Library Award Winner 2026

“Rereading the letters my grandma had sent me before her terminal cancer diagnosis reconfigured the landscape I escaped from as a teenager. The stillness of the fields, and small winding roads between them, had never been interesting to me. Neither were the traditions, rituals, habits and people. Until she died. This project is about the memory of her, my grandma, who lived 82 years in the same village, and our relationship. Memories fade quickly, and with every passing day, what is left of hers becomes more intertwined with childhood fantasies and rural stereotypes. The images balance between all of these. It is about the transgression of my own prejudices through re-valuating the connection between her and her environment, her friends and the laundry. Thus creating a shared utopia where she and I remain immortal”

“When Charlotte Schmitz first came to Istanbul in 2012 as a photojournalism student, she could not have imagined the lifelong relationship she would form with the city. A complete stranger, she serendipitously encountered families who welcomed her into their homes in the historic neighborhood of Balat. What began as fleeting encounters blossomed into friendships, and over more than a decade she photographed women, children, home interiors, and celebrations.

As part of Istanbul’s ever-shifting cosmopolitan fabric, Balat embodies change, fragility, and resilience. Over centuries, it has absorbed Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Turkish, Kurdish, and Roma cultures, inscribed in its architecture, rituals, and memory. 

The connection Charlotte has built with her friends and neighbors offers a counter-memory to the undertone of forgetting slowly unthreading the fabric of our time. The book invites readers to immerse themselves in the colorful world of Charlotte’s Istanbul”

In the early morning hours of the 24th of Feburary 2022 russia unleashed its brutal full-scale war on Ukraine.
Most of my friends had to flee their homes, some of them, most likely, forever.
And then my unbelievable friends did something that will forever impress me. I watched them built new routines in all the uncertainties, reclaim a sense of normality, find moments of happiness despite all the horrors.
Even in the face of war and immense loss, they kept going, they kept living.
For over three years, since 2022 I tried to capture my friends new reality, their everyday life, their strength and their resilience.

The book is completed by personal texts, notes and diary entries contributed by my dear Anastasiia Kaminska, Oleksii Stislavsky and Vitalii Matukhno. I am so grateful for their vulnerable, sometimes brutally honest and open texts.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines appears at first glance to be an independent Caribbean nation, yet the legacy of British colonialism continues to shape everyday life. The forced displacement and enslavement of African people left lasting marks on the country’s social, political, and educational structures. Since independence in 1979, the nation has sought greater self-determination, while many colonial influences remain.
This photobook explores the perspectives of 18- to 30-year-olds navigating questions of identity, opportunity, and belonging between Indigenous heritage and colonial structures. Rooted in my own family history, the project examines both the challenges of postcolonial realities and the resilience, strength, and visions of a generation shaping its future.
Archival material, interviews, poems, and my own photographs come together to illuminate these themes from multiple perspectives and create a layered portrait of contemporary life in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

On Heaven’s Doorsill investigates the layered beliefs surrounding the theme of afterlife, delving into mythology, folk tales, and ancient traditions in rural Romania. The project is inspired by the artist’s grandmother, Alexandra. She lived her whole life in a village in Romania, where time passed by the turning of the seasons and everyday existence unfolded in harmony with the ancient rhythms of the land.

One night, long after she became a widow, as the earth held its breath, she had a peculiar dream. Her late husband appeared to her in silence. She asked him, “Have you come to take me across?” “Not yet,” he said. “I will be back for you at harvest time.”
And so, she waited.
The leaves turned gold, the hay was cut, and the fields swelled with ripeness. At harvest time, she entered the gates to the other side and rejoined him.

In ‚Only Barely Still‘, Catherine Lemblé focuses on Svalbard, often cast by outsiders as a remote, rugged outpost where only the toughest men survive. In the historical record shaped by early exploration, women are largely absent, appearing only as rare exceptions or companions. At the same time, Western imagination has repeatedly feminised the polar landscape as “virgin” and “barren” – a passive body to be conquered, tamed, or protected. ‚Only Barely Still‘ works in the space between these misconceptions, and offers a quiet counter-narrative that centres female presence and perspective. The book also includes a chapter of historical images of women on Svalbard from the archives of the Norwegian Polar Institute, and an essay by Abi Andrews.

The Buzzer investigates the shifting identities and geopolitical fault lines of the post-Soviet space. Set primarily in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania between 2016 and 2018, the work examines how historical rifts between Russia and the West continue to unfold today—tracing the transformation of these territories under competing cultural and political influences. The series documents military exercises, national celebrations, and everyday encounters across the region.

