By submitting your work to the C/O Berlin Talent Award, you are found to be in agreement of the terms and conditions listed below. 

1. About

With its unique structure in Europe, the C/O Berlin Talent Award honors both artistic and theoretical practice, presented annually in the categories Artist and Theorist. 

Established in 2006, the award has introduced more than 90 emerging artistic and scholarly talents to a wide audience and will have its 20th anniversary in 2026 – an occasion to rethink C/O Berlin's supporting program for emerging talents with a new theme. 

The award has been supported by the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung since 2020.

Winning the C/O Berlin Talent Award in the Artist category includes a solo exhibition at C/O Berlin and an accompanying publication produced by Spector Books. The publication also features the scholarly essay by the recipient of the Theorist category. 

Both awardees receive a prize of €5,000. The award provides international visibility and promotes exchange between photography artists and theorists. 

The theme of the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2026 is Body Politics. 

2. Eligibility

You may apply for the C/O Berlin Talent Award if 

• you are an emerging photographer aged between 18 and 35, AND

• your project engages with this year's theme, AND

• you work with photography or lens-based media. 

The application must include:

• at least 10 and a maximum of 15 images related to the project,

• a CV including education background and exhibition history

• a project description of no more than 2,000 characters

• a letter of recommendation

You must apply with a body of work that has not been presented as a solo exhibition in a major institution in Europe nor published as a monograph. 

There are no application fees. However, the winner of the C/O Berlin Talent Award must agree to donate a print from the project to the C/O Berlin Talent Award collection. The winner must also agree to the production of a special sales edition for the C/O Berlin Bookshop featuring a motif from the winning project. 

All material must be submitted in English to be reviewed by our international jury. 

Entries must be submitted by artists, not by galleries or representatives. 

Applicants warrant that the entry submission is the original work of the artist and, as such, the artist is the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the submitted work, and that the party submitting has the right to submit the work for exhibition and/or publication and grants all required licenses. 

Each entrant agrees not to submit any entry that 

(1) infringes any third party's rights; or

(2) violates the applicable state, federal, provincial or local law. 

3. Application and Selection Process

The award recipient in the category Artist will be selected by a professional jury.

C/O Berlin Foundation reserves the right to reject submissions without providing reasons if they are incomplete or do not meet the eligibility requirements. 

Late applications cannot be considered. 

Applications may only be submitted via Picter. 

The jury's decisions are final and will not be explained or commented on. 

C/O Berlin will not provide individual feedback on applications at any time.

4. Data usage and storage 

C/O Berlin will process your application data for the purpose of conducting the selection process for the C/O Berlin Talent Award. When evaluating the entries, the applicant data will be made available to the designated individuals organizing the award procedure. The selection committee is composed of one representative from the C/O Berlin Foundation and four external members with professional expertise in the field of photography. 

After the selection process has been completed, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, as the funder of the award, will be provided with the complete application data of the winner. 

The personal data collected on the basis of the participation will be stored for verification and documentation purposes and for the fulfilment of the legally stipulated retention obligations according to §§ 146 ff. of the German Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung) and § 257 of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch) for up to 10 years and deleted after the end of the retention periods. If statutory retention obligations are applicable, the data will be deactivated instead of deleted. If there is no legal obligation to retain the data, it will be deleted as soon as the purpose of use has been achieved. This means that your data will not be processed and stored for longer than is necessary for the purposes of implementing and documenting the competition. All applicant registration data will be kept for up to six months after the application deadline and then destroyed. If your application is rejected, we will only store your data if we have your written consent to do so. The complete data of the the winner will be stored for archival purposes. Shortlisted projects do not receive prize money, but they will be publicly announced in a press release, on C/O Berlin's website and Instagram. They will moreover be presented by Der Greif. For the purpose of bringing attention to their projects, we ask every shortlisted candidate for two press images (including credit lines) from their shortlisted project.