Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room aims to spark collaboration. Franziska Kunze, Chief Curator of Photography and Time-Based Media at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, has chosen to collaborate with Marta Binazzi, who is Photo Archivist at the Biblioteca Berenson, I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

Together, they have developed the following framework for your submissions: “An archive is an archive is an archive”.

With “An archive is an archive is an archive” – adopted from Gertrude Stein’s echoing and brilliant quote – Franziska Kunze and Marta Binazzi want to explore the possibilities of archival matters within photography. What do photographs do in archives? What do archives do with photographs? What do you do with both?

Why submit to Guest Room?

Be discovered by two experts in contemporary art and photography
Get published in an online showcase on Der Greif alongside emerging artists from all over the world
Submit for free or pay a voluntary donation of 6€
Please note: Images which have been selected for a previous Der Greif opportunity are not eligible for re-submission. We want to support the broadest range of photographers possible and therefore encourage you to submit work that has not yet been selected by our past Guest Curators. Any images which do not comply with these terms will be removed from the selection process.

Voluntary donation

After over a decade of serving the international photography community Der Greif is now finally a registered non-profit. We believe this organizational structure best reflects our artistic and cultural mission. As always, your artistic contribution makes our work on Der Greif possible.

Since starting Guest Room in January 2015, we’ve been working hard to invite a broad range of practitioners, from gallerists to editors and curators. We are convinced that this format is an interesting and low-barrier approach to help artists get their work in front of people who might be interested in working with them. For this reason, we are asking you to consider making a financial contribution as well. That’s why we’re suggesting a voluntary donation of 6 € as a submission fee. 100% of the funds we collect from your donations will go towards helping us continue providing interesting opportunities for the photography community through Guest Room, and thus expand Der Greif.

We believe in inclusivity. We don’t want this suggested donation to stand in the way of your submission. If you are unable to contribute financially, please send an email to voucher@dergreif.org to receive a voucher code which will allow you to enter for free.

About Franziska Kunze

Dr. Franziska Kunze (1984, Rostock, GER) is an art and photography historian. Since August 2020, she is Chief Curator of Photography and Time-Based Media at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen | Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Previously, she was responsible for the Contemporary Art Department at the LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster. From 2017 to 2019, she was a fellow in the program "Museum Curators for Photography" of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung working at Münchner Stadtmuseum, Museum Folkwang Essen, Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Victoria & Albert Museum London. From 2013 to 2017, she was a research associate at the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung at Humboldt University Berlin.

Franziska received her PhD in 2019 with a thesis on "opaque photographs" at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She takes on teaching assignments in loose succession, writes texts, and is involved in various professional juries on photography.

About Marta Binazzi

Dr. Marta Binazzi (1983, Florence, IT) is the Photo Archivist at the Biblioteca Berenson, I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. She is also part of a post-doctoral 5-year research project of the Czech Academy of Science on photomechanical reproductions and the histories of remote access to art. Prior to this, Marta obtained a PhD at the Photographic History Research Center, De Montfort University in Leicester, and worked as Photo Archivist at the Archive of the Uffizi Gallery and at the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia. She gave lectures in the module Visualizing the Modern World at De Montfort University, presented her work at international conferences and published her findings. Additionally, she is part of the Editorial Board of the Rivista di Studi di Fotografia.

About Der Greif Guest Room

Guest Room is a monthly online exhibition with open submissions curated in real-time by personalities from the international photography scene. Der Greif is an award-winning organization for contemporary photography. It is print-publication, online-publication, curatorial team and joint project all at once. Der Greif connects the digital and the analogue, exploring and expanding the borders and limits of image-distribution and -reception in the digital era.