2025 Conceptual photography - Finalists and Winners

1. Katerina Kouzmitcheva (Belarus) - WINNERS

Katerina Kouzmitcheva is a Belarusian photographer based in Wroclaw, Poland. She works at the intersection of documentary and art photography, focusing on human interaction, memory, politics, and gender roles. Katerina holds degrees in Business Law and Fine Arts and studied at Fotografika and the Opava Institute. She’s a winner of TIFA, BIFA, and a Gaude Polonia grantee. A member of WOMEN PHOTOGRAPH, her work has been exhibited across Europe, Japan, Brazil, and featured in BJP, Bird in Flight, Monovisions, and more.

2. Milica Mrvić (Serbia) - WINNERS

Milica Mrvić is a photographer, art director, artist and a storyteller. She mostly works and enjoys playing in the field of directed photography, designing and art directing different photographic narratives for both personal and commissioned projects, with increasingly frequent trips into the medium of short stop motion animations. Play, freedom, joy and celebration of life are a big part of her creative practice. A seemingly chaotic mess where actualy everything is synchronised in it’s imperfections and oddities. She currently works independently and as part of the Mitz po Flitz studio.

3.Domagoj Burilović (Croatia) - WINNERS

Born in 1987 in Vinkovci, Croatia. Graduated with a M.A. degree in Painting departmant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Split, Croatia. Lives and works in Vinkovci. In his photography, he explores the political and social issues of Slavonia (Croatia) through local history, culture and migrations.

Andrej Verzola (Russia) - FINALIST

I was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia. After graduating high school, I moved to Poland to study cinematography at the Łódź Film School. Following my studies, I worked in commercial and music video productions before transitioning to text-based media. Right now I mostly spend my time between Tbilisi, Georgia, and Berlin, Germany, and work on a number of long-term photographic projects mostly related to the topic of Russian imperialism and the legacy of the USSR in post-soviet states.

Armin Graca (BiH) - FINALISTS

Armin Graca (1990) is a photographer and storyteller born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Graca uses his camera to document everyday social life, telling stories through visual experience. Street and documentary photography are his main interests, and he spends most of his free time taking photos on the streets. In addition, he works on long-term documentary projects. In 2023, he won the First prize at the Brussels Street Photography Festival and a Grand Prix award and First prize at the Sarajevo Photography Festival. He is currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.

Ivan Buvinić (Croatia) - FINALISTS

Ivan Buvinić was born in 1994 in Šibenik (Croatia). He completed his undergraduate studies in Cinematography in 2020 and graduated in Photography from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 2022. In 2022, he became a member of the European photographic platform Futures Photography. In 2023, he received the Marina Viculin Award for outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary photography in Croatia, presented by the photographic organization Organ Vida. He has had several solo and group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad.

Katarina Kolenc (Slovenia) - FINALISTS

Katarina Kolenc (1994) graduated in photography at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (VIST)in Ljubljana. Her original projects are based on documentary recording of everyday moments of lifeand the little peculiarities of her surroundings, which she later develops into documentary and/or conceptual stories, which she often expands by adding various objects or installations. She is cucurrently completing projects that relate in one way or another to the theme of consumerism, creating and exploring visual forms that relate to collective memory.

Mariam Magsi (Pakistan) - FINALISTS

Karachi-born, Toronto-based multidisciplinary photographer, writer and educator of Baloch-Punjabi descent.

Mitar Simikić (BiH) - FINALISTS

Mitar Simikić is a documentary photographer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mitar is represented by VII Photo Agency (mentee) for 2023-2024 and is a VII Academy Scholarship Recipient. His work has been recognized through awards and grants such as the VID Grant Financial Prize, The Everyday Project, Felix Schoeller Photo Award, Sarajevo Photography Award, and Kolga Tbilisi Photo. His work has been featured in numerous publications around the world, and he has been showcased at various festivals and exhibitions.

Saurabh Narang (India) - FINALISTS

Saurabh Narang (b. 1986, Delhi) is an Indian photographer and multimedia journalist based in Germany. He explores human stories of migration, global cultures, and climate change. saurabh\'s work has been featured in festivals, publications, and exhibitions internationally and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Manufactum Staatspreis NRW in 2023 and the IPF Portrait Prize in 2018.