PORTRAITS – HELLERAU Photography Award
Opening of the Residency Exhibition in HELLERAU
Since PORTRAITS was founded in 2015, the jury, which this year included renowned photographer Ute Mahler, has selected works by over 450 artists from more than 50 countries for numerous exhibitions in Dresden and awarded prize money totalling EUR 100,000.
The motto of the current 10th PORTRAITS year is “Echoes of Truth”. The 23 photographic positions from the final round can be seen in the annual exhibition at the Technische Sammlungen Dresden from June 27 to October 19.
In HELLERAU, Pasha Kritchko, the 2025 Residency Prize winner, will be showing his photographic work “Map of Memories” in its entirety for the first time from 30.08. to 06.12. With these images, he documents the Belarusian resistance against the regime after the rigged presidential elections of 2020. While the regime systematically destroys archives and criminalizes even symbols of resistance, Kritchko creates his own poetic counter-map. A “Map of Memories” that defies political boundaries and understands memory as an act of resistance. Next door to Pasha Kritchko, Iranian-born artist Nazanin Hafez, last year’s PORTRAITS Residency Award winner, will be exhibiting her new works.
Duration: ca. 30 min.
Language: German, English
Further information: portraits-hellerau.com
Pasha Kritchko (born 1987) once worked as a part-time civil engineer and wedding photographer in Belarus. With the start of the 2020 presidential elections, he turned his life upside down and became a photojournalist. Since then, he has used his camera and his voice to make the reality of his home country visible. His current work is dedicated to the political and social crisis triggered by the events of 2020 – from the fate of Belarusian volunteers fighting in Ukraine to the challenges of refugees in exile. Pascha’s aim is to use his photography to draw attention to the experiences and struggles of Belarusians at home and abroad.
