‘Fashion photography’ is to be one of the five competition categories.

The upcoming Felix Schoeller Photo Award 2019 will feature a new category under the heading of “Fashion”. The Award calls on fashion photographers across the globe to submit their best work for the 2019 competition.

A biennial event since its inception in 2013, the Felix Schoeller Photo Award has established itself on the international stage as a challenging competition for professional photographers. Participants have so far been able to submit entries in the five categories of Portrait, Landscape/Nature, Architecture/Industry, Free Choice/Conceptual Photography and Photo Journalism/Editorial. The new Fashion Photography category replaces the category of Architecture/Industry.

’I imagine the change in categories – which by the way has been a conceptual component of the Felix Schoeller Photo Award from the very beginning – will be an exciting source of inspiration and an interesting topic for people visiting the exhibition in the Museum Quarter of Osnabrück. I am also very excited about the different cultural perspectives on conceptual fashion photography’, says Dr Friederike Texter, Senior Vice President Corporate Communication at the Felix Schoeller Group.

Michael Dannenmann, Chairman of the Jury, says: ’Fashion is a mirror of our zeitgeist. In the dynamic interplay between art and commerce, design and the mundane, fashion picks up on the most diverse trends. Fashion photography has been documenting people’s attitude to life since photography was first invented. That alone makes it an important photographic subject.’

Its conceptual approach is a key feature of the Felix Schoeller Photo Award.
Participants are required to submit a series of photos consisting of 3–5 individual motifs along with an accompanying written concept. Another important aspect is that none of the members of the independent and international panel of judges is privy to the names of the entrants during the entire adjudication process and therefore only evaluates the photographic work and the concept.

The last Felix Schoeller Photo Award saw around 2,400 entries from more than 90 countries. With prizes totalling €25,000, the Award is one of the most prestigious in the German-speaking world.

The rules of the 2019 competition will be published mid-November. Submissions can be entered from 1 January 2019 until 31 May 2019. Following the award ceremony in October 2019, the collective work of the winners and nominees will be presented in an exhibition lasting several months in the Museum Quarter of Osnabrück.