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Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Portraits Hellerau e.V. fund new guest professorship at HfBK Dresden

Release date:
14 Nov 2022
| Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Portraits Hellerau e.V. fund new guest professorship at HfBK Dresden


The renowned British-Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy will take up the first international short-term guest professorship in photography at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) in the summer semester 2023. This professorship is made possible by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in cooperation with the Dresden-based association Portraits Hellerau e.V.. Laura El-Tantawy will also be appointed to the jury of the PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award 2023.

The common goal of the three partners is to expand artistic teaching at the HfBK Dresden in the field of photography through this new international guest professorship. The existing teaching programme at the HfBK Dresden will be complemented by a project-based workshop for master students and advanced students, which will be led by Laura El-Tantawy. An exhibition in June 2023 in the rooms of the academy will show the students’ works created during the workshop.

Laura El-Tantawy (*1980) dedicates her artistic work primarily to themes that encompass the search for identity, belonging, ecological aspects and social issues. She combines documentary to painterly-abstract photographs with each other. In 2005, she moved to Cairo and started her famous photo book “In the Shadow of the Pyramids” (2015). This deals with the Arab Spring in Cairo from 2011–2013, where she combines old family photos, testimonies, portraits of demonstrators and street scenes. Her works have already received numerous awards; among others, the artist was selected for the shortlist of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2016.

The decision to award the guest professorship was made by a joint jury of the three partner institutions. The workshop and exhibition as well as the inclusion of the guest professor in the jury of the PORTRAITS Hellerau – Photography Award 2023 aims to convey new impulses to the students and to strengthen Dresden as a place for contemporary artistic photography.

About the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Frankfurt/Main that is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and promoting contemporary photography. It is responsible for the further development and presentation of the Art Collection Deutsche Börse, which now comprises over 2,200 photographic works by around 150 artists from 32 nations. In its exhibition space in Eschborn near Frankfurt/Main, it shows several exhibitions a year that are open to the public. Supporting young artists is a particular concern of the foundation. It promotes them in many ways: with awards, scholarships or through participation in the talent programme of the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam. Together with the Photographers’ Gallery in London, it awards the renowned Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize every year. Furthermore, the foundation supports exhibition projects of international museums and institutions as well as the development of platforms for academic dialogue and research on the medium of photography. You can find more information at www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org/en.

About the Dresden University of Fine Arts

The HfBK Dresden is one of the most distinguished and oldest art academies in Europe. Approximately 550 students are currently studying at the Dresden Academy in five-degree programmes for fine arts, theatre-related studies and conservation/restoration. The 12 specialist art classes and one project class represent a broad spectrum of different artistic attitudes in the fields of painting, sculpture and media (sound, film). One of the special features of the HfBK Dresden is also the large number and excellent equipment of the artistic workshops. Further information can be found at www.hfbk-dresden.de/en.

About the PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award

Founded in 2015 at the Festspielhaus Hellerau, the international competition for portrait photography now regularly attracts applications from more than fifty countries. In addition to a Great Annual Exhibition in the exhibition spaces of the Dresden Technical Collections, which attracted more than 20,000 visitors in 2022, Portraits Hellerau e.V., founded in 2018, now also organises numerous satellite exhibitions in Dresden galleries, exhibition spaces and off-spaces, which present exceptional contemporary positions in international portrait photography in Dresden and in Hellerau at the same time as the main exhibition. The PORTRAITS – Hellerau Photography Award is a cooperation between HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts Dresden, the Dresden Technical Collections and Portraits Hellerau e.V.. The new guest professorship is co-financed with the support of the international auditing and consulting firm Mazars. For more information, including about the current competition year, which runs until 30 November 2022, please visit www.portraits-hellerau.com.