Olympus Fellowship

RECOMMENDED OLYMPUS FELLOWSHIP 2019/2020

Mika Sperling, Tobias Kruse und Karla Hiraldo Voleau

recommended, the fellowship for outstanding artistic photography, goes into the next round


Mika Sperling together with Karla Hiraldo Voleau and Tobias Kruse form the second volume of recommended. In 2017, Olympus launched the unique fellowship together with Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (FFF), Haus der Photographie/ Deichtorhallen Hamburg and Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. It is awarded every two years. Three photographers each receive financial support of €10,000 for an artistic photography project and one year of coaching from a curator of the participating institutions.

Mika Sperling (*1990 Siberia, Russia) works biographically: Using the example of her own life story and experience, she deals with multiculturalism, identity and the places of life; she examines the effect of origin on the development of personality and on relationships within a family. The other two fellowship holders of the new recommended year are Karla Hiraldo Voleau (*1992, Dominican Republic) and Tobias Kruse (*1979, Germany). Like Mika Sperling, they will both work based on their personal documentary styles. Karla Hiraldo Voleau's images deal with identity, vulnerability, love, and gender roles in the relationship between man and woman; she is coached by Kim Knoppers, Curator at the Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. Tobias Kruse's work focuses on a toxic waste dump near his home in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; he is supervised by Ingo Taubhorn, Curator at the Haus der Photographie/Deichtorhallen Hamburg.


The second recommended year was selected by a three-member jury with Celina Lunsford, Ingo Taubhorn and Marcel Feil, Artistic Director of the Foam.


In the coming months, all three fellows will work on a photographic project, accompanied by the curators with workshops and individual meetings. Afterwards three exhibitions are planned; the new recommended works will be exhibited at the FFF from 19.09.–25.10.2020. The Haus der 

Photographie/Deichtorhallen Hamburg will show the works from 21.03.–30.08.2020 and the Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam presents from 15.01.–11.04.2021.


The aim of the recommended fellowship and the four partners is to promote contemporary photography in the artistic field. The photographers receive effective support at a crucial point in their careers. “We are delighted that our FFF main sponsor Olympus has created another opportunity with recommended enabling our expertise in photography to support such excellent talents,” says Celina Lunsford.


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