This Much is True follows Albert Elm’s acclaimed debut What Sort of Life is This. The book weaves together Elm’s energetic snapshots and dreamlike landscapes into an original body of work that employs a raw yet playful photographic language. Through this approach, Elm reflects on life as he experiences it—at home and abroad, at this particular moment in time, shaped by his age, circumstances, and surroundings.

The images move freely between faraway places and local experiences, icebergs, swimming pools and deserts. South Asian workers in Dubai, a marble quarry in Carrara, and an industrial pipe system outside Mumbai. These scenes are assembled into a fragmented yet coherent visual narrative that feels simultaneously global and deeply personal.

The images emerge from a desire to understand the many facets of reality and a compulsion to push toward its edges. By refusing hierarchies between the extraordinary and the everyday, the book presents the world as a single, shifting landscape

In der DDR wurden je nach Quelle einige Hundert bis mehrere Tausend Kinder von ihren Eltern getrennt und zur Adoption freigegeben. Die tatsächliche Zahl ist bis heute unbekannt. Das Familiengesetzbuch der DDR schrieb vor, dass Eltern ihre Kinder „zu aktiven Erbauern des Sozialismus” erziehen sollten. Sie hatten „die Arbeit zu achten”, „die Sowjetunion zu lieben” und „die Grenzen – notfalls auch mit Waffengewalt – zu verteidigen”. Folgten Eltern diesen Vorgaben nicht, hatte der Staat die Macht, ihnen das Erziehungsrecht zu entziehen. Bis heute ist das Thema Zwangsadoption umstritten, die Aufarbeitung von DDR-Unrecht dauert an.
In einer fotografisch-dokumentarischen Auseinandersetzung beschäftigen sich die Fotografinnen Paulina Metzscher und Amelie Sachs gemeinsam mit der Autorin und Filmemacherin Eva Gemmer in was geschehen und nie geschehen ist mit den jeweiligen Familiengeschichten der Betroffenen. Was bleibt zurück? Kummer? Verlust? Hoffnung?

This book was born from over two hundred images of flowers—an unexpected output for Jeff Mermelstein has been making photographs on the streets of New York for decades. Mermelstein brought the photographs to Void with the idea of making them into a book. During discussions, Mermelstein’s compulsion to photograph flowers was likened to the predilections of a butterfly. The book’s title and content evolved both from this idea and the recognition of the similarity between the behaviour of winged insects and those who photograph on the street. Both moving quickly and erratically from one attractive thing to the next, albeit from street corner to street corner or from flower to flower. The quickness of observing, landing, and leaving.

Ja! Bitte reicht so viele verschiedene Bücher ein wie möglich! Die Anzahl der Bücher, die Verlage oder Buchmacher:innen einreichen können, ist nicht begrenzt.

Ja. Bitte fülle jedoch für jedes Buch ein separates Einreichungsformular aus. Vielen Dank!

Ja! Solange das Buch zwischen März 2024 und März 2025 in einer Auflage von mindestens 100 Exemplaren erschienen ist, kann es eingereicht werden. Eine ISBN-Nummer ist nicht erforderlich.

Nein. Der Fotobus Library Award ist für veröffentlichte Bücher gedacht, die eine Auflage von mindestens 100 Exemplaren haben. Bitte schicke Deinen Fotobuch-Dummy an unsere guten Freunde vom Dummy Award!

Nein. Alle eingereichten Bücher werden Teil der mobilen Fotobus-Bibliothek und werden für immer intensiv studiert, diskutiert und geliebt.

Nein. Wir unterstützen nur fotografische Arbeiten.

Ja. Der Kern der Arbeit muss fotografisch sein. Andere Elemente wie Texte, gefundene Bilder, Dokumente, Comics, Illustrationen, Zeichnungen usw. können ebenfalls verwendet werden.

Es ist möglich, textbasierte Bücher für unsere mobile Fotobus-Bibliothek einzureichen. Wir sind dankbar und werden die Bücher lesen! Leider werden für den Fotobus Library Award aber nur Bücher mit Fotografien berücksichtigt.

Ja.

Ja, Fotobücher von zwei oder mehr Autor:innen sind zulässig.

Nein.

Nein. Aber das Buch wird Teil der mobilen Fotobus-Bibliothek und wird für immer intensiv studiert, diskutiert und geliebt werden.

Leider können wir keine Zollgebühren übernehmen. Das Buch wird in dem Fall wieder zurück geschickt.

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