Portrait of Dörte Eißfeldt

Dörte Eißfeldt is the Prix Viviane Esders Laureate, 2025.  Born in 1950 in Hamburg, Germany, Dörte Eißfeldt is a prominent figure in contemporary German photography, whose body of work explores both the formal and conceptual potentials of the photographic medium. Trained at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg, she taught in various institutions before being appointed, in 1991, as Professor of Fine Arts and Photography at the renowned Braunschweig University of Fine Arts, a position she held until 2016.

Eißfeldt’s artistic practice questions the status and processes of the photographic image. “For me photography means working with fragments of reality, experimenting with acquired material in an analogue or digital photographic process with the purpose of establishing a distinct and intense, yet also open connection to the world. Allowing all that is wild, dark, intangible and beautiful in an image to preserve or to achieve its impact, in an open, stimulating and surprising form, very large or very small.”

She manipulates light, chemistry, and paper through analogue and hybrid processes, confronting traditional techniques—solarisation, montage, multiple exposures—with new digital techniques.

Driven by the idea of discovering or rediscovering a lifetime of work, the aim of the Prix Viviane Esders is to highlight the careers of remarkable European artists, deserving recognition and a real financial support to pursue their projects. The Prize stands out for the generosity of its endowment of €60,000 in total and its European scope.

Each year, the Viviane Esders Award honors the career of a photographer:

aged 60 and over,
European,
Professional,
Independent,
active for several decades,
demonstrating a personal style and a distinctive artistic approach.

To read the full article about this year’s winner, Dörte Eißfeldt, please go to the direct link.