2017

Esther Hovers

The urban landscape is what inspires Esther Hovers, and her portfolio addresses themes of control and power in public spaces, in an intellectually consistent and visually striking interrogation. Based on thorough research, her work asks questions such as “How do urban planning and architecture determine our movements?” and “What is the position of the individual within a predetermined system?”

Considering herself a conceptual documentary photographer, Hovers plays with notions of traditional street photography, but retains the freedom to construct images and combine them with drawings and text. She impresses by how she visualizes her research into large-scale innovative installations that can resemble a detective’s office evidence bulletin board. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2015, Esther Hovers has been widely exhibited across Europe and earned numerous awards and grants. The Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg committee therefore wanted to give Esther Hovers the opportunity to continue her observations about how humans navigate complex spaces in a vibrant, new environment: the artistic and cultural landscape of New York City that proved so fertile for Edward Steichen himself.

Esther Hovers was nominated by Danielle Igniti, Director Centres d'art de la Ville de Dudelange.

Daniel Wagener

Daniel Wagener moves between Berlin, Brussels, and Luxembourg as a freelance graphic designer and photographer, and is currently teaching photography at the Royal Academy of Brussels where he also received his Masters in photography in 2015. He is also working as an experimental printer at Chez Rosi, a specialty digital print studio in Brussels, where he uses the unusual Risograph printer to produce self-published photography books and illustrations. Wagener’s dream is to become a book publisher, and it was his smartly-designed and well-executed photography books that garnered the jury’s attention. As a photographer, he is interested in the overlooked and unplanned spaces that form almost by accident in urban spaces.

Daniel Wagener was nominated by Anouk Wies, General Coordinator at Cercle Cité Luxembourg.

The 2017 Award Ceremony was celebrated on Friday, November 10th at MUDAM Luxembourg, in the presence of Her Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand-Duchess, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Guy Arendt.