„One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.“ That's the beginning of Franz Kafka's probably best-known story, The Metamorphosis. Amateur and professional photographers from the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria were invited to submit their photographs on the subject of Metamorphosis and write a short text about how the photo was taken, their inspiration, their motivation or their relationship to the Prague author.
After a long and lively discussion, a three-member jury (curator Simona Binko from the Czech Center Berlin, photographer Siegfried Hansen from Hamburg and photographer Jan Jindra from Tomas Bata University in Zlín) selected the best photographs from more than 260 entries.
Jorinde Ortlieb from Wismar wins a trip to Prague among the German-speaking participants with her triptych Dimorphism.
Jolana Havelková from Kolín took first place among the Czech-speaking participants with her triptych Temporary Encounters and will be invited to Vienna.
Second place went to:
Kateřina Hovorková from České Budějovice (Illusion of Transformation) and Max Treiber from Munich (Triptych 07.38-09.26).
Third place goes to:
Fabian Schreyer from Augsburg (triptych Kopfkino) and Ondřej Trojan from Prague (The Metamorphosis).
The authors of the other exhibited photographs are
Sarah Brueck (Berlin)
Stefan Hellweger (Munich)
Josef Hinterleitner (Sierning)
Philipp Merz (Munich)
Ralf Scherer (Hattingen)
Dirk Schlottmann (Berlin)
Irene Schröder (Heinsberg)
The first exhibition will take place from September 11 to October 2, 2024 at the Ingeborg Drewitz Library, Grunewaldstraße 3, Berlin.
The second exhibition will be on view from October 14 to November 2, 2024 in Prague, Velryba Gallery, Opatovická 156/24.
We will keep you informed about further planned exhibitions (Vienna, Zlín).
We congratulate the winners from the bottom of our hearts. It was not easy to choose them and we thank all photographers for their participation in the competition. We wish them all good light and an unbroken passion for photography.
We would like to thank the Prague City Library and the Czech Center Vienna for providing the first prizes. We would also like to thank FotoŠkoda for the additional prizes and significant support in the production of the photos.
Foto Dimorphismus: © Jorinde Ortlieb
Foto Temporary Encounters: © Jolana Havelková
Task
„One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.“*
This happened more than a hundred years ago. But transformation happens all the time and in many places in the world, right now.
Transformation can symbolize alienation, isolation, loss of humanity, as well as the search for new experiences and connections. Everyone looks at the world in their own way.
Transformation takes place in different directions and in different ways. Between beauty and ugliness, body and soul, snobbery and asceticism, reality and dream, the visible and the invisible, man and woman... everyone perceives the world in their own way.
Vladimir Nabokov wrote about Franz Kafka:
The transparency of his style emphasizes the dark richness of his imaginary world. Contrast and unity, style and the depicted, representation and fable are perfectly interwoven. **
Rules for the competition
The competition is open to all professional and amateur photographers from the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Your photographs can be in black and white or color. Please include your own text of no more than 800 characters about the creation of the photo, your inspiration, motivation or relationship to Franz Kafka (in Czech or German - we will take care of the translation of the texts for the selected photos).
You can send us up to three photos or a series of up to three photos (e.g. two individual photos and one series, etc. - i.e. three complete photographic formations) in JPEG format with a minimum resolution of 1701 pixels on the shorter side and 2551 pixels on the longer side. Due to the expected variety of your photos, the format of the subsequent print will also vary. (For example, the minimum resolution for a 60 x 90 format is 3543 x 5315 px). The higher the resolution, the better. Number the series in the titles so that we know the order of the photos.
Send your photographs with the author's name and the title of the picture (example: Jan_Novák_Transformation), the corresponding texts under the same title as a Word document and the signed registration form:
pdf. for download Rules for the competition
Do not send us photos generated by artificial intelligence.
The deadline for the competition is June 15, 2024.
The best photos will be exhibited in Prague, Berlin, Vienna and Zlín in fall 2024.
The author of the best photo from Germany or Austria will receive a stay of several days in Prague in the apartment where Franz Kafka lived, the author of the best photo from the Czech Republic will receive a stay of several days in Vienna, both in 2025.
Jury
Simona Binko
(Curator, Czech Center Berlin)
Siegfried Hansen
(photographer, Hamburg)
Jan Jindra
(photographer and teacher, Tomas Bata University in Zlín)
Organized by
Adalbert Stifter Verein – Kulturinstitut für die böhmischen Länder, Municipal Library in Prague – Prague, the City of Literature in cooperation with the Czech Centres Berlin and Vienna and the Photography Studio, Faculty of Multimedia Communication, Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín.
Supported by
* Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis. Fischer Verlag, 1986.
** Vladimir Nabokov: Die Kunst des Lesens. Meisterwerke der europäischen Literatur. Ins Deutsche übersetzt von Karl A. Klewer. Fischer Verlag, 1997
Foto Dimorphismus: © Jorinde Ortlieb
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