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Dummy Award 2023

383 books from 46 countries were submitted for the 2023 Dummy Award.
The shortlist selection resulted in 50 photobooks.

“… a playful, reflective and sharply visual experience”

Angela Berlinde
Jury Member

Shortlist 2023

Browse all Shortlisted Books on our Youtube Channel 

Jennifer Drabbe, NL

 Today is my new favourite day

23,9 x 32,6 cm, 80pp
laminated binding with 2 singer 
sewn booklets and a sleeve

jenniferdrabbe.com

Marco Marzocchi, IT

BULLET

20 x 25,8 cm, 320pp
softcover

marcomarzocchi.com

Lukas Zander, DE

Seele braucht Heimat

21,3 x 29 cm, 160pp
3 integrated hand-bound booklets
with 3 Prints (19 x 25 cm)

lukas-zander.com

Yorgos Kapsalakis, GR

I was looking for the sun, but it was hiding

13,5 x 21 cm, 108pp
softcover, Swiss brochure

@yorgos_kapsalakis

Rafael Roncato, NL/BR

Tropical Trauma Misery Tour

10,8 x 16,9 cm, 306pp
softcover

rafaelroncato.com

Giorgio Barbetta, IT

Ignari Totius Corporis

18 x 26 cm, 56pp
saddle stitch
little blue envelope in the back

giorgiobarbetta.com

Nicola Zolin, IT

Yunan

15 x 20 cm, 20pp
singer sewn booklet, 144pp
open spine
both in slipcase

nicolazolin.net

Polo Farrera, MX

En Búsqueda De Ausencias

17 x 22 cm, 142pp
hardcover, Swiss brochure, open spine

polofarrera.com

Stas Ginzburg, USA

Flowers 2020–2022

24,8 x 31,9 cm, 132pp
softcover, glue binding

stasginzburg.com

Kanta Nomura, JP

The Yoshida Dormitory – Old Darkroom

20,5 x 26 cm, 188pp
Japanese fold with Japanese binding

nomurakanta.com

Daniel Martinez, ES

FAMUSA

17 x 21,7 cm, 80pp
hardcover Japanese fold
hidden pictures in folds

martinezdani.com

Luigi Cecconi, IT

Incorrect Theory

7,5 x 11,5 cm, 70pp
hardcover, glue binding
wooden sculpture

luigicecconi.com

Anna Pylypyuk & Volodymir Shypotilnykov, UKR

Photography Firmly Enters the Everyday

23 x 28 cm, 160pp
hardcover, open spine

shypotilnykovpylypyuk.com

Piero Martinello & Piero Casentini, IT

The Weight of the World

21 x 29,7 cm, 308pp
softcover

pieromartinello.com

Russ Thompson, USA

A Wilderness

21,5 x 28, 92pp
softcover

russmthompson.com

Magnus Terhorst, DE

Definition von Glück

13,8 x 20,9 cm, 112pp
hardcover, open spine

magnusterhorst.com

Laurent Fiorentino, CH

Un groupe de vers obscènes me fit hésiter

70 x 50 cm, 20pp
newspaper

laurentfiorentino.com

Mariet Dingemans, NL

One Shower a Week

20,2 x 27,7 cm, 180pp
softcover, Swiss brochure, open spine

marietdingemans.com

Enka Springub, DE

UFO_Deutschland

21,3 x 27,5 cm, 202pp
hardcover

@enka.springub

Christina Werner, AT

Thank you. I prefer lions

19,5 x 24,4 cm, 96pp
hardcover

christinawerner.com

Calvin Hein, DE

Sugarbread

18 x 24 cm, 226pp
hardcover, open spine with a curtain

calvinhein.de

Fleur Huijsdens, NL

Felis Silvestris Catus

22 x 32 cm, 122pp
hardcover, Swiss brochure, open spine, integrated booklet

fleurhuijsdens.nl

