/ 2025 / Fine Art / Minimalism

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Michael Hagen, Germany
• Date of Photograph
  June 2025
• Instagram
  @mhio_71

Urban structures present themselves as familiar shells of our daily lives – clear, functional, mesmerizing. Yet they simultaneously harbor a silent threat: in their overpowering scale, their coldness, their anonymity. “Shark” mirrors this ambivalence – an architectural entity that is at once a fascination and a silent, latent menace. What attracts us can also devour us.

My name is Michael Hagen. I began practicing photographic art in early 2025 after a serious illness forced me to leave my previous profession. During this time, art became a way to process inner experiences and reflect on change and human existence. In my work I explore what I call the “echoes of the seen” — the emotional resonance that visual impressions leave within us, transforming photographic material into intuitive fine art images about perception, memory and inner states.

Awards EDITORIAL SELECTIONS & AWARDS
LensCulture Art Photography Awards 2026 – 2× Editors’ Pick
IPA 2025 – Official Selection, Honorable Mention
PX3 / TIFA / BIFA / ND Awards 2025 – multiple Honorable Mentions
LICC 2025 – Official Selection (multiple works)

EXHIBITIONS & COLLECTIONS

• TRIESTE PHOTO DAYS 2025: 10 artworks exhibited at Trieste Airport & ARCI Trieste, Italy.
• SALON FÜR KUNSTBUCH, VIENNA: Art books "VITA" & "Requiem" included in the permanent archive of Bernhard Cella.

My artist books VITA and Requiem are held in institutional collections including the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the Kunstbibliothek Berlin (SMB), the Bavarian State Library (Munich), the Art and Museum Library Cologne, and the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB).