Kurt Hörbst
People Scans
Portraits
Catalogue Retrospective 2016–2024

In 2019, Austrian photographer Kurt Hörbst was awarded second prize at the Portraits – Hellerau Photography Awardsfor his life-sized People Scans (https://people-scans.com/). For this project, the artist constructed a custom scanning box in various locations—Sunderpur, Vienna, Venice, Clervaux, and Dresden—where models lay horizontally to be "scanned." These life-size prints provoke questions about the truthfulness and perception of portraits, the interplay between (auto-)fiction and reality, and ultimately the relationship of trust between model, photographer, and viewer.
In the new exhibition, Hörbst’s large-format People Scans from the Hellerau Portraits archive are juxtaposed with hundreds upon hundreds of small-format portraits drawn from the past nine editions of the Portraits exhibition catalogues (2016–2024). This miniature archive of fleeting moments offers a richly nuanced view of international portrait photography of the early 21st century at the Fotoforum, located across from the Archive of Avant-Garde Art of the 20th Century in the Blockhaus.
The spectrum ranges from documentary portrait work that tackles pressing contemporary themes and their protagonists—such as home and displacement, environmental destruction, climate change, war, the pandemic—to mixed-media pieces, collages, nude photography, reenactments, AI-generated images, and long-term autobiographical or autofictional series, as well as artistic and technical experiments.
This vibrant cross-section, carefully curated, arranged, and hung by members of the Fotoforum Dresden under the direction of Georg Knobloch, marks the beginning of the upcoming tenth anniversaries of both the Fotoforum Dresdenand the Portraits – Hellerau Photography Awards.

Every year, a new catalogue featuring the works of all finalists is published by the Kunstagentur Dresden. Worldwide shipping is free of charge.
Artists
Aaron Ricketts
Ada Trillo
Felix Adler & Thomas Victor
Alberto di Fiore
Aleksandra Weber
Alexander Endrullat
Alexander Klang
Alexander Komenda
Alfonso de Gregorio
Alfonso Legaz
Amilton Neves
Amin Yousefi
Amy Touchette
Andi Abdul Halil
Andrea Frazzetta
Andrea Signori
Andreas Mader
Andreas Reh
Andy Happel
Angela Oswald
Anja Bohnhof
Anja Engelke
Ann Prochilo
Anna Eckold
Anna Zemlianski
Anna-Lena Thamm
Anne-Sophie Guillet
Annette LeMay Burke
Aram Balakjan
Arne Wesenberg
Arseniy Neskhodimov
Ashima Yadava
Astrid Susanna Schulz
Aviya Wyse
Bernhard Moosbauer
Birte Kaufmann
Birthe Piontek
Carla Kogelmann
Carla van de Puttelaar
Carmen De Vos
Cecilia Sordi Campos
César Dezfuli
Charlotte Sattler
Constanza Portnoy
Daniel Seiffert
Daniela Pfeil
Daniela Risch
Danny Frede
David Klammer
Deborah Sfez
Diane Meyer
Dominik Wolf
Dominique Hille
& Arina Essipowitsch
Ehsan Namakiravesh
Elena Anosova
Elena Helfrecht
Eric Schütt
Es’hagh Aghaei
Ettore Moni
Eva Gjaltema
Federico Tisa
Federico Viegener
Francesca Cesari
Frank Höhler
Frank Krems
Frank Verreyken
Frauke Thielking
Gabriele Galimberti
Geraldine Haas
Gerlinde Miesenböck
Gianmaria De Luca
Göran Gnaudschun
Hannah Altman
Hashem Shakeri
Hermann Bredehorst
Hilde Pank
Horst Kløver
Huseyin Ovayolu
Ida Zenna
Ingar Krauss
Ingmar Björn Nolting
Iona Dutz
Irina Bittner
Ivonne Thein
Jana Sophia Nolle
Janina Wick
Jean Pascal Zahn
Jeffrey Stockbridge
Jennifer Loeber
Jerry Takigawa
Jesse Egner
Joachim Müller-Klink
Jocelyn Lee
Joel Bolonick
Jörg Gläscher
Joshua Sariñana
Julia Autz
Julia Runge
Julia Steinigeweg
Karen Kling
Karina-Sirkku Kurz
Karolina Bofinger
Katerina Belkina
Katarzyna K. Kryńska
Katja Feldmeier
Katya Mukha
Kerry Steen
Khashayar Javanmardi
Kolja Warnecke
Kurt Hörbst
Lana Yanovska
Lara Wilde
Laura Pannack
Lesha Pavlov
Lionel Briot
Lisa Pram
Lise Johansson
Louis Roth
Louise Amelie
Lucia Bláhová
Ludovica Bastianini
Ludwig Thalheimer
Magdalena Stengel
Manuel Frolik
Marc Brinkmeier
Marcus Glahn
Marina Dyakonova
Maritza Studard
Martha Frieda Friedel
Martin Gasch
Mary Gelman
Matthew Hamon
Maureen Drennan
Maximilian v. Lachner
Menno Aden
Michael Sharkey
Michaela Nagyidaiová
Michele Brancati
Mike Schäfer
Mirja Maria Thiel
Mirjana Vrbaski
Monika Keiler
Mykhaylo Palinchak
Nadine Blanke
Nancy Ludwig
Natalia Ershova
Natalia Kepesz
Nazanin Hafez
Nicola Petrara
Nicole Woischwill
Nina Welch-Kling
Oksana Veniaminova
Paola Serino
Patricia Paryz
Paul Damen
Paulina Hildesheim
Pedro Lobo
Peggy Stahnke
Peter Pflügler
Phillip Kortlang
Pierre-Louis Ferrer
Polly Penrose
Quetzal Maucci
Rafael Heygster
Raluca Deca
Raul Ariano
Rebecca Rütten
Robert Klebenow
Robert Ludewig
Robin Yong
Rogério Vieira
Rory Doyle
Rosa Mariniello
Ruben Hamelink
Sandra Buschow
Sandra Hoyn
Sara Swaty
Sarah Mei Herman
Scarlet Mann
Sean Lee
Sebastian Wells
Sergei Stroitelev
Shelli Weiler
Shinichi Ichikawa
Sibylle Feucht
Silvia Otte
Sitara Thalia Ambrosio
Snezhana v. Büdingen
Stefan Krauth
Stefanie Minzenmay
Steff Gruber
Susanne Middelberg
Svante Gullichsen
Tamara Eckhardt
Tara Fallaux
Therese Debono
Thomas Bachler
Tim Franco
Tom Atwood
Toni Petraschk
Tori Ferenc
Ulla Deventer
Ute Behrend
Ute F. Schernau
Yoong Wah A. Wong
Yvonne Most
Xiaofu Wang