations, and geographies 🏠 Daily life in all its complexity 📖 A connection to nature, in any form Why submit? ✨ Have your work seen by Zanele Muholi ✨ Be published in Der Greif Issue 19 ✨ Receive a free copy and discounted extras ✨ Participate in events at Paris Photo 2026 (@parisphotofair ) and beyond ✨ Opportunity for an Artist Feature on dergreif.org 🗓️ Deadline: June 20 Submit via @picter_com and read the full curatorial statement on the contest website 🔗 Because of the environment, I am. Because of you, I am. #DerGreif #Issue19 #OpenCall #ZaneleMuholi MotherEarth PhotographyOpenCall

#GreifGuestRoom: This edition has been curated by Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA Shana Lopes (@lopesshana ) and artist and Chair of Photography at California College of the Arts Aspen Mays (@aspenmays ), on the theme: “A Little Bit of Magic” ✨ What happens when the medium feels overly rational or even the opposite, wildly implausible? Where do artists reinsert illusion and misdirection back into their work? We welcome work that engages doubling, substitution, sleight of hand, constructed realities, staged impossibilities, reenactment, and the pleasure of participating in an illusion. 📍Selection 15: Dana Bell (@dana_bell ) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BFA from Wayne State University in Detroit and an MFA from the Maine College of Art & Design. Her practice explores the human form and gesture through photography, painting, printmaking, choreography, and mixed media. Rosemary Warren is a photographer, performer and video artist from Rough and Ready, California. Warren’s lens-based work engages a variety of tools, including: her body, a large format camera, digitally collaged sets, 3-D modeling, projector-based video installation and silver gelatin printing in the darkroom. Her work grapples with questions of performance and the self, time, glamor, magic, gender, power and play. Karianne Bueno (@kariannebueno ) and Nynke Brandsma (@nynke.brandsma ) celebrate their first collaboration with PHARMAKON. Bueno and Brandsma are both storytellers from the Netherlands. Together, B&B weave their sensitivities into dialogue— thus combining intense concentration, intimacy and playfulness into a layered narrative with an open, investigative gaze. Submissions hosted on @picter_com . We’re partnering with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (@dboersephotographyfoundation ) to support the Guest Room format through funding curator honoraria. #DerGreif #GuestRoom #DeutscheBoersePhotographyFoundation

#GreifGuestRoom: This edition has been curated by Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA Shana Lopes (@lopesshana ) and artist and Chair of Photography at California College of the Arts Aspen Mays (@aspenmays ), on the theme: “A Little Bit of Magic” ✨ What happens when the medium feels overly rational or even the opposite, wildly implausible? Where do artists reinsert illusion and misdirection back into their work? We welcome work that engages doubling, substitution, sleight of hand, constructed realities, staged impossibilities, reenactment, and the pleasure of participating in an illusion. 📍Selection 14: Hannah Altman (@hannahaltman ) is a Jewish-American artist whose work considers storytelling and the porosity between memory and myth. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her photobooks Kavana and We Will Return to You are held in libraries including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty, Harvard University, and Stanford University. Ivo von Renner (@ivovonrenner_official ) is an internationally acclaimed photographer known for his award-winning advertising campaigns and staged portraits that combine aesthetics, storytelling, and humor. His carefully composed scenes blend technical precision with spontaneity, creating distinctive visual worlds. Alongside his artistic work exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, he also teaches through lectures, masterclasses, and seminars with his wife Dagmar. Brecht De Vleeschauwer (@brechtland ) is a visual storyteller, journalist, and painter focused on football beyond the pitch, borders, and the people affected by them. His work explores identity, culture, and human stories through photography, writing, and art. Submissions hosted on @picter_com . We’re partnering with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (@dboersephotographyfoundation ) to support the Guest Room format through funding curator honoraria. #DerGreif #GuestRoom #DeutscheBoersePhotographyFoundation

