/ 2026 / Fine Art / Other

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Ronald Stoecker, Germany
• Date of Photograph
  2025
• Studio
  Skd-Graphics
• Website
  https://ronald-stoecker-photography.com/
• Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/rost_art_1405/

Technically, this is a digital version of a classical photogram, with a scanner acting as “photographic paper.”Part of a larger project about identity and encounters across origins, and exploring hand-to-surface interactions, I present “hands” in a multimodal role—defining identity through fingerprints and conveying meaning through gesture. Hands, portraits of a cryptic yet unseen personality, participate in an experiment to show how my self-image can be shaped by them, and how a self reduced to gesture traces can endure. This approach questions authorship, embodiment, and memory across media.

Ronald Stoecker

born 1954 in Essen, initially studied and graduated as PhD in Biology and Chemistry, after retirement lives and works now as freelance artist in Essen, Germany using digital and analogue photography as well as scanning- and print techniques and mixed media formats, between 2015-2021 studied photography and media art at freie Akademie der bildenden Künste in Essen (fadbk, HBK) in photography and media – graduated as master student in 2021

Awards 2026 Longlisted for Publication (Book) – Begegnungen im Fokus, Goldene Segel Art Prize 2026, Bad Zwischenahn
2026 First Price and Exhibition Winner, Abstract Art Photography Competition, Artist Space Gallery
2026 Exhibition “Faces”, The Final Notice, Exhibition Winner, Artists Space Gallery, NY
2026 Merit Award, Portrait Contest 2026, GCG , Houston, Texas US
2025 Selected Photography Art Award 2026, LensCulture, Amsterdam, NL
2025 Selected 3rd Winner, Abstract Art Competition, Grey Cube Gallery, Houston, Texas, US
2025 Merit Award, Still Life Contest, Grey Cube Gallery, Houston, Texas, US