Frieder Bickhardt Wins 2026 August Sander Award for Refugee Portraits

Frieder Bickhardt has been named the fifth recipient of the August Sander Award, to be presented in 2026, for his project City Plaza. The work features black-and-white portraits taken with a large-format camera of residents who lived in a formerly vacant hotel in Athens from 2016 to 2019. During that period, the building housed a self-organized collective of refugees, local activists, and international volunteers, at times accommodating up to 450 people. Bickhardt visited the site five times over several years, actively participating in the community. He set up an improvised white backdrop on the rooftop terrace and photographed residents individually in bust-length or half-length portraits, always facing the camera directly. The award, named after the renowned German photographer August Sander, recognizes outstanding achievements in documentary photography.