PORTRAITS – HELLERAU Photography Award 2024
9. PORTRAITS – HELLERAU Photography Award 2024 – "SINGULARITY"
The ninth edition of the PORTRAITS Hellerau Photography Awards has just been launched under the new theme of SINGULARITY. The works of the finalists will be presented for the fifth time in August 2024 at the competition’s now established exhibition venue, the Technische Sammlungen Dresden. At the same time, a new solo show by current resident artist Sitara Thalia Ambrosio will be on display at HELLERAU. Numerous other solo exhibitions and a series of public events complete the ambitious competition program.
Residency Prize Winner 2024
Nazanin Hafez
Exhibition 30.08. – 29.09.2024
Open on all event days starting one hour before the first event
‘Discrete’
Nowadays, no one is truly alone in their own home, not even at night, because digital media immerses people in a virtual world and is a constant companion. Overuse of technology leads to less time spent with other people and therefore fewer social interactions take place. Social media gives people the illusion of being loved, spoken to, and entertained. They are given feelings of security, social connection and community, while in reality they experience a quiet loneliness. With the advent of the age of artificial intelligence, this contradiction seems even more grotesque: People share their most intimate feelings with machines because they cannot find anyone to talk to in real life.
On the other hand, the constant distraction of screens means that people are losing the ability to actively experience the moments of silence, solitude and idleness that are just as important for their mental well-being. The silence has become unbearable for them, as it reveals their true existence.
In the photo series ‘Discrete‘ people are photographed in their private atmosphere. The lighting comes exclusively from screens on digital devices. ‘Discrete‘ is intended to display people‘s loneliness in the light of digital media, especially in view of a future with “intelligent machines“.
Nazanin Hafez, born in 1991 in Shiraz, Iran, is a visual artist living in Germany. She completed in 2022 her B.A. in media art and design at the University of Fine Arts Saar and in 2024 her diploma in Fine Art at the Mainz University of Art. In her artistic work she critically examines social and political grievances, particularly with the effects of the repressive regime in Iran. Included she uses various media, from photography and collage to video and Installation.