Rene Matić wins the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

Rene Matić has been named the winner of the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, receiving the £30,000 award at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on 14 May 2026. The announcement was made by author and broadcaster Liv Little. The prize recognises artists whose work has made a significant contribution to international contemporary photography in Europe over the past year. Matić, born in 1997 in Peterborough, UK, was selected for their exhibition AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH.

Rene Matić. Image credit Heather Shuker.

The awarded project was shown at CCA Berlin between November 2024 and February 2025, and brings together newly produced photographs, installations and sound works. Rooted in themes of identity, belonging, class, family and subculture, Matić’s diaristic images capture everyday life with intimate immediacy. The work extends across photography, film and sculpture, forming a multi-dimensional portrait of contemporary experience in which intimacy, vulnerability and desire are treated as forms of resistance and survival.

Rene Matić featured in The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026 exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery, London, March 2026. Image credit Kate Elliott, Courtesy of The Photographers' Gallery

Jury chair Shoair Mavlian praised the work’s emotional depth and sense of community, while Anne-Marie Beckmann highlighted its focus on togetherness and its experimental approach to the medium.

The exhibition featuring all shortlisted artists, including Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka and Amak Mahmoodian, remains on view at The Photographers’ Gallery until 7 June 2026, before touring to the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in Eschborn later in the year. Book now.