Temporary Encounters. Winners of the Photo Competition Franz Kafka: Transformation

„When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.“ So begins what is probably Franz Kafka's 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 Centre 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, who won among the German-speaking participants with her triptych Dimorphism, won a trip to Prague.

Jolana Havelková from Kolín, whose triptych Temporary Encounters took first place among the Czech-speaking participants, 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 (Die Verwandlung).

The authors of the other exhibited photographs are

Sarah Brück (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 display 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 Centre Vienna for providing the first prizes. We thank FotoŠkoda for the additional prizes and significant support in the production of the photos.