Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday | German Photographic Society launches worldwide open call

Press Release
Cologne, 24 July 2026 

Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday

German Photographic Society launches worldwide open call for its 75th anniversary — photo slam in Berlin on 19 September 2026

To mark its 75th anniversary, the German Photographic Society (DGPh) today launches a worldwide open call. Under the title Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday, the DGPh invites photographers from around the world to submit existing photographic series. Works selected by an international jury — including Kathy Ryan, formerly of The New York Times Magazine — will be presented on 19 September 2026 at the Ballroom of Fotografiska Berlin, as a sequenced slideshow on a 3.8 × 6.5 metre LED wall. With this format, the DGPh opens itself in its anniversary year toward a younger, internationally minded audience.

The idea: the present as the raw material of tomorrow’s memory.  The photo slam is not a competition but a curatorial format. It seeks existing photographic series that can be read as documents of a future in the making — works about transition, emergence, change, new ways of living. It is not about predictions or science fiction, but about the present understood as the raw material of tomorrow’s memory. The day after the Ballroom presentation, the slideshow launches online.

An international jury selects by consensus.  The five-member jury consists of Kathy Ryan (Photo Director, Curator & Artist; formerly Director of Photography, The New York Times Magazine; DGPh Dr. Erich Salomon Prize 2025), Ralph Baiker (photographer; DGPh Head of Chapter Picture), Thomas Gerwers (Editor-in-Chief of PROFIFOTO; DGPh Head of Chapter Art, Market & Law), Claire Ducresson-Boët (Exhibition Manager & Curator, Fotografiska Berlin), and Wolfgang Zurborn (photographer and long-standing DGPh member), who is also responsible for the final sequencing of the slideshow. The jury is moderated by Ruediger Glatz, Chairman of the Executive Board of the DGPh.

Fotografiska Berlin as location and collaboration partner.  The photo slam takes place at the Ballroom of Fotografiska Berlin. The collaboration opens the DGPh to a younger, internationally minded audience that Fotografiska reaches in Berlin.

The programme on 19 September. The photo slam is accompanied by live music and framed by a panel discussion on the state and future of photography. The date falls on the closing weekend of the Anton Corbijn exhibition — one of the last opportunities to see the retrospective at Fotografiska Berlin.

The second open call of the anniversary year.  The photo slam is the second open call the DGPh is presenting as part of its 75th anniversary. Following Moment of Exposure on 18 April 2026 — the worldwide photo action marking the society’s founding day, whose results are running at wecelebratephotography.com — Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday is the second major invitation from the DGPh to the international photography community.

Quote from Ruediger Glatz, Chairman of the Executive Board of the DGPh:

“On the occasion of our 75th anniversary, we want to show how alive, open and international the DGPh is today. The photo slam brings together photographers from around the world, a distinguished jury, and Fotografiska Berlin as our partner. I look forward to experiencing the selected series in September on the Ballroom’s large LED wall. Let’s celebrate Photography!”

Participation and timeline. The call is open worldwide to photographers aged 18 and over. Submissions consist of existing series of 10 to 20 images, submitted through the platform PICTER. The entry fee is €15; DGPh members enter free of charge. Deadline: 21 August 2026, 23:59 CEST. The jury selects between 22 August and 11 September; Wolfgang Zurborn subsequently shapes the final sequence for the LED wall.

Key facts at a glance

Title: Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday
Organiser: German Photographic Society (DGPh)
Location & collaboration partner:  Fotografiska Berlin
Format: Non-competitive photo slam
Submission window:  24 July – 21 August 2026
Submission: via the PICTER platform
Fee:  €15 per submission; DGPh members free of charge
Results announcement:  by 11 September 2026
Event: 19 September 2026, Fotografiska Berlin (Ballroom)
Online slideshow: from 20 September 2026

Further information and submission

Call website: site.picter.com/dgph-fotografiska-photo-slam-2026

About the DGPh
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V. (DGPh, German Photographic Society) was founded in 1951 and brings together around 1,200 invited members who shape photography in all its dimensions — those who develop its technology, practise it, teach it, and curate and preserve it. 2026 marks its 75th anniversary.

Press contact
Regina Plaar
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V.
Rheingasse 8–12, 50676 Cologne, Germany
regina.plaar@dgph.de  ·  +49 221 9232069