Florentine Riem Vis Grant

The Florentine Riem Vis Grant was established in memory of Florentine Riem Vis (1959-2016) with the goal of supporting young photographic talents in the development of their artistic careers. 

The grant, started in 2017, consists of a sum of € 10,000 and is made available each year for the development and coaching of a talented photographer under the age of 35. The recipient of the grant is invited to exhibit their work at Foam 3h, Foam’s project space for young, up-and-coming photographers.

Rebecca Sampson (1984, Göttingen) is the second recipient of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant. Sampson was awarded the grant based on her work Apples for Sale, a photograpic study of the daily life of Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong. With little to no leisure time or personal space, these labour migrants construct a parallel identity using social media channels. Sampson portrays this population in a layered multi-media narrative, consisting of documentary photography, social media footage, and text. Her exhibition opened at Foam on 11 November 2018.

_{Gathering of Indonesian housemaids on their day off – Victoria Park, Hong Kong, 2017, from the Series Apples for Sale, 2016-17 © Rebecca Sampson}

The first recipient of the grant is photographer Stefanie Moshammer (1988, Vienna). Moshammer was awarded the grant based on her work Vegas and She and the series Land of Black Milk, which she photographed in Rio de Janeiro. Moshammer, who is based in Austria, presents visual stories connected to her own experiences and observations. Her personal impressions of remarkable locations result in colourful and poetic images. Moshammer often finds beauty in unexpected places. Her exhibition opened at Foam on 16 November 2017.

_{Florise, from the series Tomorrow of Yesterday, Haiti, 2017 © Stefanie Moshammer}

Christine Grapperhaus:

“For just a moment, Stefanie Moshammer makes you believe that the world is always beautiful. But when you start to look beyond the colours, you discover harsh reality. What we find so appealing in Stefanie’s work is her courage. It’s not just seriously risky to visit the favelas in Rio and to photograph the people there, but it also takes courage to play with perspective in the way that she does. Our mother was courageous too, until the very end. People and Courage, that’s what Stefanie and Florentine have in common.”

MORE ABOUT THE GRANT
Florentine Riem Vis had close affiliations with several cultural institutions and in particular with Foam. She was especially interested in helping people develop their artistic talent. For this grant Foam will scout worldwide for talented artists with a clear signature and style that is relevant to the contemporary artistic discourse. The artist can work in all photographic genres, including multi-media and interdisciplinary work. One condition to be eligible for the grant is that the work should show a clear relationship to people, in the widest sense of the word. Each year, Florentine Riem Vis’ children will choose the recipient from a shortlist compiled by Foam.

Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Gemeente Amsterdam, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.