Alexandra Iulia Corcode, RO

Your Death is in my Hands

16,5 x 23,8 cm, 116pp
softcover, hand stiched

@alexandracorcode

Amelie Sachs, DE

Vergissmeinnicht

13 x 19 cm, 112pp
softcover, rubber band

ameliesachs.com

Luca Iovino, IT

The name we hold

16 x 23 cm, 110pp
softcover, Swiss brochure, open spine

lucaiovino.it

Carla Rossi, CH

Ambra

24 x 31,8 cm, 112pp
softcover with silicon details

carla-rossi.com

Breno Rotatori, BR

Casulo

19,5 x 23 cm, 368pp
softcover, open spine

brenorotatori.com.br

Jana Nowack & Dayna Grosz, DE

Mistake or Miracle

21 x 29,7 cm, 36pp
saddle stitch, poster

jananowack.com

Maya Vieth, DE

Während wir schlafen,
ziehen die Wölfe
um die Häuser

17 x 24 cm, 118pp
softcover, Swiss brochure,
open spine + 8pp hand-stitched Booklet

mayavieth.myportfolio.com

Lucilia Monteiro, PT

Imagem Foto – Corpo e Lugar

21 x 27 cm, 186pp
hardcover

Kazuya Urakawa, JP

The Sumida River Almanac

21 x 12 cm, 786pp
Japanese binding and fold
+ 24,1 x 33, 112pp
hand-stitch book block

@sumidariver_2019_2020

Kouta Takahashi, JP

80°05´

18,8 x 24,3 cm, 172pp
hardcover, open spine, Swiss brochure, glued in pictures

kouta14.com

Kyokin Nakamura, JP

Kakusei

25,7 x 36,5 cm, 144pp
ring binding

kyokinnakamura.com

Jansen van Staden, ZA

Some

23 x 23 cm, 142pp
hardcover

jansenvanstaden.com

Julia Mejnertsen, DK

HUN

17,2 x 23,2 cm, 446pp
softcover, bullet hole in the back

hulujay.com

Luca D’Agostino, IT

Dismemorare

20 x 25,5, 66pp
softcover, Swiss brochure,
open spine with a poster and a print (12,6 x 17,8 cm)

lucadagostino.art

Theresa Roth, DE

Blicke auf Hannelore

21,5 x 20 cm, 152pp
hardcover, obi band

@diediebin_

Srinivas Kuruganti, IN

Pictures in my hand of a boy I still resemble

16,5 x 21,8 cm, 180pp
softcover

srinivaskuruganti.com

Bruno Claro, BR/PT

tentativas operatórias no tratamento de certas psicoses

21,0 x 26,5 cm, 96pp
softcover, open spine

brunocla.ro

Amin Omnar, DE

Monolith

26,4 x 40,8 cm, 126pp
softcover, Japanese binding, sleeve

jyamin.co

Véronique Besnard, FR

The Wall

24 x 31,5 cm, 126pp
softcover

veroniquebesnard.com

Chantal Seitz, DE

Stay safe out there

21,4 x 27,9 cm, 92pp
hardcover, open spine, folded pages in the middle and a poster

chantalseitz.de

Katerina Motylova, UKR

Loss

20 x 26 cm, 60pp
hardcover, open spine

@motylova_katerina

Constantin Grolig, DE

Raven

20,5 x 27,5 cm, 96pp
hardcover, open spine

@cogro

Carlos Alba, ES

I´ll bet the devil my head

12,2 x 17,1 cm, 56pp
softcover

carlosalba.com

Ann Massal, FR

On love, violence and the lack of it

16,5 x 22 cm, 106pp
hardcover, Leporello pages

annstudios.com

Elaine Meisner, DE

Your free trail has come to an end

21,5 x 28 cm, 112pp
softcover

elainemeisner.com

Patrick Slesiona, DE

Blaue Flecken

18,8 x 24,2 cm, 96pp
hardcover, Swiss brochure, open spine

patrickslesiona.de

Steven Natusch, DE

What will be different tomorrow?

