German Youth Photography Prize – "Seriously?"
Through 40 award-winning entries, ECHT JETZT paints a multi-layered picture of how young people experience their present and what endures from it. It tells of love and closeness in friendships or within the family. It tells of solidarity and the courage to break stereotypes, forge one’s own path and set oneself apart. It also tells of loneliness and the question of where young people can find space to articulate their perspectives and concerns about the future.
The exhibition displays great diversity not only in terms of content but also in form: analogue and digital works, cyanotypes, homemade pinhole cameras, collages and other experimental techniques feature amongst the award-winning entries. Here, photography is explored and pushed to new boundaries – demonstrating just how much power lies in play, experimentation and the courage to forge one’s own path. ECHT JETZT reveals the depth of young people’s trust in images – in their power to give voice to their own themes and concerns. In doing so, the exhibition also addresses fundamental questions in photography concerning truth and time. In a present characterised by change, contradictions and new uncertainties, ECHT JETZT invites us to look together: How and where do we want to live? How do we want to treat one another? What spaces are we creating for children? How do we open ourselves up to one another and accept differences? And how do we allow ourselves to be changed by one another?
Exhibition dates: 20 September to 15 November 2026