Cultural LANDSCAPES – that is the title of the photographic collection of the Braunschweig landscape. It includes motifs from the Braunschweig region by photographers such as Heinrich Heidersberger, Christa Zeißig, Uwe Brodmann, Heinrich Riebesehl and Klaus Wefringhaus. The aim of this photo competition is to expand this collection to include current photos related to the theme year.

The theme year and focus of the competition Water is Life. The fundamental importance of the topic cannot be summed up more succinctly. Every being, every organism, every development of civilization and numerous technical and cultural achievements depend on water or arise from it. But its effects are ambivalent, they fluctuate between a threat to life and joy in life: water can have a life-sustaining or fatal effect, it can offer us a home or take us away from a home, it can separate or connect, it can have a healing or dissolving effect. Water carries the heaviest loads and yet yields to the gentlest pressure.

Our climate also oscillates between these extreme effects: droughts and floods are at the core of contemporary ecological crises. Such events are noticeably increasing – including in our latitudes – and we are forced to deal with the reasons and consequences of these climatic changes and to develop solutions.

The Braunschweigische Landschaft association, a promoter of voluntary culture in the Braunschweig region, is dedicating a theme year, the first in the association’s history, to the theme of water. Starting in mid-2024, the working groups and member associations of the Braunschweigische Landschaft will dedicate themselves to the rivers, canals, ponds, fountains and lakes of the BraunschweigerLand in numerous events over twelve months and tell their story(s) and significance for our region.

Water as an element that shapes and connects the region, the landscape, the people and their history is also the focus of the KulturLANDSCHAFTEN – WATER photography competition.

Aim of the competition The Cultural LANDSCAPES – WATER competition is intended to support photographers whose submitted works artistically update the Braunschweig Landscape Collection through the thematic discussion of the topic of water in the region.

Jury Natalie Czech, Professorship of Photography, Braunschweig University of Fine Arts Benjamin Füglister, artist and director, “CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography” Barbara Hofmann-Johnson, Museum of Photography Braunschweig Bernd Rodrian, Institute Heidersberger Wolfsburg Stefanie Sembill, representative of the state of Lower Saxony at Federal Government in Berlin

With the nomination, the photographers receive an expense allowance of €500. The resulting works will be shown together with parts of the KulturLANDSCHAFTEN collection in a travelling exhibition 4 and published in an exhibition catalogue. At the opening of the first exhibition, the jury will award the prize of €5,000 for the best competition entry, which will be included in the KulturLANDSCHAFTEN collection.