19,8 x 24,8 cm, 116pp
hardcover, open spine

@steven_natusch

Igor Chekachkov, UKR

100 days of war

13 x 21 cm, 240pp
hardcover, Moleskine notebook
with glued-in pictures

chekachkov.com

The Dummy Award Catalogue 2023

For the first time in the award’s history we printed a catalogue presenting (not only) this years shortlist. Nicolas Polli from Ciao Press put in his structuring design magic while Ufuk Şahin from MAS added that little extra silver plate on press. The result is amazing!

Distributed for free at all exhibiting events and venues, to design/photography faculties and of course at Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo. 

Best seen in print – but alternatively as a download. Have a look!

generously supported by:

The 2023 Shortlist Jury

This year we gathered a highly interesting mix of jurors. Raging from a curator to a designer, from an art historian to a publisher and from a museum director to a printer the jury sifted passionatly trough all the books and after hard fights and discussion came up with an impressing lineup of dummies for this years shortlist.

* Anastasiia Leonova

is a publisher, art manager and curator, co-founder of IST Publishing house based in Ukraine. From 2014 to 2020 she ran a small independent art gallery of contemporary art in Kharkiv. With a background in sociology and art history she has a focus on photography and photobooks. Leonova is the curator of the BOOK CHAMPIONS WEEKEND festival and coordinator of the Eastern region of the UPHA (Ukrainian Photography Alternative).

* Anja Schürmann

is working as Permanent Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (KWI). Her post-doc project deals with visual narration in the photobook. It examines visual narration in photobooks on both a narrative-theoretical and an aesthetic level of iconicity. She has written several essays on this topic and co-edited a thematic issue of the journal Fotogeschichte with Steffen Siegel. In 2016 she won the 1st prize of the international talent competition of C/O Berlin in the field of art criticism. 

* Ângela Ferreira

aka Ângela Berlinde is an artist, photography curator and lecturer in various faculties in Portugal and Brasil. She was co-founder and artistic director of the Portuguese Photofestival Encontros da Imagem in Braga and very recently curated Solar FotoFestival in Fortaleza, Brasil. She is co-founder of the Portuguese Photobooks Observatory, an online ptafform dedicated to the study of Portuguese books.

* Nicolas Polli

is a photographer, graphic designer and the publisher of CIAO Press. After he founded Yet Magazine together with Salvatore Vitale he has started his own graphic design studio Atelier CIAO. Polli lives in Bienne, Switzerland where he is designing books for various photographers, publishers and festivals and has made himself a name as amateur pizzaiolo.

* Ufuk Şahin

studied photography at Hofstra University, NY. Since 2007, he has been part of the core team at MAS printing house as the second-generation manager and partner. In 2010, he founded MASA, a publishing house specializing in facsimiles, photobooks and art-books; which has since published more than 40 books. He is a photography enthusiast and an avid photobook collector.

* Frederic Lezmi

is a photographer, designer and photobook curator. He is artistic director of The PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne, wich he co-founded together with Markus Schaden in 2014. Lezmi teaches photobook design at various universities and faculties in Germany (FH Dortmund, FH Hannover and DHBW Ravensburg).


Jury Statement: 

BULLETPROOF BOOKS 

The Timeless Power of Photobooks and the Greatest Hits of the Dummy Award 

We love with passion the Book, the Photography, and definitely the feverish combination of the two. The power and popularity of the photobooks its timeless. The phenomenon has lasted now for more than twenty years and it´s exciting to say the genre continues to flourish more than ever, as brave photographers challenge the format in innovative ways, offering us a level of ingenuity, experimentation, consciousness, and sophistication that had rarely been achieved before.

One of the most sparkle vitality of the photobook dummy is that arrives still in potency, directly from the brain & heart of the artist, without filters, fresh of desires and also with wonderful mistakes. This is the vitality point of the dummy which rests essentially on a combination of risks of talented artists, generating a territory in which photography expresses its true narrative potential. While some build on traditional formats, others push to deliver the most unique and intimate art experiences imaginable, where the books are vacillating between the art objects, sculpture installations or literature pocket books. Many of the books address plural themes, as gender borders, personal stories, examine the dramatic war conflicts or lift underrepresented voices. In contrast, other titles stand out as reprieve from these turbulent times.

