Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room aims to spark collaboration. Boaz Levin and Sophia Greiff, esteemed curators and co-heads of programming at C/O Berlin, have partnered to craft the next theme for your submissions: “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”.

"The sea is the subject of myths and utopias, a place of longing, sublimity and fascination, but also of fear and uncertainty. Oceans serve as the setting for complex cultural, socio-political and ecological challenges, ranging from migration movements and sea rescue to trade routes, the extraction of natural resources, and the unavoidable consequences of climate change. We invite you to share your images and stories, your dreams and anxieties about the forces of the elements and the depths and secrets of the sea."

Why submit to Guest Room?

• Get the chance to be awarded a 1.000 € Guest Room Scholarship sponsored by MPB
• 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 8€
• 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 8€ 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-guestroom@dergreif.org to receive a voucher code which will allow you to enter for free.

About Boaz Levin

Boaz Levin is a curator and co-head of programming at C/O Berlin. He has written for Camera Austria, Texte zur Kunst, and other journals. Levin has co-curated international exhibitions including the 2017 Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie and the 2022 Chennai Photo Biennale. Together with Esther Ruelfs, he curated the exhibition Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production at Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, in 2022. He co-curated C/O Berlin’s Image Ecology exhibition with Kathrin Schönegg in 2023.

About Sophia Greif

Sophia Greiff is a curator and co-head of programming at C/O Berlin. Previously, she was a graduate research assistant in the Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography program at Hanover University. She co-edited the books image/con/text and Images in Conflict and, for many years, co-curated the Fotodoks Festival for Contemporary Documentary Photography. As an Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Foundation scholar, she worked at Munich Stadtmuseum, Museum Folkwang in Essen, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among others.

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.