Hamburg City Photography Award

• Robin Hinsch: Excerpt from ‘Der Mechanismus’ (The Mechanism), 2020 – Georg Koppmann Prize 2020
• Axel Beyer: Baaken Park in the Port City, 2019, from the project ‘Temporäre Einsichten’ (Temporary Insights) – Georg Koppmann Prize 2019
• Sabine Bungert and Stefan Dolfen: Stadtteilschule Muemmelmannsberg education centre, 2021, from the project ‘Der Raum ist der dritte Lehrer’ (The Space is the Third Teacher) – Georg Koppmann Prize 2021

Since 2018, Hamburg’s Historical Museum Foundation (SHMH) and the Department for Urban Development and Housing (BSW) have been awarding the annual Georg Koppmann Prize for City Photography in Hamburg. The 8,000-euro grant is designed to honour artistic-documentary photo projects dedicated to Hamburg’s cityscape and its ongoing transformation. It is aimed at professional photographers as well as graduates of photography courses at colleges, universities and academies.

The idea for the award was inspired by the work of Hamburg-based photographer Georg Koppmann (1842–1909). After the Great Fire of 1842, Hamburg rapidly evolved into a metropolis – a development that was intensely documented using the then-new medium of photography. In 1874, the city’s building authorities commissioned Koppmann to keep a continual record of the changes to Hamburg’s cityscape. Up until his death in 1909, Koppmann chronicled significant events such as the demolition of the Kehrwieder and Wandrahm residential quarters, or the construction of the Speicherstadt warehouse district, in the form of several thousand photographs.

To find out more, visit Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg, Georg Koppmann Prize