Charta Award 2026
The Charta Award is open to artists who incorporate the photographic medium in their artistic practice and have produced a project that could be printed in the book format. The theme of the award is open. We are looking for projects that underline an original narrative and use of contemporary language. Artists are invited to send a folder consisting of a minimum of 30 images and a synopsis that includes the author’s name, as well as the title and the description of the project. The artists are encouraged to include an edited PDF that could help the jury to better understand the project. The winning project will be published by Yogurt Editions in an edition of 500 copies.
This year, Artphilein will be a partner of the festival and will select one of the shortlisted artists to present a solo exhibition in its space between April and May 2027
DISCOVER PAST YEARS PROJECTS
CHARTA DUMMY AWARD 2021
WINNER
Microlight by Jansen Van Staden
After the death of my father in 2011, I discovered a letter, written to his psychotherapist, about his time in the Border War. He dedicated his life to sustainable projects and education in African countries, and what I read in the letter took me by surprise. It was not the man I knew. The letter detailed horrific incidents he took part in, as a 17 year old boy. One paragraph from the letter, bothered me the most:
“…she stated that I joined and did what I did, because I wanted to kill people. It is truer than true.”
Questions started harassing me. How was he raised? What influence did the apartheid regime and it’s ideologies, have on the family? What circumstances could lead a 17 year old boy, to have such murderous intent? Where does all this violence stem from?
Through this journey, I discovered just how much my life has been influenced by my fathers’ trauma. How my fathers’ siblings are still affected by the ideologies of their father. Generations of trauma, ignorantly passed on, even through our genes. It is said, that my generation, is the first of South Africans not to experience war. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to observe all this within ourselves. To ensure that it does not continue.
After the war, my father turned against everything the knew. He left his father, and family. He craved resolve. He wanted so badly, to be free from his shadows. But the consequences of his actions haunted him his whole life. He tried his best to keep it from his children, and his wives. Ultimately, it slipped through the cracks.
Microlight is a collection of anecdotes. And through telling these stories, I hope to open this discussion. I yearn for healing. I want to understand, so that I can accept, and move on.
CHARTA AWARD 2022
WINNER
The Present by Pelly Mandreka
You entered the world after the quadrennial slumber. A world that is pristine, that has wiped the slate clean and is now reformed. It first needed to be lulled so that it could be healed and rebuilt. The repair was researched, planned and emplaced on new foundations. A great many would change radically, with procedures that would have to be carried out seamlessly, thus sleep was decided. The awakening occurred gradually, as did the restart of the new environment. Everything ran smoothly and transition was painless. You are now facing earth under a new circumstance. You cannot comprehend it and the knowledge you had no longer applies. Your surroundings are unfamiliar and you cannot decipher if they are from the past or the future. It matters not. You live in reality, in the present, you have been given one more chance and this is a present. Just like our new world. It is a world of wonder and science, made to offer all beings liberties and happiness, health and development, peace and prosperity. Old times are over, a new era has come. Welcome to the age of intellect. This book is a map. Our new map. A guide, a manual for knowledge, a volume of information. A gift to humanity that records, interprets and introduces the image of the world that is valid now.
CHARTA AWARD 2023
WINNER
I Saw a Tree Bearing Stones in the Place of Apples and Pears by Emilia Martin
In the Catholic church there are three classes of relics. The first class is body parts of a saint. The second class is things that belonged to a saint, objects they have used and surrounded themselves with. The third class relic is the object that touched the body of a saint. To create the third class relics, the small holes are drilled in the tombs of saints. The objects are lowered through the holes and once they touch the corpse they are no longer everyday and mundane – they become sacred.
A meteorite, before it is diagnosed as one, is a particularly uneventful and unexciting object. It is repeatedly used as a door holder, a field marker or meaningless rock obstructing the path, blending amongst the other rocks and stones that carry no use for humans. Once it is identified or speculated that the rock is a visitor from outer space, it takes on a whole new role. It is the story that transforms it into a cosmic relic, a celestial object carrying stories of distance, sublime and often – religious. Seen as god, chained to the ground in case it decides to make a return to heavens, celebrated.
“I saw a tree bearing stones in the place of apples and pears” is an exploration of a meteorite as a carrier of stories, a migratory body, a silent, mysterious visitor, full of projections and dreams of something bigger and more profound. It is an investigation of the myths and stories and an act of reclaiming them back.
CHARTA AWARD 2024
WINNER
Angle of Draw by Shawn Bush
From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Exxon commissioned American universities and independent scientists to investigate the impact of fossil fuels on global warming. As pioneers of atmospheric carbon dioxide research during those years, their findings were synthesized into a digestible report. This internal report was issued to fifteen upper management (white male) employees in 1982, clearly defining and stating the consequences of unsustainable extraction practices and the consumption of fossil fuels. The report warned that these practices could be catastrophic to the natural world if they continued to be used.
However, instead of heeding the advice from years of research and transitioning to sustainable energy sources, Exxon’s executives chose a different path. They embarked on an aggressive audio-visual public relations campaign and rebranding effort, diverting millions of dollars from the company to develop propaganda. This propaganda, which included sponsored articles in major magazines and misleading television advertisements, aimed to downplay fossil fuels’ contribution to global warming — prompting the start of the current climate crisis.
CHARTA AWARD 2025
WINNER
The Naked Truth by Antone Dolezal & Lara Shipley
[…] This project is a response to a sea change in American and global politics and culture over the past decade, characterized by a rise in prominence of opportunists using misinformation and mistrust of institutions for personal gain. Looking to the past, we found the true story of a Great Depression era grifter in the American Midwest, that had an eerie resonance to our current cultural and political realities. By studying this strange account of American history, we found parallels with a wider cultural shift in global politics.
The Naked Truth combines traditional, manipulated, and performative photographs in dialogue with a historical archive, resurrecting the period of the Great Depression when a Victorian era health spa and resort was turned into a fake cancer curing hospital by “Dr.” Norman Baker. Baker began his career as a traveling vaudeville mesmerist, later finding success applying the same tools of spectacle and illusion as a medical charlatan. […]
Interested?
Apply now on chartafestival.com
