Theme for Guest Room

Guest Room fosters collaboration and sparks creative exchange. For this edition, curator Dr. Charmaine Toh joins forces with curator and art historian Philippe Pirotte to explore the following theme:

"Black Box"

"Photography has always evolved with new techniques – from the chemical to the digital, from analog processes to networked circulation. Yet at its core, image-making often carries a sense of mystery. Light, lenses, chemistry, and now screens all transform the world into pictures, but the exact alchemy can feel elusive. Processes unfold in ways we don’t fully see, operating like “black boxes” where outcomes emerge from hidden interactions of material, time, and chance.

This obscurity matters. It shapes how we understand the photograph, how its meanings shift, and how certain aspects remain concealed. Opacity is often treated as a shortcoming – a loss of clarity or truth. But it can also be a strength. Caribbean writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant spoke of the 'right to opacity' as a refusal of control and legibility. Not everything needs to be transparent or explained. In photography, opacity can signal resistance: images that resist easy interpretation, processes that refuse resolution, or practices that cultivate uncertainty rather than mastery.

We invite photographers who engage with these hidden dimensions of image-making. How do unseen processes alter photography’s relationship to memory or truth? What is at stake in the aspects that remain mysterious? And how might opacity itself become a creative or political tool – offering ambiguity, refusal, or shelter in a world that demands constant clarity?"

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€
• 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 Charmaine Toh

Dr. Charmaine Toh is Senior Curator, International Art (Photography) at Tate. Her research interests include alternative histories of photography and the colonial photographic archive. In her former role as Senior Curator at National Gallery Singapore, she curated "LivingPictures: Photography in Southeast Asia" (2022), which was the first major survey of photography in the region. She was also co-curator for the Singapore Biennale (2013). Charmaine is the author of "Imagining Singapore: Pictorial Photography from the 1950s to the 1970s" (Brill, 2023) and is currently working on an exhibition about the expanded global histories of Pictorialism.

About Donald Weber

Philippe Pirotte was co-Artistic Director of ”Seeing in the Dark,” the Busan Biennale in South Korea (2024). As a member of the Documenta-Commission (2019-2022), he co-selected Ruangrupa as the artistic directors of documenta fifteen (2022). Recently, he curated the monographic exhibition of Indonesian media and performance artist Melati Suryodarmo for the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht (2022). He is preparing different exhibition projects focusing on cultural and artistic developments in relation to the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. In this context, he convened the series of online roundtables, The Color Curtain and the Promise of Bandung (2021) at the Städelschule Frankfurt where he serves as Professor of Art History.

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.