The 2023 Photobook Dummy Award collection embraces the different approaches and latitudes which seeks to uncover a huge laboratory for search of meaning to face turbulent times, offering a playful, reflective and sharply visual experience. 

Ângela Berlinde & the jury of the Dummy Award 2023

The World Tour 2023

Two boxes with the 50 shortlisted dummy travel the world! To 18 venues, festivals or initiatives in 15 countries on 3 continents.  Worldwide dummy exposure guaranteed!

  • Grisart, Barcelona, Spain → 26.04 –30.05.2023
  • Grisart, Barcelona, Spain → 26.04 –30.05.2023
  • Grisart, Barcelona, Spain → 26.04 –30.05.2023
  • The PhotoBookMuseum, Cologne, Germany → 12.05 – 25.05.2023
  • The PhotoBookMuseum, Cologne, Germany → 12.05 – 25.05.2023
  • The PhotoBookMuseum, Cologne, Germany → 12.05 – 25.05.2023
  • Lumenvisum, Hong Kong → 26.06 – July 16, 2023
  • Lumenvisum, Hong Kong → 26.06 – July 16, 2023
  • Lumenvisum, Hong Kong → 26.06 – July 16, 2023
  • Fotofestiwal, Łódź, Poland → 15.06 – 25.06.2023
  • Fotofestiwal, Łódź, Poland → 15.06 – 25.06.2023
  • Fotofestiwal, Łódź, Poland → 15.06 – 25.06.2023
  • Istituto Italiano di Fotografia, Milano, Italy → 21.09 – 15.10.2023
  • Istituto Italiano di Fotografia, Milano, Italy → 21.09 – 15.10.2023
  • JIP Fest, Jakarta, Indonesia → 9.09 – 25.09.2023
  • JIP Fest, Jakarta, Indonesia → 9.09 – 25.09.2023
  • JIP Fest, Jakarta, Indonesia → 9.09 – 25.09.2023

Tour dates


Format Festival, Derby, England → 16.03 – 9.04.2023

Officine Fotografiche, Rome, Italy → 1.04 – 20.04.2023

Grisart, Barcelona, Spain → 26.04 – 30.05.2023

Photoszene Köln / The PhotoBookMuseum, Cologne → 12.05 – 25.05.2023

Fotofestiwal, Łódź, Poland → 15.06 – 25.06.2023

Lumenvisum, Hong Kong → 26.06 – July 16.07.2023

Rencontres Arles, France (Reception) → 06.07.2023

PhotoIreland, Dublin, Ireland → 13.07 – 16.07.2023

CCP, Melbourne, Australia → 11.08 – 26.08.2023

JIP Fest, Jakarta, Indonesia → 9.09 – 25.09.2023

Istituto Italiano di Fotografia, Milano, Italy → 21.09 – 15.10.2023

Photobook Week Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark → 01.11 – 5.11.2023

Reminders Photography Stronghold, Kyoto, Japan  →03.11. – 12.11.2023

Reminders Photography Stronghold, Tokyo, Japan →18.11.2023 – 27.11.2023

KA – Space for Visual Culture and Artistic Thinking, Ankara, Turkey → 11.2023

NOKS Art Space, Istanbul, Turkey → 12.2023

Offset Projects, New Delhi, India → 12.2023 – 03.2024

Photobook Festival, Leipzig, Germany → 09.03. – 10.03.2024

subject to change – check latest tour dates on Instagram

If you are organising a festival or run an institution or art space and you are interested in hosting the Dummy Award Shortlist please get in touch with . We are especially looking forward to add locations in Africa and North/South America to our world tour.

World Tour News

currently…

  → 18.11.– 28.11.2023

Reminders Photography Stronghold, Tokyo, Japan

recently…

→ 9.11. – 19.11.2023

KA – Space for Visual Culture and Artistic Thinking, Ankara, Turkey

  → 03.11.– 12.11.2023

Reminders Photography Stronghold – Paperoles, Kyoto, Japan

upcoming…

→ as of 12.2023

Offset Projects, New Delhi, India

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