The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation has given the HfG Fotoförderpreis 2020 to Verdiana Albano for her project "surrounded". The prize is awarded annually to students of the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG) who focus on the medium of photography. As part of its commitment to supporting young contemporary artists, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation has been awarding the €2,500 prize since 2010. The traditional presentation of the works at the HfG and the subsequent award ceremony were cancelled this year due to the Corona pandemic. Instead, the students had designed a magazine showing their works, which served as the basis for the jury's decision. This year's jury members were Barbara Klemm, photographer and Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. 

In their statement, the jury wrote: “In her series "surrounded", Verdiana Albano is dedicated to the megacity of Chongqing, which has grown extremely rapidly over the past forty years and now has more than 30 million inhabitants. In Albano's photographs, we see a diffuse and confusing city, characterised by an endless number of blocks of flats that have been raised quickly and cheaply, and above all by seemingly perpetual fog. Albano does not show Chongqing as a place of longing. Rather, with an eye for the scattered remnants of non-conformity and in almost monochrome colors, she succeeds in creating an atmospheric image of the city that is probably closer to reality than the vision of modern China.” 

Verdiana Albano was born in Meerane in 1993 and has been studying photography with Professor Martin Liebscher at the HfG since 2016. During her studies, she lived and worked in Chongqing, China in 2019 while attending the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.

About Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is a Frankfurt-based non-profit organisation. The foundation's activities focus on collecting, exhibiting and promoting contemporary photography. Founded in 1999, the Art Collection Deutsche Börse now comprises over 2,000 works by more than 130 international artists from 27 nations and is open to the public. Together with The Photographers’ Gallery in London, the foundation awards the renowned Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize each year. The Foundation is particularly interested in promoting young artists and supports them in various ways, e.g. through awards, scholarships or their participation in the Foam Talent programme. Other focal points include supporting exhibition projects of international museums and institutions, and the expansion of platforms for academic discussion about the medium.