Rene Matić, whose work unpicks modern British identity and has been described as the Wolfgang Tillmans of their generation, has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2026.
Prize and Recognition
The Peterborough-born photographer was awarded the £30,000 prize, among the most prestigious art awards in Europe, after being nominated alongside Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, and Amak Mahmoodian. Matić, also selected for the Turner prize in 2025, was recognized for their exhibition at CCA in Berlin titled As Opposed to the Truth, which documented queer love, nationalism, and various subcultures.
Exhibition Details
Opposing layers. Loving layers. Violent layers, Matić described the exhibition, which featured photographs, flags with slogans sewn on them, and their collection of black dolls from second-hand stores. Shoair Mavlian, director of the Photographers' Gallery and chair of the Deutsche Börse jury, said Matić's use of photography in a fluid and experimental way impressed the panel. She added that the installation's construction, where different dialogues are created through pairing and reorganizing images, was exciting and interesting.
Artistic Themes
Symbolism does a lot of the work for me, Matić once said. The exploration of blessing and burden, and of true or false. I use flags as a metaphor for power and hegemony. As Opposed to the Truth was Matić's first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, but they have exhibited widely in the UK and across Europe, including a joint show with Oscar Murillo at Kunsthalle Wien in Austria, inspired by Josephine Baker.
Personal Influences
Matić has the far-right slogan Born British Die British tattooed on their back, inspired by Derek Ridgers' photography of the 1970s British fascist scene. Their work often draws from subcultural movements, from the skinhead movement their father was part of in the 1980s to Northern Soul. The tattoo was always about the in-between moments of being born British and dying British, Matić said. That's what my story is all about.
Other Nominees
Jane Evelyn Atwood was nominated for her book Too Much Time, a decade-long survey of women in prison, from death row in America to female inmates in Eastern Europe. Iranian photographer Amak Mahmoodian was nominated for One Hundred and Twenty Minutes, focusing on the dreams of immigrants. Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka was recognized for Encyclopedia, which used generative AI to create fake entries based on real falsehoods in reference books, marking the first AI-nominated work for the award.
Mavlian noted that artists will use AI in different and creative ways, and it is a huge topic of conversation for photographers. All nominated artists received £5,000.
