From Red Horse by Sasha Kurmaz @ Sasha Kurmaz
Red Horse by Ukrainian artist Sasha Kurmaz is a thought-provoking, diaristic journey into war and its representation
An artist born and based in Kyiv, Sasha Kurmaz started his series Red Horse in 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mixing documentary photographs with Kurmaz’ notes, found images and materials picked up off the street, the work is subjective and personal, a chronicle of war which questions how others perceive and understand such reports. The book, designed by Nicolas Polli and published by Éditions Images Vevey, is some 800 pages long, printed on thin papers and suggesting something urgent yet unrelenting; it was the unanimous winner of the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award this year, judged by artist Jermaine Francis, V&A Parasol Foundation Curator of Women in Photography and writer Fiona Rogers, and BJP editor Diane Smyth.
“The Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award is an incredible honour for me,” said Kurmaz. “Red Horse is not just a photography book, it is a deeply personal story of my life, documented and embodied through artistic means. Therefore, to see it resonate at such a high level is an overwhelming and profoundly moving moment for me. I am immensely grateful to the jury for this recognition, as well as to express my sincere gratitude to the whole team of Images Vevey for their trust, support, and shared vision in bringing this book to life.”
“Sasha Kurmaz’s Red Horse is a deeply personal and urgent reflection on war and the ways it reshapes both individual lives and collective memory.,” commented Rogers. “Through a striking use of collage, Kurmaz evokes the fragmentation and instability of life amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, assembling visual traces of his own experience into a form that feels at once chaotic and profoundly human. The result is a moving and visually compelling work – quietly powerful in its politics, and resonant in its emotional depth. A truly outstanding winner.”
“Red Horse is not just a photography book, it is a deeply personal story of my life, documented and embodied through artistic means.” Sasha Kurmaz
Kurmaz’s work was recognised from hundreds of other entries, from which the judges selected an unusually long shortlist of four, also including Index2025 by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (Roma Publications), The Fold by Hoda Afshar (Loose Joints), and Too Many Products Too Much Pressure by Janet Delaney (Deadbeat Club). Kurmaz shares the £10,000 prize fund with Onyeka Igwe, who won the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award for June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive, published by Lawrence Wishart. The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation will run events celebrating the winners’ books this Autumn, Kurmaz’ at V&A South Kensington, and Igwe’s at the Barbican, details tbc.
The longlist for the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award featured all four shortlisted books plus eight more: A Reprise by David Alekhuogie (Aperture); Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain, edited by Renée Mussai (Thames & Hudson/ Autograph); It’s Hard To Stop Rebels That Time Travel by Raymond Thompson Jr (Void); MAN by Erik Kessels and Karel De Mulder (RVB Books); Sound the Sirens by Bryan Anselm (Overlapse); Swan Moon’s Swan Moon by Swan Moon (TBW Books); The Ramble NYC 1969 by Arthur Tress (Stanley / Barker); The Weight of the Word by Piero Martinello and Piero Casentini (Fw:Books).
“This year’s long list showcases a breadth of vision in this year’s submitted books,” commented Jermaine Francis. “Exploring various aesthetic approaches and use of materials, many of these photographers, artists tried to explore, push and interrogate the boundaries of photographic medium, storytelling and printed matter. This was positive to see in this year’s submissions, and the alternatives to the big hardback coffee table book formats, which can be dominant in photo book publishing at times. Some of the most innovative and exciting books were smaller sized publications, and were examples in this case that size is not everything.”
The entire longlist from this year’s Photobook Award will be on display from 04-05 July at the POST x Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Weekender. A two-day celebration of the photobook, the weekender will also feature talks, workshops and conversations exploring the photobook. 2026 Awards judge Jermaine Francis will take part in a panel on the evolving role of the photobook, while UK-based Iranian artist Amin Yousefi will discuss his debut publication, Eyes Dazzle as They Search for the Truth, published with Luhz Press. Gem Fletcher will also host a live Messy Truth podcast, in conversation with Charlotte Flint, whose book on Tee A Corinne was shortlisted for the 2025 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award.
The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards are free to enter, and submissions are welcomed from authors, collectives, publishers, and self-publishers anywhere in the world. Up to six different titles can be entered, each one with a minimum print run of 100 copies; these books must have been available to buy in the UK. Submitted photobooks should include a text element, and translations must be provided for non-English language publications. The call for entries for the 2027 Book Awards will open in November.
The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation is named after Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a publisher born in Hungary in 1904. Kraszna-Krausz studied photography and cinematography at Munich University and began his publishing career in Germany in 1925 as the editor of Filmtechnik magazine. In 1937 he came to Britain as a refugee, and a year later founded Focal Press; following his death, in 1989, Kraszna-Krausz’s estate became the Foundation.
https://sashakurmaz.com The POST x Kraszna Krausz Photobook Weekender takes place at POST, Brighton & Hove, from 4-5 July kraszna-krausz.org.uk post-creatives.co.uk