7 July–2 August 2026
Dummy Award ’26
International
Centre for
the Image
Dummy Award ’26
The Dummy Award is the international competition for the best unpublished photobook dummies of the year.
The Dummy Award is one of the most important international competitions in support of photographers and photobook publishing. Evolved from the famous Kassel Dummy Award, and organised by the PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne since 2023, the award seeks the best unpublished photobook dummies of the year. On 14 March 2026, an invited jury met to review and evaluate a total of 325 dummies received from over 45 countries. In the end, 48 books were selected to make up the shortlist of the Dummy Award ’26. We are proud to note that PhotoIreland’s Artistic Director, Julia Gelezova, was among this year’s invited jury members.
The Dummy Award travels the world as an exhibition of the shortlisted books, stopping at key locations such as Barcelona, Milan, Cologne, and Łódź, and events and venues including a pop-up show during Rencontres d’Arles. PhotoIreland has hosted the exhibition in Dublin every year, acknowledging the importance of this varied and ambitious presentation of artist practice, outstanding design, and a remarkable sample of a global passion for publishing; it is a rare opportunity to see these artists’ maquettes in real life at a special stage of the book-making process. It is a great way to discover diverse art practices as well as design approaches from all over the world.
The International Centre for the Image brings you the opportunity to enjoy these publications from 7 July to 2 August 2026. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite one!
Browse all shortlisted books on the Dummy Award Youtube channel.
Dummy Award 2026 Jury
Francesca Todde, Frederic Lezmi, Kathrin Schönegg, Julia Gelezova, Mimi Mollica, Ufuk Şahin, and Tom Booth Woodger
Jury Statement
One Saturday in March, seven of us gathered in a (reportedly) uncharacteristically rainy Cologne to review and make a small selection from a range of about 325 dummy books submitted from (almost) all over the world. It was a true privilege. As one of the jury members, Mimi Mollica, states, “Engaging with the content and narratives of many artists is a huge honour, and it offers us the privilege to acquire a panoramic view on a variety of topics and approaches to the medium.”
We worked from morning until midnight, and while this may sound exhausting or daunting to some, it was anything but. We were driven by a shared passion, energy, and curiosity that was first of all sparked by our hosts, the PhotoBookMuseum, and infected us all. Outside of the jury period, we had the opportunity to explore the neighbourhood of Körnerstraße led by tour guide extraordinaire Markus Schaden, encountering the local ecosystem of pure creativity and a very palpable community spirit. This energy resonated with us throughout the day and fuelled our fires for the deliberations lying ahead of us.
It is that same deep, genuine enthusiasm and commitment that fuels organisations like PBM that also fuels the artistic and photobook communities. A spirit that was evident in the submissions we encountered.
One of the most interesting observations with each year’s Dummy Award is the trends that transpire. From this session, the jury notes narrative approaches such as magical realism often incorporated into research-based projects, whereby, as described by jury member Francesca Todde, “the photographer’s position resembles that of a sleepwalker who moves partly within reality and partly processes it through the codes of dreams”; artists utilising photography as a form of healing or processing a trauma; research-driven, analytical works, were some of the thematic patterns we observed. Some concerns and topics endure, as in previous years, such as those of the personal archive and family stories. While some projects addressed current politics, such as power and social structures (though not so much on technology), the jury was surprised to see much less of the conversation extending beyond personal anxieties and fears, and into a global context, compared to previous years.
Regarding the aesthetic and material presentation, the jury unanimously recognised the impressive evolution of the dummy over the years. Even though the dummy is a prototype, usually handmade in very few editions, many submissions demonstrated a strong connection between form and content and a high level of refinement, with many books completed in collaboration with other editors and designers. This raises a counterpoint, whereby these books were seen as “too polished and ready to publish, and therefore maybe not as expressive as a dummy could or should be,” as jury member Tom Booth Woodger noted.
In the end, after hours of conversation and, at times, spirited debate, the jury is happy to present the final strong shortlist that we believe reflects and captures the richness of contemporary artistic practice and bookmaking today.
The Dummy Award 2026 Jury
Dummy Award ’26
Run
7 July–2 August 2026
Entry
Free
Opening hours
11am–5.30pm. Closed on Mondays.
