Publication on Contemporary art 2025: FÖR

The recipient of the Visual Arts Council’s award for Publication of the Year is Agnieszka Sosnowska for her photography book FÖR. It is an impressive publication in which nature, society and personal history intersect. 

Sosnowska was born in Poland but grew up in Boston, the United States. She graduated with a BFA degree in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Sosnowska first travelled to Iceland in 1995 and was immediately fascinated by the country’s nature, culture and way of life. Shortly thereafter, she moved to East Iceland, where she resides on a farm with her husband.

The book’s photographs span more than twenty years, capturing the Icelandic landscape and life in a small community in a personal manner, including her relationship with her husband, friends and students in a harsh, but captivating natural setting.

The jury considers FÖR to be more than a book of photography: it is a poetic narrative about finding one’s place in the world through connecting with nature and society in a profound way. The images are full of gratitude and love for the land, the people and the everyday. The publication’s overall presentation underlines the project’s quality and aesthetic strength. FÖR offers not only visual pleasure, but deeper insight on life and artistic creation in the wilderness.

Design: Cody Haltom

Publisher: Trespasser Books, the United States