Peterborough artist Rene Matić wins Deutsche Börse pictures prize | Photography

Rene Matić, whose work unpicks fashionable British identification and has been described as “the Wolfgang Tillmans of their generation”, has gained the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2026.

The Peterborough-born photographer was awarded the £30,000 prize, which is among the many most prestigious artwork awards in Europe, after being nominated alongside Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka and Amak Mahmoodian.

Matić, who was additionally chosen for the Turner prize in 2025, was recognised for his or her exhibition at CCA in Berlin, titled As Opposed to the Truth, which documented queer love, nationalism and varied subcultures.

“Opposing layers. Loving layers. Violent layers,” is how Matić described the exhibition, which featured pictures, flags with slogans sewn on them and their assortment of black dolls from second-hand shops.

Shoair Mavlian, the director of the Photographers’ Gallery and chair of the Deutsche Börse jury, mentioned Matić’s use of “photography in a fluid and experimental way” had impressed the judging panel.

She added: “The installation’s construction, where different dialogues are created through the pairing and reorganising of the images was something we thought was really exciting and interesting.”

“Symbolism does a lot of the work for me,” Matić as soon as mentioned about their work. “The exploration of blessing and burden, and of true or false. I use flags as a metaphor for power and hegemony.”

As Opposed to the Truth was the primary institutional solo exhibition that Matić has had in Germany, however she’s exhibited broadly within the UK and throughout Europe, together with a joint present with Oscar Murillo at Kunsthalle Wien in Austria, the place their work was inspired by Josephine Baker.

Matić has had the far-right slogan “Born British Die British” tattooed on their again after being impressed by the pictures of Derek Ridgers, who documented the fascist scene of Nineteen Seventies Britain. Matić’s work is usually impressed by subcultural actions from the skinhead motion their father was a part of within the Eighties, to Northern Soul.

“[The tattoo] was always about the in-between moments of being born British and dying British,” Matić as soon as mentioned. “That’s what my story is all about.”

“I wanted to insert myself into that narrative. I came across Derek’s photos [of skinheads] when I was younger. I think I was searching for myself, or my dad, in that scene. His work was instrumental in me understanding my culture, identity and position – and opposition.”

Their Turner Prize nominated work was described by Adrian Searle: “Peace and protest, friendship and family are all mixed together, along with contested ideas of nationhood and belonging … It all adds up to a frozen autobiographical tableau.”

They had additionally been known as “a quiet observer of things,” he wrote.

Evelyn Atwood was nominated for her e book Too Much Time, a decade-long survey capturing the lives of ladies in jail, spanning demise row in America to feminine inmates in japanese Europe.

The Iranian photographer Mahmoodian was nominated for One Hundred and Twenty Minutes, which refers back to the period of time people spend dreaming each night time – with a specific deal with the desires of immigrants in search of to forge a brand new life.

Polish artist Gęsicka was recognised for her fact-meets-fiction work Encyclopedia, which created faux entries through generative AI impressed by real-life falsehoods contained in reference books.

It was the primary work that used AI ever to be nominated for the award and comes at a time when artists have inspired the trade to embrace the expertise.

Mavlian mentioned: “We can’t escape the fact that artists will use it in different and creative ways. It is definitely a huge topic of conversation for photographers at the moment and quite rightly.”

All of the nominated artists obtained £5,000.