See Me, I Am Here

• Prize
  Bronze in Editorial/Photo Essay
• Photographer
  Michael Steffen
• Photo Date
  2020 & 2025

“See me, I am here” is a photographic essay exploring how Kavoy’s presence alters historically charged landscapes in Germany. Through quiet gestures and symbolic placement, the work challenges spatial memory and racial invisibility, offering new ways to inhabit and reclaim sites marked by violence. It’s a meditation on how being seen can reshape the meaning of places.

Michael Steffen is a Cologne-based photographer whose work spans international exhibitions and publications. Influenced by time spent in South Africa, Jamaica, Tanzania, and South Sudan, his practice reflects on political, social, and cultural realities. Through photography, he explores human rights, economic inequality, and racism, driven by empathy and a belief in a more just world.