Selected from the series “Hood” © Peter Franck, Nominee Category Architecture/Industry, Felix Schoeller Photo Award 2015

The jury has reached a decision on which are the standout works from this year’s Felix Schoeller Photo Award and has selected the best 187 entries out of 2,377 submissions from 92 countries. This selected group of both established and prospective professional photographers represents international contemporary photography in an exceptional way across all five categories, including in the emerging talent category.

This year works from 34 different countries were selected in the shortlist, with 60% of them coming from foreign countries, compared to 48% in 2015, and only 40% coming from Germany, compared to 52% in 2015.

Even though the award recorded a record number of submissions (1,000 more submissions than 2015), the head of the jury Michael Dannenmann has noted the high standard of the works. Several previous winners of the renowned international photography prize took part once again and put new as well as already award-winning works into the running. In these cases, many of the applicants were already known by the jury. Nevertheless, a fundamental principle of the award remained unchanged: in contrast to numerous other competitions, the names of the applicants are fundamentally unknown to the jury. The jury members only find out the names of the finalists and the winner once the final jury meeting has taken place. The jury, consisting of Gérard Goodrow, Clara Maria Sels, Simone Klein and Julia Sörgel, with Michael Dannenmann as the head of the jury, is convinced that these conditions will allow for them to evaluate the works in the fairest way possible.

Because of this, the shortlist will be published in the evening of the 28^th of August, immediately after the final jury decissions have been made. The Nominees will be announced one week later.

After that, the fans of the Felix Schoeller Photo Award will be welcome to view the works critically and with joy in the web gallery. The names of the winners will be announced for the first time at the presentation ceremony on the 14th of October 2017 in the Cultural History Museum in Osnabrück. Directly on the following day, a four-month exhibition, showcasing the works of all the winners and nominees in a wonderful atmosphere, will be formally opened.