The Dummy Award 2026 Open Call

• The Photo Book Museum

• Deadline: February 15th, 2026

• Category: Photo Book

• Prize: Publication + Exhibition of your Book

• Entry Fees: Yes

• REGISTRATION: CLICK HERE

The Dummy Award is the international competition for the best unpublished photobook dummies of the year.

It enables participating photographers to present their books to an international audience and establish contacts with galleries, publishers and festivals. So far, hundreds of books from the shortlist have been exhibited on world tours at countless international photography events, festivals, and exhibition venues.

The Dummy Award provides a platform that supports a new generation of photographers and their photobooks driven by curiosity, passion, and creative exploration. We all share a deep engagement with the medium.

Formerly known as the Kassel Dummy Award, the Dummy Award has been organised by the PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne since 2023. Together with MAS Matbaa in Istanbul, our printing and publishing partner, we work on maintaining the high quality and reputation of the Dummy Award in the future.

The rules are easy: Each year, we invite all photographers worldwide to take part. From all entries, around 50 books are selected for a shortlist to be exhibited at more than 15 international photography events. Together with the votes of the shortlist jury, each exhibiting venue has a vote, either determined by public vote or by curator’s choice. With these votes, 5 winning books will be selected from the shortlist. Out of these five books the PBM/MAS Prize ist chosen and will be produced and published by MAS Matbaa, in cooperation with the PhotoBookMuseum. The costs will be fully covered. The other four winning books will receive a production grant for printing their books at MAS Matbaa.