The Dummy Award ’26 Shortlist
Antigoni Papantoni, GR
Kairos
17,5 × 23 cm, 200 pp
open spine, softcover, dust jacket
@antigoni_papantoni
antigonipapantoni.tumblr.com
Youtube video ↗
Salome Erni, CH
Interesting Things
16 × 22 cm, 140 pp
hand-bound, softcover
Sachiko Saito, JP
Not now but one day
18,5 × 25 cm, 188 pp
open spine, flush-cut hardcover
Calvin Hein & Kay Kwabia, DE/GH
Dead Fishes & Praying Mantis
17,5 × 23,5 cm, 238 pp
perfect binding, softcover
Ingrid Hernández, MX
Sedimentaciones
23,5 × 32 cm, 144 pp
open spine
Dániel Halász, HU
Falu
18 × 22 cm, 128 pp
hardcover
Gabriel E. Corredor Aristizábal, CO
Piedemonte
23,5 × 31 cm, 210 pp
ota binding, softcover
Mauricio Limón de León, MX/ES
El primero que ría
19,5 × 28 cm, 256 pp
flush-cut hardcover
Sushant Kadam, IN
City Birds
14 × 20,5 cm, 112 pp
perfect binding, die-cut softcover, dust jacket
Yoshikatsu Fujii, JP
Five Before the Fall
18,5 × 26,5 cm, 318 pp
hand-bound, hardcover
Pha Croissant, DE/TH
Soft Power
20,5 × 24,5 cm, 58 pp
open spine, hardcover
Uschi Groos, DE
Dear parents, please send me bacon and Pervitin
23 × 29,5 cm, 92 pp
bound with screws, softcover
Jasmin Pebal, AT
Hello Friends
19,5 × 25 cm, 56 pp
open spine, die-cut hardcover, sleeve
Andrea Agostini, IT
Nòstos
18 × 26,5 cm, 244 pp
open spine, hardcover, dust jacket
Ayame Ono, JP
Re: Stone Paper Scissors
13 × 19 cm, 280 pp
perfect binding, softcover, PVC jacket, inserted sheets
Nora Handsley, DE
Good Luck Around Every Turn
20,5 × 26,5 cm, 192 pp
softcover with flaps
Yogan Muller, FR
JPM
15,5 × 23 cm, 156 pp
open spine, softcover with flaps
Alexander Sharr, RU
The Offer You Can‘t Refuse
15 × 29 cm, 136 pp
flush-cut hardcover, PVC jacket
Lieh Sugai, JP
Kaikou
18 × 25,5 cm, 78 pp
open spine, softcover
Theresa Wißmann, DE
Vorwiegend festkochend
17 x 24 cm, 104 pp
open spine, softcover
Nico Fritzenschaft, DE
Konstellationen
25 × 42 cm, 76 pp
saddle stitched, softcover
Alessandro Silverj, IT
Presence
16 × 23 cm, 176 pp
hardcover, slipcase
Nikita Teryoshin, DE
Game of Chairs
23,5 × 31 cm,188 pp
hardcover
Aline Savioz, CH/FR
Echoes of Steel
21,5 × 30 cm, 138 pp
softcover, PVC jacket
Stefan Nieland, DE
Megaincendio
18,5 × 24,5 cm, 200 pp
hardcover
Marco Gehlhar, IT/DE
The Great Filter
20,5 × 31 cm, 134 pp
perfect binding, softcover, dust jacket
Gaorui Zhang, CN
MASC 4 MASC
22,5 × 28 cm, 148 pp
bound with screws, softcover
@elio_zzzzz
profiles.sussex.ac.uk/elio-zhang
Youtube video ↗
Bertrand Fleuret, FR
The Trip
20 × 27 cm, 204 pp
Japanese stab binding, softcover, slipcase
@bertrandfleuret
bertrandfleuret.blogspot.com
Youtube video ↗
Maximilian Neretin, DE
known unknown
24 × 31 cm, 116pp
flush-cut hardcover
Sonia Klostermair, DE
Camouflage
13,5 × 10 cm, 30 pp
hardcover, one-sheet-book
@soniaepplefotografie
soniaepplefotografie.com
Youtube video ↗
Caspar Sessler, DE/CH
Supercharged Landscapes
31 × 24,5 cm, 60 pp
Japanese-fold, Swiss binding, hardcover
Yue Hu, CN
Humanscape: Tianjin 39.0851° N, 117.1994° E
35 × 50 cm, 88 pp
newspaper
Soledad Soler Quesada & Carlota Ayub Larrouse, ES/AR
About Love and Power
17 × 24 cm, 224 pp
Swiss binding, hardcover
Mark van den Brink, NL
Minox Files Archive 1994 – 2025
18 × 21 cm, 2000 pp
softcover in slipcase
@markvandenbrinkphotography
markvandenbrink.com
Youtube video ↗
Massimo Mastrorillo, IT
Il Mare Siamo Noi
21,5 × 29,5 cm, 210 pp
softcover with archival fasteners
Marvin Dreblow, DE
Schweinehaltung
21 × 28,5 cm, 180 pp
hardcover
Mark Peterman, US
This is Nighttown
22 × 28 cm, 20 pp
leperollo, hardcover
Nora Schwarz, DE
Songs of the Taiga
18,5 × 24,5 cm, 188 pp
hardcover
Stephen Vaughan, GB
Zassho Cascadia
22 × 30 cm, 312 pp
open spine, softcover with flaps
Evelyn Kett, DE
Kein Holzstück mehr
26 × 33,5 cm, 194 pp
3d printed hardcover
Yago Soria Díaz, ES
Fukú no Unagi
18,5 × 25,5 cm, 140 pp
hardcover
Krishanu Chatterjee, IN
After the Dust Settles
16 × 21 cm, 384 pp
hardcover, dust jacket
Jan Richard Heinicke, DE
Radiant Grounds – The Case of the Kvanefjeld Project
21,5 × 28 cm, 110 pp
Wire-O binding, softcover with a flap
Stephen Wilson, IE
View From Other Side
5 × 5 cm, 36 pp
hand-sewn pages, plastic box
@stephenwilsonphoto
stephenwilsonphotography.com
Youtube video ↗
Jana Šturdíková, SK
House
22,5 × 30,5 cm, 163 pp
flush-cut hardcover
