BMW Photo Award Leipzig: Artist Talk mit Jay Ritchie

A conversation at the exhibitionwith award winner Jay Ritchie and curator Philipp Freytag

What’s it about?

Jay Ritchie (born 1992 in Hanover) studied at the Ostkreuz School of Photography and Design in Berlin from 2013 to 2016, before studying photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (HGB) under Tina Bara from 2018 to 2020.

The exhibition features works from three series by Jay Ritchie:
“Elective Affinities” ( since 2020), “Body Images,” and “Portraits.” The latter two are part of the series “In Transparent Formation ” (since 2023), in which Ritchie uses his own transition to explore aspects of identity and gender—specifically social gender as distinct from biological sex—which, in his view, is “not a rigid construct” but rather a “fluid continuum.”

The BMW Group and the MdbK have been presenting the BMW Photo Award Leipzig since 2024. Every two years, the award supports artists who either have a biographical connection to Leipzig and the region or whose artistic work engages with the city and its surroundings.