Here Are the Winners of Unseen Amsterdam’s Awards for Emerging Talents in Photography

Andrea Grützner and Robin Lopvet nabbed the top prizes at the annual photography fair.

Andrea Grützen, Hive 1 (2017). © Andrea Grützner

The Unseen Art Fair in Amsterdam, which kicked off yesterday and runs through Sunday, has awarded the 2017 ING Unseen Talent Award—made up of the Jury Prize and Public Prize and designed to highlight emerging photographers—to Andrea Grützner and Robin Lopvet, respectively.

This year’s theme for the young talent award was “Common Ground,” which sought to encourage the exploration of similarities among differences.

In her work, Jury Prize winner Andrea Grützner draws on her native Germany as a starting point for her color photographs, ultimately investigating various perceptions of space and historic buildings. For example, her series Erbgericht, tells the story of an old guesthouse located in the German village of Polenz, detailing the memories of members of the family who have owned the building since 1889.

“She plays with colors in her work, grounded in elements of surrealism,” the jury—which this year was comprised of photographer Maryam Eisler; founder of Prix Pictet and former head of photographs at Sotheby’s, Francis Hodgson; photographer Dana Lixenberg; professor Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger; and Condé Nast International editor-in-chief, Darius Sanai—said in a statement. The award comes with a healthy €10,000 prize to fund a new project.

Meanwhile, for his work Économie de marché (Market economy), French photographer Robin Lopvet received the Public Prize, which was determined from the results of an online poll. He has been commissioned to create a new work for the ING collection.

All five nominees for the award were given the opportunity to work with British artist Nadav Kander for what was billed as an extensive Talent Program that included online coaching sessions and workshops as well as introductions to professionals in the photography world.

Previous winners of the ING Unseen Talent Awards include Thomas Albdorf, Miren Pastor, Sophie Jung, Lara Gasparotto, Anne Geene, Maurice van Es, and Ola Lanko.


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