Hasselblad Foundation Awards Two Photographers Over $10,000 to Publish Photobooks

Jul 08, 2025

Jeremy Gray

A stack of books is pictured in the center, with a bare, sunlit room on the left and a hand holding open a photo book showing a woman in a red dress on the right.

The Hasselblad Foundation’s annual Photobook Grant has been awarded to two photographers, Ting Bang Tsai and Paweł Starzec. Each photographer has received SEK 100,000, equivalent to approximately $10,500, to support the production and publication of their photographic book projects.

This is the first time since the Hasselblad Foundation started the Photobook Grant in 2016 that it has been open to photographers outside of Sweden. Last year, the Hasselblad Foundation provided SEK 50,000, SEK 30,000, and SEK 20,000 to Swedish photographers Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard, Simon Mlangeni-Berg, and Mårten Lange, respectively.

Ting Bang Tsai and Paweł Starzec’s entries stood out from a crowded group of 769 applicants from 82 different countries, with the majority of submissions arriving from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden. A jury panel including Jacob Birch (Spine Studio), Maryam Fanni (HDK-Valand), Andréas Hagström, and Dragana Vujanovic Östlind (Hasselblad Foundation) evaluated the entrants and selected the winners.

A person stands indoors against a beige wall, wearing a loose white shirt over a buttoned top. Soft, warm lighting casts a large shadow of the person on the wall behind them. — Ting Bang Tsai | Photo by Alpha Hsu

Photographer Ting Bang Tsai won the grant for his project, “Glamorous Aunt JIN YUN,” an intimate and vulnerable collaboration between the photographer, who is in his mid-20s, and Jin Yun, a 72-year-old woman. The project explores themes like cultural beauty ideals, social norms, ageism, cultural imperialism, and exhibitionism.

“The result is a mesmerizing book with a uniquely conceived design, in which recent portraits are interwoven with older images — a portrait of Jin Yun whose confidence inspires both admiration and joy for life,” the Hasselblad Foundation explains.

An older woman in a red, gold-patterned traditional dress poses outdoors, arms raised behind her head. She has styled black hair and a serious expression. Green foliage and trees are visible in the background. — Photo from Ting Bang Tsai’s book *Glamorous Aunt JIN YUN*

Ting Bang Tsai is a self-taught photographer who has moved between Taiwan and Vietnam during his life. He has a rich background in art, performance, and philosophy, and has quickly amassed acclaim for his photography. In 2024, he won the Aperture Foundation’s First Book Award at Paris Photo and the Dummy Book Award at the Singapore International Photography Festival for his book, Born from the Same Root.

“Receiving the Hasselblad Foundation’s Photobook grant is a huge honor — and honestly, a rare kind of international encouragement,” the photographer says. “It feels like a moment where a small place like Taiwan, and artists from here, get to be seen and heard.”

Tsai says the grant gives him the ability to continue working on his newest book at his own pace and ensure he will be able to publish it to a broader audience.

“But it’s more than just funding — it’s a form of trust,” he adds. “A belief that photobooks, as a slow and thoughtful way of seeing and documenting, still matter — and have real power.”

Paweł Starzec is a Polish documentary photographer, sociologist, and educator. His work focuses on long-term projects that explore complicated social processes. He has previously been honored by the Polish Ministry of Culture with a Young Poland scholarship, PixHouse’s Talent of the Year Award, and the Spojrzenia Award. Starcez is Vice Dean of the Faculty of Design at SWPS University in Warsaw despite being in his early 30s.

A man with a beard and glasses, dressed in black shorts and a t-shirt, stands in a sunlit pine forest with a white dog draped over his shoulders. Both look at the camera. A wooden cabin is visible in the background. — Paweł Starzec | Photo by Martyna Wyrzykowska

Starcez’s awarded project, Makeshift, investigates the aftereffects of brutal, bloody conflict and crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. Makeshift photographs the everyday places and landscapes where just 30 years ago, people were systematically tortured, raped, and slaughtered.

“In the aftermath, as part of the nation-building process and an effort to erase the realities of war, these places regained their ordinary appearance and original functions. Polish photographer Paweł Starzec accompanies his images with written testimonies from victims. In this way, Makeshift documents a horrifying history that has been repeated all too often worldwide — but never captured with such precision and immediacy,” the Hasselblad Foundation explains.

An empty room with white walls, a wooden ceiling, and a single light bulb hanging from the center. A partially open door leads to a sunlit, dust-covered area beyond. The floor is bare and dusty. — ‘One subject described the White House as the most infamous structure at the camp. He stated that the building was where the camp authorities held those they called extremists. According to the subject, the first room to the left was the punishment room, where hardly anyone came out alive. Reports stated that no one was killed with a gun at the White House, only by beatings and the like. According to reports, in the morning prisoners would see bodies piled up next to the white house. Subject estimated that guards killed five to 10 men per night, and up to 30 prisoners on some nights. He added that guards sang as they beat prisoners to death and sometimes sang nationalistic and religious songs.’

Starzec says the Hasselblad Foundation Photobook grant is crucial for him to complete this project, which he has been working on for nearly eight years.

“This year marks thirty years since the Dayton Accords, which stopped the war, the traces of which this series focuses on — I think it is a good moment to sum up attempts to tell about places and events related to this conflict that are lesser known to the general public. This seems doubly important to me also in light of the current political situation in the region, and the cruelty of history repeating itself over and over,” the documentary photographer says.

A calm river reflects tree-covered hills and mountains under a hazy sky, with some houses and greenery on the right bank. — ‘Described in *A bridge on the Drina* by Ivo Andric, [this] stone bridge in Visegrad was used as a place of execution during ethnic cleansing of Drina Valley. River carried the bodies further downstream, and during maintenance work on nearby Perrurac dam more than 300 were found.’

“The photobook holds a central place within the field of photography,” the Hasselblad Foundation writes. “Through the Photobook Grant, the Hasselblad Foundation seeks to contribute to developing new and significant works in the genre.”

The Hasselblad Foundation continues, describing Tin Bang Tsai and Paweł Starzec’s works as showcasing “strong artistic integrity and powerful documentary expression.”

“We are proud to support these two projects, each of which challenges the form and content of the medium in distinct ways.”

This is not the first major prize that the Hasselblad Foundation has awarded to talented photographers this year. In March, photographer Sophie Ristelhueber won the 2025 Hasselblad Award and its SEK 2,000,000 prize, which is nearly $210,000. The Hasselblad Award is the world’s largest individual photography award.

Image credits: The Hasselblad Foundation, Ting Bang Tsai, and Paweł Starzec. Additional credits are located in individual photo captions.