Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room is a format that fosters collaboration and sparks creative exchange. For this edition, Arles-based Alejandro León Cannock (Director, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation and Delphine Mansard (Director, Librairie du Palais) are exploring the theme "Have You Checked Your Screen Time? Forms and Logics of Excess."

"Have you checked your screen time? Do you know how much water is used to create an AI image? How far do the products you buy online travel before they reach your home? How much money is spent every year on weapons production? Can you imagine the size of the waste vortex floating in the North Pacific Ocean, or how much of the Amazon rainforest is destroyed every day?

We live in an age of excess, where excess is not an exception but a fundamental condition built into how our world operates. Consumption, production, the use of natural resources, labour, information, and technology all move faster and faster. What was once called “progress” now shows a darker side. The ecological crisis makes clear that unlimited growth has limits. These limits threaten both human life and the planet as we know it.

This edition of Guest Room brings together photographic projects that deal with excess not as a topic, but as a condition of the present. Excess is understood as a core logic of today’s capitalist system. Photography becomes a method to question, expose, and reflect on this condition, even when doing so also puts the photographic image itself into question. Photography is understood here in its expanded sense, encompassing documentary images, constructed scenes, archival material, moving images, and hybrid forms that respond differently to the same condition."

Why submit to Guest Room?

• Be discovered by an expert 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 10€
• Win a Face-to-Face feedback session with the curators
• 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

Der Greif is a registered non-profit. In these challenging economic times – especially for arts organizations and artists – we are convinced to provide a vital platform for our community. If you're in the position to support this mission, we value your support.

Since launching Guest Room in January 2015, we've invited a broad range of professionals (gallerists, editors, curators) to create opportunities for artists to share their work and get it in front of an international network they might not have access to otherwise. We are more commited than ever to continue this work.

We suggest a voluntary 10€ donation to help us sustain these efforts. If you'd like to support us further, we also accept regular donations via our Raisely page.

If you're unable to contribute financially, please email voucher-guestroom@dergreif.org to receive a 50% or 100% discount code. Your artistic and financial contributions enable our continued growth.

About Alejandro León Cannock

Alejandro León Cannock (Peru, 1980) is a researcher and lecturer, curator, and visual artist. He holds a PhD in artistic research from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles / Aix-Marseille University, as well as a Master’s degree in Photography from Centro de la Imagen (Lima) and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He was curator of the Peruvian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale and, in 2025, recipient of the research and creation grant from the Institut pour la Photographie in Lille. He works at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Aix-Marseille University. He is currently Director of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation in Arles.

About Delphine Manjard

Delphine Manjard holds a degree in Art History from the University of François Rabelais (Tours) and from the National School of Photography (ENSP, Arles), where she also served as a specialized librarian, before becoming a bookseller in fine arts and photography. Having been based in Arles for 18 years, she now runs the Librairie du Palais in Arles, offering a selection of new and vintage books that reflect her experience with photography books. Deeply determined to give everyone the chance to find a book that suits them, she aims to "give authors the opportunity to meet their readers."

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.