The KBr Photo Award Helps Documentary Photography Geared toward Producing Vital Reflection

Promoted by Fundación MAPFRE, The KBr Photo Award is a biennial worldwide prize that acknowledges and helps authors with an expert profession, providing a €25,000 money prize, two main exhibitions, and a printed catalogue.

The KBr Photo Award seeks to contribute to a crucial and in-depth understanding of the social, political, territorial, and environmental phenomena of our time, transcending mere testimony. Open for functions till 1 September, the third version welcomes photographers whose work exhibits creative values of particular curiosity inside the custom of documentary images, and with a minimum of one solo exhibition or a beforehand printed work. Applicants ought to both plan to hold out a brand new photographic mission or full one already in progress. In each instances, the work have to be unpublished and never submitted to every other comparable competitors. Coordinator Telmo Sánchez Ugalde explains the submission standards, giving insights to potential candidates:

Although the award doesn’t impose a selected theme, desire is given to tasks rooted within the documentary images custom. This is known not merely as a way of recording the seen world, however as a follow able to analyzing and questioning social, cultural, and political realities. In this context, documentary images is valued for its means to generate crucial reflection past easy illustration and to supply new views on up to date society.

The KBr Photo Award acknowledges the essential phases for enterprise long-term tasks with better freedom. By providing a €25,000 monetary help, the prize goals to considerably improve the artist’s nationwide and worldwide visibility and foster their skilled improvement. In addition, the chosen mission can be exhibited in two emblematic venues in Spain, together with Espai 2 on the KBr Fundación MAPFRE in Barcelona (February 2027) and Fundación MAPFRE’s exhibition halls in Madrid (June 2027).

Additionally, a listing can be printed by Fundación MAPFRE, doubtlessly with co-editions in different languages that may function a world platform to advertise the artist’s work. Several of the works from the exhibition will even be included into the muse’s everlasting images assortment. “These opportunities not only offer high-level visibility but also provide artists with a chance to consolidate their professional trajectory through rigorous institutional support and dissemination within the international art and publishing circuits”, explains Sánchez Ugalde.

In earlier editions, Anastasia Samoylova (2021) and Felipe Romero Beltrán (2023) have been chosen as prize recipients. Both photographers introduced tasks that have been nonetheless in improvement however confirmed a robust and well-articulated conceptual basis. We requested for some insights into the qualities which have been valued of their tasks.

The jury notably appreciated the readability of every artist’s intention, the coherence between type and content material, and their means to provide a rigorous visible reflection. Even although their proposals weren’t but totally realized, they revealed a mature imaginative and prescient and powerful potential for future execution.

Sánchez Ugalde continues, “In the case of Anastasia Samoylova, the jury valued her visual and conceptual approach to contemporary urban landscapes and environmental impact, especially in the context of post-documentary photography. Her work combines precise aesthetics with a critical narrative about 21st-century cities and globalization. Felipe Romero Beltrán, on the other hand, was recognized for his project Bravo, which visually investigates the U.S.–Mexico border. Moving away from conventional migration narratives, he focused instead on the liminal and everyday experiences surrounding the border. His project stands out for its unique approach, exploring sociopolitical tensions through the body and territory—qualities that are closely aligned with the objectives of the award.”

However, are there any frequent errors future candidates ought to keep away from? Photographers are suggested to submit a transparent, unique, and coherent proposal that pairs a robust idea with high-quality visible execution. Their mission should convey a private and deeply thought of perspective, enabling the jury to know the sturdy motivation and the work’s potential. Adherence to all formal pointers—together with the advice letter, deadlines, and a curated choice of high-resolution photographs—is prime.

It is very really helpful that candidates current a preliminary exploration of their material whether or not by means of early photographs, visible research, or textual reflections that provides perception into the mission’s future improvement. This preliminary method not solely provides the jury better readability in regards to the route of the work but in addition demonstrates the artist’s dedication, planning, and capability to see the mission by means of.

This 12 months’s judging panel brings collectively specialists like Diane Dufour (Co-Director of LE BAL), Ramón Reverté (Editor at Editorial RM), Krzysztof Candrowicz (Independent Curator), Gabriela Urtiaga (Chief Curator of the Museum of Latin American Art – MOLAA in Los Angeles), and Carlos Gollonet (Chief Curator of Photography at Fundación MAPFRE).

The utility interval can be open for 3 months, from 1 June to 1 September 2025, with the prize recipient to be chosen in October 2025. All candidates can be notified of the choice, and the outcomes—additionally that includes three different finalists—can be introduced on the Fundación MAPFRE web site and different media. The chosen photographer will then have till September 2026 to develop and full the mission.

Find out extra and browse the whole pointers on Fundación MAPFRE’s website.