MCS #3 @ Fresh A.I.R. #12 – »UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Cartography of Identities in Transition«

Apply now: The MARTHA COOPER SCHOLARSHIP (MCS) for Documentary Photography Enters Its Third Round!

The Martha Cooper Scholarship (MCS) offers a unique opportunity for one individual originating from Africa, Asia or Latin America to dedicate themselves for ten months to an artistic project through the medium of photography. With the newly announced MCS, the Foundation Berliner Leben acknowledges the importance of documentary photography and purposefully offers a production scholarship for documentary photographers with an ethnographic focus, seeking projects that critically and thoughtfully engage with the places, communities, and social realities they document. Prioritizing work that captures the context between people and their environments, we support projects that reflect everyday life, shifting cultural landscapes, and the ways communities adapt and change. The scholarship encourages applications from photographers whose work offers fresh, honest perspectives on lived experience, community, and identity with depth and optimism. The scholarship is based on the annual topic of Fresh A.I.R., the scholarship programme of Stiftung Berliner Leben. It addresses social and political developments that affect us in the present, and highlights the diversity of human experience and perception of the world.

The chosen photographer will be invited to live and work in one of our Fresh A.I.R. residencies in Berlin Schöneberg, Germany. The current call is for the 12th class starting in February 2027 and ending in November 2027. The application deadline is Sunday, 1st March, 2026.

Thematic Call:

»UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Cartography of Identities in Transition«

There are times in life when the self seems to blur – not lost, but without firm ground. Breaks in identity are not only personal experiences; they also reflect social and political change. At a time when Europe is confronted with divisions and with its shared values being called into question, engaging with issues of belonging, origin and memory takes on new urgency.

»UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Cartography of Identities in Transition« is dedicated to these in-between spaces: moments in which familiar identities begin to crack, narratives fall apart and new meanings are not yet tangible. The focus is on phases of life in which identity once seemed clearly defined but has dissolved, disappeared or been consciously shed – as a break-out from a role determined by others. At the centre lies the field of tension between self and stories, between past, memory and possibility. This call understands itself as an invitation to explore the space between past and present.

Funding will be provided for:

• Projects that examine what remains when familiar narratives fall apart.
• Projects that explore how identity can be newly developed or further evolved after a break between self-knowledge and self-creation.
• Projects that trace how political upheavals affect individual self-image and/or analyse the role art plays in dealing with collective memory, suppressed histories and identities that need to be redefined.

Artists and other cultural practitioners whose biographies are marked by loss of belonging, ruptures (e.g. with their family of origin), repression, uprooting or systemic transformation are invited to apply. We are looking for artistic responses to loss and fracture of identity, self-alienation and reconstruction – regardless of whether these experiences were lived first-hand, felt through their after-effects, or inherited through family and cultural memory.

We explicitly invite applicants to use autobiographical, genealogical or family-historical research as the basis for their artistic engagement. Private artefacts, suppressed stories, contradictory accounts or the silence between generations can serve as starting points for new artistic narratives – in which identity appears not only as loss, but also as a possibility that is visibly »under construction«.

The MCS special scholarship offers:

• a 10-month stay in the vibrant city of Berlin, Germany, in 2027
• full coverage of costs (travel (arrival, departure), visa, living expenses and a fixed lump sum for materials)
• free accommodation in an artist residence in Berlin
• regular consultation with an artistic mentor on site
• close exchange with artists from various disciplines on site
• opportunity to contribute to and participate in other projects of the foundation and their cooperation partners

Application Process

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Application deadline: Sunday, 1st March, 2026
Applications can only be submitted via the application platform.

For a succesful application please have the following documents and information ready:

• project cost plan (budget plan, project budget max. 3,600 €)
• artistic curriculum vitae (information on education and overview of your professional and artistic career to date)
• project proposal (detailed explanation of the project idea and implementation)

You can find further relevant information about Fresh A.I.R. at https://urban-nation.com/artist-in-residence-scholarships/

Important Information

Project entries must be in German or English. Applicants must be aged 18 and over, originating from an African, Asian or Latin American state, and working in the field of documentary photography. Technical equipment is to be organised by the artist and cannot be provided on site.

We solely fund projects of which content, implementation and planned outcome are compatible with the principles of Fresh A.I.R., the Foundation Berliner Leben and the free democratic basic order. Projects with racist, anti-Semitic, queer-hostile or otherwise exclusionary and denigrating content are excluded.

We welcome project ideas that aim to actively involve the active involvement of local participants and organizations. Potential partners (institution, organization, association, public figure) should therefore be researched and named as part of the project application. If the project is approved by the foundation, these partners should be contacted immediately regarding cooperation. In addition, a backup should always be considered to replace any missing cooperation partners.

For project ideas that can only be realized in cooperation with a project partner (institution, organization, association, public figure), written proof of this partner’s willingness to cooperate must be submitted by e-mail at the time of application, stating the applicant ID. The same applies to applications from people who belong to a network (e.g. artists, scientists, cultural workers, etc.) or who are associated with such a network and plan to involve this network as external partners in their project. In addition, a backup should always be considered in order to replace missing cooperation partners if necessary.

For questions please write to FreshAIR-office@stiftung-berliner-leben.de. We look forward to receiving your entries!