2018 Winners of Carte Blanche Announced

Carte Blanche is a photographic programme, aimed at discovering talented emerging photographers and artists. For the past 2 years, it has been promoting the relationship between students and the art and photography world.

Open to Master and Bachelor students throughout Europe, 4 chosen laureates have been selected by an international jury to be exhibited at Paris Gare du Nord train station, present their portfolios during Paris Photo, contribute to roundtable discussion, and gain industry exposure with gallerists, curators, collectors and artists. This years winners are Kata Geibl, Simon Lehner, Daria Minina and Daniel Szalai.

© Kata Geibl

Based in Budapest and currently studying at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Kata Geibl questions the human documentation of time, how “humanity tends to believe that history is moving forward, never repeating itself, learning from the past’s mistakes.” She believes time and history to be cyclical, and in her winning series ‘Sisyphus’, she attempts to trace humanity’s relationship with past, present and future, whilst posing existential questions on reality and how we form our understanding of it.

© Simon Lehner

Simon Lehner’s project draws from his own personal experience of family and the development of identity. Through his project ‘How far away is a light year?’, he uses photographs from 2005 of his distanced father, and compiles them to create 3D scans and renderings of a ‘tangible’ figure through digital reconstruction. Studying at the University of applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, he published his first photo-book ‘Jaga’, which was shown at photo festivals across Europe.

© Darai Minina

From Russian descent though based in Paris, Daria Minina explores the stagnation of the Russian political system through her project “The Poutine Generation”. Using the experience of an academic knowledge of Eastern Europe, she  documents the lives of a young couple based in Siberia; Cyril and Rodion. Daria questions their environment, and what it is like to “spend a lifetime under the power of the same person and enter your adult life knowing you can’t change anything?”

© Daniel Szalai

Daniel Szalai’s large-scale photography projects focus on global issues. His most recent project ‘Novogen’ focuses on man’s relationship with nature within the context of industrialised farming and the use of animals within the pharmaceutical industry. Completing a master’s in photography in Budapest at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, he has been selected for the International Talent Program of BredaPhoto 2018, as well as for the 2nd Cycle of PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform.

The 2018 Carte Blanche exhibition will be held at Paris Gare du Nord train station from October 4 to November 12, in conjunction with the Paris Photo – SNCF Gares & Connexions programme in areas reserved for cultural exhibitions.

The international jury members we composed Sylvain Bailly, Director of Cultural Affairs at SNCF Gares & Connexions, Vincent Marcilhacy, Director of Picto Foundation, SMITH, Artist. Robert Morat, Gallerist, Tatyana Franck, Director of Musée de l’Élysée and Lausanne Léopold Meyer, Collector.

For more information about Carte Blanche 2018, visit here: carteblanche.parisphoto.com