This year’s formal DGPh Culture Award goes to the historian and photography theorist Wolfgang Kemp, in a ceremony that is likewise open to the public. The DGPh Culture Award has been handed out since 1959. With it, the DGPh distinguishes living personalities for important services in the field of photography.

The Culture Award of the German Photographic Association (DGPh) was founded on 2 October 1958. The founding certificate, signed by the DGPh chairman of the time, Dr Gerhard Schröder, reads: “The Culture Award... distinguishes important services which have been performed with the aid of photography, especially in the artistic, humanitarian, charitable, social, technical, educational or scientific field.”

The award-winners include internationally renowned scientists, inventors, authors, publishers, editors, lecturers, art directors and, above all, major photographers from Germany and abroad. The winners of the DGPh Culture Award are proposed by DGPh members. It is not open to applicants.

The DGPh Culture Award winners of the last 10 years:

2018 Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kemp, Lüneburg (Deutschland)
2017 Duane Michals, New York (USA)
2016 Lothar Schirmer, München (Deutschland)
2015 Trevor Paglen, New York (USA)
2014 Prof. Dr. Gottfried Jäger, Bielefeld (Deutschland)
2013 Maryse Cordesse (Frankreich), Lucien Clergue (Frankreich), Jean-Maurice Rouquette (Frankreich), Michel Tournier (Frankreich)
2012 Prof. Manfred P. Kage, Lauterstein (Deutschland)
2011 Prof. Klaus Honnef, Bonn (Deutschland)
2010 Stephen Shore, New York (USA)
2009 Wolfgang Tillmans, Berlin (D), London (GB)