The 2017 winners (from left): Mario Brand, Saskia Boelsums, Matt Hulse, Alain Schroeder, Hosam Katan, Guilherme Bergamini, Rodrigo Illescas. Photo: Alexander Böhle

The Felix Schoeller Photo Award exhibition entitled “Winners & Nominees” opened in October, and it soon became a big hit with the public. By the end of December, over 7,000 photography enthusiasts had seen the prizewinning photographs, and so Nils Arne Kässens, Head of the Museumsquartier Osnabrück, decided to extend the exhibition until the 22nd April. His judgement was endorsed by a further 3,000 visitors.

As Nils Arne Kässens explained, the visitors who came to the exhibition were not just from the region around Osnabrück, but from the whole of Germany and the Netherlands as well. Many of the visitors engaged with the work of the photographers and the underlying concepts. There was also a lot of praise for the support programme, which included guided tours through the exhibition, an accompanying workshop on portrait photography, led by head of jury, Michael Dannenmann, and a presentation by the Gold Prize Winner Matt Hulse on the last day of the exhibition. Nils Arne Kässens attributed the big increase in visitor interest to the sustained media and publicity work that was carried out by the Osnabrück Office of Culture. There was also continuous work on the Award’s Facebook page, which led to a lively community which diligently shared our posts with others. Thank you, folks!

All Photos: Alexander Böhle