Theme for Guest Room

Guest room is a format that fosters collaboration and sparks creative exchange. For this edition, Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA Shana Lopes and artist Aspen Mays introduce the theme "A Little Bit of Magic".

"Since its invention in 1839, photography has been called a “magic mirror” and even a form of “natural magic.” The earliest viewers struggled to explain how light, chemistry, and optics could produce such convincing illusions. “Magic” became the easiest way to describe what no one quite understood. In every generation of photographers, there have always been some artists who have turned away from the documentary characteristics of the medium to instead create images that challenge the logic of the real world. Again and again, they return to magic and, in so doing, bring spectacle and wonder back into photography.

We invite artists to consider how magic functions within photography today. What happens when the medium feels overly rational or even the opposite, wildly implausible? Where do artists reinsert illusion and misdirection back into their work? We welcome work that engages doubling, substitution, sleight of hand, constructed realities, staged impossibilities, reenactment, and the pleasure of participating in an illusion. In a moment shaped by synthetic imagery and information overload, how might magic once again become a way to push back or re-enchant the medium of photography?"

Why submit to Guest Room?

Get the chance to be awarded a 250 € Der Greif Guest Room Scholarship
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 Shana Lopes

Shana Lopes, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as: Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, The SECA 2024 Art Award, People Make This Place: SFAI Stories, and Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules. Over the past fifteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

About Aspen Mays

Aspen Mays is an artist whose work investigates photography’s relationship to science, chance, and material transformation. Mays’s solo exhibitions include Ten Gallon Sunflower (2016) and California Dreaming (2018) at Higher Pictures in New York and Toward Infinite Limits at the San Jose State Museum of Art in California in 2019; her work was presented at Paris Photo in 2025 and is featured on the cover of the Winter 2025 issue of Aperture Magazine. Mays participated in the inaugural cohort of Unseen California, a research initiative which invites artists to engage with the University of California Natural Reserve System. She curated Field Notes from Unseen California at the Penumbra Foundation in New York in 2023. Mays received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is Associate Professor of Art and Chair of Photography at California  College  of  the  Arts in San Francisco. Mays lives and works in California and London.

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.