To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of photography, the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises will honour the continuous work of ten Berlin galleries in the field of artistic photography and their planned exhibition projects with the EMOP Gallery Concept Award 2026/27 during the upcoming EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography. An international jury of experts selected the winners from the entries.
Image above: Courtesy of Kulturprojecte Berlin.
Jury statement
“The more than 50 entries not only testify to the immense diversity of the Berlin gallery scene, which reflects the consistently high quality of the work of galleries in the field of international contemporary artistic photography, but also to the relevance of the artists they represent in public debate and within the art world. One of the jury’s focuses when selecting the ten projects was on galleries that didn’t hesitate to include artists who work with photography in their cross-genre gallery programmes. They represent artists who frequently push the boundaries of photography and therefore continuously reflect on the status of the photographic image or even develop it further.”
Jury for the EMOP Gallery Concept Award
Nela Eggenberger (Founder and Editor, P.IN.E.A – Photography, Intermedia, Et Al., Vienna), Florian Ebner (Head of the Photography Collection, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou, Paris), and Maren Lübbke-Tidow (Artistic Director, EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography, Berlin).
The EMOP Gallery Concept Award 2026/27 awards prize money totalling 100,000 Euro. The first prize is 25,000 Euro, the second 18,000 Euro and the third 15,000 Euro. Seven other galleries will each receive 6000 Euro.
The announcement and presentation of the first, second and third prizes will take place in November 2026 at Paris Photo, the world’s leading photography fair. The prize will thus mark the birth of photography 200 years ago in France and at the same time serve as a highlight in the run-up to the 40th anniversary of Berlin and Paris being twin cities in 2027. All ten prize-winning exhibition projects will also be presented from 4 March to 4 April during the EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography festival.
The top three galleries are (in alphabetical order)
-Galerie Molitor
-Galerie Thomas Fischer
-Klemm’s
The seven other galleries to receive awards are (in alphabetical order)
BQ
ChertLüdde
Dorothée Nilsson Gallery
Galerie Anton Janizewski
Galerie FWR FeldbuschWiesnerRudolph
Loock Galerie
Shahin Zarinbal
The EMOP Gallery Concept Award 2026/27 is aimed at commercial galleries in Berlin that demonstrate continued commitment to contemporary photography in their programming. The awards recognise exhibition projects developed specifically for EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography 2027 and which will be realised as part of the festival. In this way, the State of Berlin honours the important role galleries play in conveying artistic perspectives to the public and as key players in the art market – and also the European Month of Photography as a unifying force that raises Berlin’s profile nationally and internationally as a city of photography.
As a platform for the artistic, theoretical and institutional further development of photographic practice with images, the festival brings galleries, museums, project spaces, academic institutions and artists together. It creates spaces for discussion, professionalisation and international networking, thereby strengthening Berlin’s cultural reputation.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 04. March 2026 – Sunday, 04. April 2027
WHERE?
Kulturprojekte Berlin
Klosterstraße 68
10179 Berlin
