Mats Hoff wins the VGH Photo Prize 2026. The HsH student receives the award for his essay ‘Grey Grounds’ about Munster, a small town shaped by the German armed forces.
Photo: Mats Hoff/Grey Grounds
Scorched earth at the Munster-Süd military training area.
Photo: Mats Hoff/Grey Grounds
The state-owned company GEKA is the only munitions disposal company in Germany.
Photo: Mats Hoff/Grey Grounds
In a barracks office, a soldier demonstrates how a G36 assault rifle is assembled.
Mats Hoff, a student at Hochschule Hannover (HsH), has won the VGH Photo Prize 2026. Worth 10,000 euros, the award has been presented every year since 2008 to a student of the ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ programme at HsH. It is one of the most generously endowed prizes for emerging photographers in Germany.
Hoff’s photographic essay ‘Grey Grounds’ is a personal exploration of Munster, a small town in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony. With more than 6,000 soldiers and two military training areas, Munster is the German Army’s largest base. Hardly any other place in Germany is shaped so strongly by the Bundeswehr: it defines the town’s identity and is its largest employer.
In Munster, the ‘Zeitenwende’, rearmament and the debate over conscription meet a military infrastructure built up over decades. Mats Hoff makes this pressing issue visible, caught between everyday life and rearmament, defence policy and militarisation. His precise visual language draws attention to the quiet, sometimes surprising nuances.
For me, it all started with the motorway sign for the Deutsches Panzermuseum.
Mats Hoff
‘At a time when there is so much talk of the “Zeitenwende”, Mats Hoff takes the time to look closely and produce a close-up of the Bundeswehr. At the Munster base he documents exercises, portrays people in their roles and shows how military use is also changing the landscape of Lower Saxony. This approach convinced the jury,’ says jury member Hannah Schuh, Visual Director of ART – Das Kunstmagazin.
‘For me, it all started with the motorway sign for the “Deutsches Panzermuseum”. At some point I wondered what kind of place lay behind it – at a time when rearmament, the Bundeswehr and the return of conscription were being debated. That made me want to explore it through photography,’ says prize winner Mats Hoff about the idea behind his project.
Photo: Salome Ziermann
VGH Photo Prize 2026 jury meeting
This year’s jury: Henner Flohr, head of the F.A.Z. photo desk; Lara Huck, photo editor at DIE ZEIT; Nicole Neumann, photo editor at DER SPIEGEL; Guido Schmidtke, Senior Photo Editor at STERN; Hannah Schuh, Visual Director of ART – Das Kunstmagazin; Katharina Täschner, curator at C/O Berlin; and a representative of VGH Versicherungen.
Mats Hoff (born 1995 in Kiel) lives and works in Hamburg. He came to photography through skateboarding and at first used it mainly as a way of documenting. After training as a digital and print media designer, he worked for several years in product design, typography and art direction before his focus shifted more and more to photography. His interest in design and narrative structures still shapes the way he works today.
He has been studying ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ at Hochschule Hannover since 2024 and works across disciplines as a documentary and portrait photographer. His work has appeared in DIE ZEIT, fluter and Emerge Magazine, among others, and has been exhibited at the Horizonte Zingst photo festival and as part of the Fotosommer of the Triennale der Photographie Hamburg. In 2026 he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award, selected for Plat(t)form at Fotomuseum Winterthur and won the Blank Art Foundation Photo Award.
Photo: Fabian Schwarze
VGH Sponsorship Award goes to Jonathan Funk
Since 2025, the VGH Sponsorship Award, worth 2,000 euros, has been presented alongside the VGH Photo Prize. It supports the continuation of a photographic project with funding and mentoring. The 2026 winner is Jonathan Funk, who convinced the jury with his ongoing project ‘Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds’. The work explores the future of the Rojava region in north-eastern Syria after the change of power in the country.
Photo: Jonathan Funk/Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds
In the Washokani camp for internally displaced people west of Hasakeh, families carry a freshly delivered supply of drinking water to their tents.
Photo: Jonathan Funk/Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds
A statue at a crossroads in Kobane commemorates the Kurdish fighter Arin Mirkan, who killed herself with explosives in 2014 while fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Photo: Jonathan Funk/Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds
‘They shoot from the pylon onwards,’ says Ahmed in his vegetable garden on the Turkish-Syrian border. Just a few metres from the border strip, he describes repeated fatal shootings of Kurdish civilians by Turkish border guards.
Jonathan Funk lives and works in Hannover. He has been studying ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ at Hochschule Hannover since 2023 and works mainly on long-term documentary projects. Shaped by his working-class background and his professional experience in social work, he uses photography to examine political and social change and its impact on individuals and communities.
His project ‘Ortskontrollfahrt’ about Germany’s shift to the right has been exhibited internationally and published in SPIEGEL Wissen. His current project ‘Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds’, which has now won the VGH Sponsorship Award, looks at the future of north-eastern Syria after the change of power. In 2026 Funk was shortlisted for the World Report Award (Student Category) and nominated for the LOBA Newcomer Award. He holds a scholarship from the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
Photo: Rafael Heygster
A wide range of submissions
The quality and diversity of the student work impressed the jury. The 37 projects submitted for the 19th VGH Photo Prize cover both German and international topics. The photographers travelled to Afghanistan, Syria, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, the USA and Western Sahara, among other places. Henryc Fels, Jana Junker, Eyad Abou Kasem and Jana Margarete Schuler received honourable mentions as finalists.
‘We thank VGH Versicherungen for this long-standing, lasting and trusting partnership. We are delighted that both prizes allow us to support promising young photographers,’ says Prof. Dr. Karen Fromm, professor in the ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ programme.
About the VGH Photo Prize and the programme
Since 2008, VGH Versicherungen has supported the ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ programme at Hochschule Hannover with the VGH Photo Prize. It is the only degree programme in Germany that focuses on visual journalism and documentary photography. Starting from photography and video, it teaches multidisciplinary visual skills, with an emphasis on journalistic and documentary storytelling.
At a glance
Winner VGH Photo Prize 2026:
Mats Hoff ‘Grey Grounds’
Winner VGH Sponsorship Award 2026:
Jonathan Funk ‘Ji Reh û Ewran – Of Roots and Clouds’
Finalists:
Henryc Fels ‘Blindgänger’
Jana Junker ‘I’m fine, thanks’
Eyad Abou Kasem ‘Der Lange Weg Nach Hause’
Jana Margarete Schuler ‘Zwischen Blut und Glitzer’
Dates:
Award ceremony and exhibition opening: Wednesday, 2 December 2026, 7 pm
Exhibition: 3 December 2026 to 10 January 2027
Venue:
GAF – Galerie für Fotografie
Eisfabrik, Seilerstraße 15d
30171 Hannover
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday, 12 noon to 6 pm
More information:
https://www.vgh.de/de/unternehmen/newsroom/vgh-fotopreis
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