#GreifArtistFeature: “Resonance” unfolds in the quiet space where perception begins to slip. Moving between interior and exterior environments, the work draws on familiar spaces such as woodlands, roadsides and domestic settings where subtle shifts in light and attention begin to unsettle what is seen,” says Lauren Kaigg (@lauren.kaigg ).  Through shifting light and a soft-focus lens, these works function as a series of sensory echoes. By obscuring the perspective, the series removes the distance between the viewer and the scene, making the familiar feel beautifully unstable. It is an exploration of the atmospheric, asking for a slower kind of attention, prioritizing what is felt over what is seen. 👉🏼 Check out this week’s Artist Feature on dergreif.org. Lauren Kaigg (b. 1992) is a British visual artist based in Bristol, who uses photography and moving image to re-examine the often-overlooked aspects of the everyday. Her work explores existential themes and feelings that stem from strangeness within experience, drawing inspiration from philosophy and psychology. Through her work she blurs the boundaries between what is real and imagined by capturing the surreal within the real, inviting the viewer to embed their own experiences and emotions.  💥 Lauren Kaigg was selected from among the applicants for “Earthly Fabulations” online exhibition. Check out our current Issue 19 open call by Zanele Muholi to show us your work exploring what environment means when we stop seeing it as something outside of ourselves.  Our editorial content is made possible with the support of Fondament (@_fondament_ ), Der Greif’s main partner. #DerGreif #woodlands #LaurenKaigg #awareness

#OpenCall: Queer Quintessential 🌈📷 In celebration of Pride Month, we invite LGBTQIA+ lens-based artists to explore queer life, identity, intimacy, and forms of community through photography and image-based practices. Initiated by Der Greif’s queer Program Curator, Francesca Hummler (@fransangle ), this open call reflects our continued commitment to creating space for queer artists and conversations within contemporary photography. We welcome work engaging with self-representation, chosen family, visibility, and the relationship between public and private space. Selected artists will be featured in an online exhibition on Der Greif’s homepage and invited to join small-group Face-to-Face critique sessions. Submit your work and be part of the conversation. Link in bio 🔗 Image by Asafe Ghalib (@asafeghalib ) #PrideMonth #queerphotography #lgbtqiaartists

#InFocus: “In Focus” is Der Greif’s photobook review series, spotlights our picks from the current open call for submissions and our community artists most recent publications. This month, we bring out of our selection “Mit Euren Spuren”, a book published by DISTANZ Verlag (@distanverlag ) and an interdisciplinary photography project that brings together six photographers from Munich with eight LGBTQIA+ seniors. Over the course of a year, Munich-based photographers and creatives Teo Apostolescu (@fotosaurus_ ), Mara Fischer (@mararakete ), Francesco Giordano (@francescogiordano._ ), Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert (@jwog_studio ), Florian Tenk (@floriantenk ) and Stella Deborah Traub (@stelladeborahtraub ) documented their encounters through photographs, texts, and the artistic processing of archival materials to learn from the achievements of previous generations and to make the queer heritage visible. 🔗 Read the full article by Carolina Semprucci (@cachius ) on: /article/in-focus-mit-euren-spuren. #photobooks #InFocus #DerGreifMagazine #ArtistBooks

Today marks the opening of this year’s edition of Various Others (@variousothersmunich ) in Munich, and our Editor Ilaria Sponda (@ilariasponda ) has been exploring exhibitions spanning image-based activism, identity politics, and digital archaeology. At Lothringer13 Halle (@lothringer13 ), the exhibition “Antifascism: Now.” curated by Kalas Liebfried (@kalasliebfried ) features Jonas Hoeschl’s (@jonashoeschl ) installation “Zum Schäfchen, Recherche Nord (POV).” Based on body-cam footage documenting attacks by right-wing publicist Götz Kubitschek in front of the restaurant "Zum Schäfchen“ in Schnellroda, the work places viewers between the perspective of a victim and that of a neutral observer, questioning the authenticity of documentary images today. Our highlights also include Sammlung Goetz (@sammlunggoetz ) current exhibition dedicated to Cindy Sherman. In a conversation between Karsten Löckemann and Ingvild Goetz, we explored Sherman’s lasting influence on representations of femininity through works such as the “Untitled Film Stills.” We continued at Villa Stuck (@villastuck ), reopening with Ilit Azoulay’s (@ilitazoulay ) exhibition “No Single View,” curated by Helena Pereña. Developed during the museum’s renovation, the project investigates the history of Villa Stuck and its temporary site on Goethestraße 54, including its Nazi past as forced accommodation for Jewish people. Tomorrow, Various Others continues with gallery openings across the city, including “Future Ancestors” at Lohaus Sominsky (@lohaussominsky ), where Azoulay’s archival works enter into dialogue with Alicja Kwade’s (@alicjakwade ) sculptural practice. Views of the exhibition “Cindy Sherman” are courtesy of the artist, Sammlung Goetz, München. Credits: Thomas Dashuber. Views of the exhibition “Antifascism: Now.” are courtesy of Jonas Hoeschl, Recherche-Nord, and Lothringer 13 Halle. Credits: Christian Kain. Stills courtesy of Villa Stuck and the artist Ilit Azoulay. Der Greif is official media partner of Various Others. #VariousOthers2026 #MunichArt #ContemporaryArt #DerGreif

