PHOTOBOOKFEST presents an exhibition of finalists of Unseen Dummy Award 2017, which is held in the White hall of the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography from May 23 until June 3, 2018.

Unseen Dummy Award is a Dutch book dummies contest, giving young photographers and designers from all around the world a unique opportunity to express themselves in the international photography industry. The winner gets an opportunity to publish a photo- book in collaboration with Lecturis. The award is coordinated by Daria Tuminas (Russia/Netherlands).

During the six years of its existence, the Award has gathered a jury of important personalities from the world of contemporary photography, including curator of C/O Berlin Ann-Christin Bertrand, editor-in-chief at The Eyes Magazine Rémi Coignet, chief curator of photography department at the London Gallery Tate Modern Simon Baker. The contest has also become a starting point for many young artists who chose a photo-book as their way to express creative ideas.

As part of the festival PHOTOBOOKFEST 2018, 33 books from the short-list of Unseen Dummy Award 2017 are being presented, and among them, the photo-book of the 2017 winner Małgorzata Stankiewicz "Cry of an Echo" dedicated to Białowieža Forest, the last primeval forest in Europe, which can disappear from the face ofEarth by human's fault. The exhibition also includes the project of Japanese artist Miki Hasegawa ""Internal Notebook" ", revealing the subject of domestic abuse. This book was awarded a Special Mention (Separate Mention).

The short-list of Unseen Dummy Award 2017 is presented by the coordinator of the contest Daria Tuminas on May 25 as part of an educational program of the "Weekend with Unseen". And during an artist talk on May 27, the last season winner Małgorzata Stankiewicz is going to share her personal experience, talk about working on the project starting with the development of an idea to its implementation in the book format.

The exhibition has been prepared by PHOTOBOOKFEST 2018 along with Unseen Amsterdam with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands.