Rene Matić has won the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, becoming the first British winner in over a decade. The announcement was made at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on May 14, 2025, where Matić received £30,000 for their exhibition *AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH*, which uses photography, installation, and sound to explore identity and belonging. Matić was nominated for the show at the Center for Contemporary Arts Berlin (CCA Berlin) and is also a recent Turner Prize nominee. The prize exhibition runs at The Photographers’ Gallery until June 7, alongside works by fellow shortlisted artists Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, and Amak Mahmoodian.
This win is significant because Matić, born in 1997, is one of the youngest winners in the prize’s 40-year history, and their multidisciplinary practice challenges conventional boundaries of photography. The jury praised the work for expanding what photography can be, while Matić’s focus on care and counter-images offers a vital alternative to violent representations of marginalized communities. The prize continues to spotlight innovative European photography, and Matić’s success underscores a generational shift in the medium’s critical discourse.