Created to coincide with the annual Unseen Photo Fair & Festival in Amsterdam, the award provides an international platform for emerging artists across Europe to present their work on a global scale.

The five ING Unseen Talent Award finalists are Thomas Albdorf (Austria), Laurianne Bixhain (Luxembourg), Felicity Hammond (United Kingdom), Miren Pastor (Spain) and Tereza Zelenkova (Czech Republic).

All five finalists take part in the ING Unseen Talent Programme, an online coaching course that includes a range of workshops with different professionals in the field, unprecedented opportunities for professional networking, and a commission for the ING Collection. The finalists will create a final work in response to the award’s 2016 theme Fool for Love, which explores the passion and devotion required in the pursuit of ones dreams.

Finalists will be coached by internationally established American artist Todd Hido, who will give feedback on their portfolios, whilst helping them to develop a new work and encouraging them to think about how to present their art in a wider context.

Leading up to Unseen Photo Fair, finalists will also have an incredibly informative on-site PR session, a thought-provoking workshop on curating exhibitions with Tim Zeedijk (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) and a Speed-Dinner with all 2016 ING Unseen Talent Award talents, scouts, coaches and jury members, offering a chance to develop contacts and learn new tips and tricks. Finalists will be guided through the online sessions by Jim Casper (Editor-in-Chief LensCulture).

The ING Unseen Talent Award winner will be announced at the Award Ceremony on the 22nd of September 2016 during the official opening night of Unseen. The winner of the ING Unseen Talent Award will receive €10,000 towards a project production fund. The newly produced works by this year’s five finalists will be presented in the ING Unseen Lounge at Unseen Photo Fair 2016, which runs from the 23rd until the 25th of September in Amsterdam. In addition to the ING Unseen Talent Award, the finalists will also be competing for the ING Unseen Public Award, which will be launched online at the beginning of September.

ING UNSEEN TALENT AWARD
The ING Unseen Talent Award is a joint initiative started in 2013 by ING and Unseen to provide an international platform to emerging photographic talent in Europe. The focus of the award is to support talented artists at the beginning of their careers and to share their work with an international audience. Winners of previous ING Unseen Talent Awards include Sophie Jung and Lara Gasparotto (2015), Anne Geene and Maurice van Es (2014) and Ola Lanko (2013).

ING UNSEEN TALENT AWARD SELECTION PROCESS
To create a pool of emerging talent from across Europe for the 2016 ING Unseen Talent Award, participating scouts were invited to select six to eight photographic talents from a specific region to make up the award long list. In order to qualify, these young photographers must have graduated within the last five years and must be based in Europe.
An international jury will select the award winner. Comprised of a range of professionals working across the industry, the jury includes: Martin Barnes (Senior Curator, Photography Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK), Lucy Conticello (Director of Photography, M, le Monde, UK), Rineke Dijkstra (Photographer and 2015 edition coach, NL), Azu Nwagbogu (Director, LagosPhoto Festival, African Artists’ Foundation and National Art Competition, NG) and Sanne ten Brink (Head Curator, ING Collection, NL).

Agenda

• Exhibition ING Unseen Talent Award (2013 – 2015), first exhibition organized by ING Luxembourg at the « Abbaye de Neumünster » (Luxembourg-City) : 12 May – 13 July 2016
• ING Unseen Talent Award 2016 Ceremony Amsterdam : 22 September 2016
• Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam : 23-25 September 2016