The ENAIRE Foundation presents its Lifetime Achievement Award to José Manuel Ballester 24.01.2023: ...and announces a new edition of the 2023 Photography Award • Again this year, the ENAIRE Foundation is committed to promoting photography and acknowledges the career and work of artist José Manuel Ballester

...and announces a new edition of the 2023 Photography Award

• Again this year, the ENAIRE Foundation is committed to promoting photography and acknowledges the career and work of artist José Manuel Ballester



• The winning works and finalists of the Photography Award will be shown at the inaugural PHE 2023 exhibit, to be held at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid from 31 May




José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960), painter and photographer wins the ENAIRE Foundation 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award. This recognition is on top of the National Engraving Award (1999), the Goya Painting Prize of the City of Madrid (2006), the Photography Award of the Community of Madrid (2008), the National Photography Award (2010) and other awards he has received throughout his career.


This honorary distinction, presented by the ENAIRE Foundation and worth 17,000 euros, recognises the creative maturity and the time that the artist has spent behind the camera. Throughout his artistic life, he has photographed urban environments and natural landscapes, architecture, industrial structures.


Spaces and places sometimes in full transition and development; and others abandoned or in ruins, mysterious and silent. Ballester takes the landscapes that surround him and captivate him, that connect with his own personal world, as evidenced by the intense search for self in his work.



An infinite curiosity that leads to non-stop investigation. José Manuel searches for and captures reality with his camera, illuminating and transforming it, and shows us his most poetic, emotional and intangible side. A look full of looks.



The presentation of the ENAIRE Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award involves the hosting of an exhibit that will open the PhotoESPAÑA international photography festival, which is celebrating its 26th edition this year, at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid on 31 May.



On this occasion, Ballester will present an unpublished project dedicated to one of his passions, and which he has been working on for more than 10 years: To the tree




Announcement of the 2023 ENAIRE Foundation Photography Award


The Photography Award, which is turning 16 this year, recognises original works of an artistic or free subject matter that have not received prizes in any other competition. Every author may submit up to three photographs. The three winning works will become part of the ENAIRE Foundation's Collection of Contemporary Art.


First prize is worth 12,000 euros, with 8,000 euros for second and 5,000 euros for third.


The Photography Award is structured into two phases that combine digital and physical formats. Photographs opting for the prize must be presented in digital format from 3 February to 21 March 2023 using the registration form that the ENAIRE Foundation has provided for this purpose on its website.


Of all the works presented, the jury will pre-select 30 photographs that will then have to be physically presented from 3 to 5 May 2023. In those cases where the artists must produce their work to present it in the physical phase of the prize, the ENAIRE Foundation will collaborate in its production, paying for 50% of the total cost of this process (up to 500 euros per photograph).


Of the 30 works presented in this second phase, the jury will select the three award-winning works, 14 finalists and a PHotoESPAÑA Honourable Mention, which will be exhibited as a group from 31 May to 3 September 2023 at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid as part of the official opening of PHotoESPAÑA 2023.


All the information and rules will be available on our website and social media sites, where a special prize will also be given to the photograph that receives the most votes (likes) from among the 30 candidates.

ENAIRE, Madrid