#GreifGuestRoom: This edition has been curated by Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA Shana Lopes (@lopesshana ) and artist and Chair of Photography at California College of the Arts Aspen Mays (@aspenmays ), on the theme: “A Little Bit of Magic” ✨ What happens when the medium feels overly rational or even the opposite, wildly implausible? Where do artists reinsert illusion and misdirection back into their work? We welcome work that engages doubling, substitution, sleight of hand, constructed realities, staged impossibilities, reenactment, and the pleasure of participating in an illusion. 📍Selection 13: Kevin Scotton (@kevinscotton ) is a photographer from Connecticut interested in exploring entertainment, education, and illusion. He is in his second semester of RIT’s MFA program and is pursuing a project that explores these ideas through beauty, horror, and humor. Nie Xin (@nie1006 ) is an amateur photographer living and working in China. His work has been exhibited in venues including the Life Hall Unit of the Pingyao International Photography Festival, Banshan Gallery, Banshan Gallery, Limit Gallery, and Yue Art Museum. He primarily uses photography as a creative medium, focusing on scenes from daily life while exploring imagery rich in metaphor. Kelly Rae Daugherty is a fine-art photographer whose work spans staged portraiture, street photography, and conceptual explorations of human presence. Influenced by studies in poetry and photography, her practice explores intuition, perception, and the ways images can reveal meaning through both presence and absence. Submissions hosted on @picter_com . We’re partnering with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (@dboersephotographyfoundation ) to support the Guest Room format through funding curator honoraria. #DerGreif #GuestRoom #DeutscheBoersePhotographyFoundation

#GreifGuestRoom: This edition has been curated by Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA Shana Lopes (@lopesshana ) and artist and Chair of Photography at California College of the Arts Aspen Mays (@aspenmays ), on the theme: “A Little Bit of Magic” ✨ What happens when the medium feels overly rational or even the opposite, wildly implausible? Where do artists reinsert illusion and misdirection back into their work? We welcome work that engages doubling, substitution, sleight of hand, constructed realities, staged impossibilities, reenactment, and the pleasure of participating in an illusion. 📍Selection 12: Iryna Kabysh (@eye.kabysh ) is a multidisciplinary artist from Kyiv, Ukraine. The interseсtion of art and logic is the central point of her artistic interests. The nature of light of all kinds is another big thing that drives Iryna’s creative process. As an ex-painter, interior light inventor, and model, Iryna was always close to visual arts and photography. Lacey Terrell (@LTstillpix ) received her M.F.A. in Photography from California College of the Arts. Her art practice involves photographic projects as well as conceptual, photo-based mixed media work - investigating notions of identity, performance and the crossroads of artifice and reality in various Wonderlands. She was selected for Photo District News The Curator Award and Center for Photography at Woodstock Photography Now. David Szymanski (@davidszymanski ) is a Madison-based artist and photographer whose work is rooted in a deep fascination with the extraordinary. This passion began early in life when a family friend, a magician’s assistant, gifted him his first magic trick. This moment ignited a lifelong pursuit of wonder and a continual exploration of the impossible within the everyday. Submissions hosted on @picter_com . We’re partnering with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (@dboersephotographyfoundation ) to support the Guest Room format through funding curator honoraria. #DerGreif #GuestRoom #DeutscheBoersePhotographyFoundation

You are not separate from the earth. You are the earth. For Der Greif Issue 19, I am looking for your eyes, your eyes, your truth. Send me work that breathes, where the personal meets the collective, where displacement and joy share the same frame. The theme is I Am Because of You, Mother Earth. I want to see earth as a living collaborator. Environment as the thing that holds us all. Collaboration across borders, ages, art forms. Daily life, raw and complex. Your connection to nature, in any language. Photographers, writers, poets, essayists - work alone or together, I welcome both. Why step forward? I will see your work myself. You will be published in Der Grief (@der_greif ) Issue 19, receive a free copy and discounted extras, join events at Paris Photo 2026, and have a chance for a solo feature at dergreif.org. Deadline is 20 June 2026. Submit through the link in the bio. Let me feel how you belong to this earth. #DeGreifIssue19 #ZaneleMuholi #IAmBecauseOfYouMotherEarth #OpenCall