The ‘After Nature. Ulrike Crespo Photography Prize’ was initiated by C/O Berlin and the Crespo Foundation as a format that annually supports two projects offering new perspectives on nature through photography and visual media. The works created in the context of this prize heighten our awareness of complex global interconnections and invite the audience to question seemingly certain beliefs: When did we learn to ignore the consequences of major operations to extract resources from the landscape? Where does our concept that nature and the people inhabiting nature are at our disposal come from?

The jury included Lewis Chaplin (co-founder, Loose Joints Publishing), Martin Guinard (curator, LUMA Arles), Hajra Haider Karrar (curator, SAVVY Contemporary), Iris Sikking (curator, Fotomuseum, Den Haag), Olga Smith (Newcastle University) as well as Christiane Riedel (Director, Crespo Foundation), Sophia Greiff (Co-Program Director, C/O Berlin Foundation) and Katharina Täschner (Junior Curator, C/O Berlin Foundation). The decision was unanimous and was based on the nominations of 15 international experts.

The film explores the labyrinthine memories of Cristóbal Gómez Abel (Bora/Muina Murui), who worked for Evaristo Porras Ardila’s drug cartel in the Colombian Amazon in the 1980s. With her camera, the artist follows Gómez Abel through the ruins of the drug lord’s mansion, a replica of oil magnate Blake Carrington’s residence from the American soap opera Dynasty. By combining her own 16-mm film footage collected over the course of seven years with found footage, Laura Huertas Millán juxtaposes a narrative of eccentricity, power, and money against themes of trauma, redemption, and the search for identity. As the mansion crumbles in the Amazon, the structures of narco-capitalism endure, perpetuating colonial violence against both people and nature.

The prohibition of the coca plant has been a central focus in Laura Huertas Millán’s work. While researching its initial criminalization during the Spanish colonization of South America, Huertas Millán discovered Inquisition documents from Peru and Colombia that mentioned several women involved in the plant’s clandestine distribution. Some of these trials centered on the trafficking of coca, while others connected the plant to witchcraft, divination, and subversive queer identities. Curanderxs is a speculative fiction set in both the past and the present, imagining the resurrection of some of these femmes* as they return to haunt us. Hinting at the archives that reflect the colonizers’ perspectives, Curanderxs plays with the visual codes of silent films while seeking to give voice to those whose stories have never been written.

*Femme is a (self-)designation of lesbian or queer people who present themselves as feminine.

The steel railway bridge, named after Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of British India, was built between 1910 and 1915. It is a testament to colonial engineering, the use of steel, and the mobility offered by rail transport. Within this context, Sarker Protick’s images capture not only the bridge itself, but also the immense weight of the hidden structures that underpin the global resource trade. Their strong contrasts and fragmented architectural forms further evoke the visual language of New Vision photography, particularly reminiscent of Germaine Krull’s 1928 portfolio Métal.

Since 2022, Sarker Protick has been exploring the railway in Eastern Bengal as part of his project Crossing. Once part of British India, this region became East Pakistan in 1947 and eventually Bangladesh in 1971. This troubled history is reflected in his mostly desolate photographs and becomes particularly evident in details such as a clock featuring the Eastern Bengal Railway logo from 1961 or heavy machinery in a railway workshop that was manufactured in Manchester, England.

At a depth of 613 meters, Chinakuri coal mine is the deepest underground mine in India. On the surface, there is little indication of the underground coal extraction. In this series, Sarker Protick photographs the vegetation, power lines, ventilation shafts, and remote access roads surrounding Chinakuri and other coal mines of the area. Although these landscapes present a completely different image from the dusty wastelands of open-pit mining, they are equally marked by the impact of resource extraction.

In addition to his photographs, Sarker Protick explores the temporalities of mining through film and sound. In long, contemplative shots, he captures the open-pit mines of Asansol and Dhanbad, where excavators and drills become the central figures in a barren landscape. These machines dig deep into the earth, unearthing coal formed 300 million years ago. Protick’s visuals and soundscapes emphasize the repetitive actions of a never-ending operation, sustained by the unbroken cycle of 8-hour shifts. The film concludes with scenes from Jharia, India’s largest coal reserve, where underground fires have burned for over a century. These fires are a stark reminder of the enduring effects of large-scale mining. Yet, when viewed against geological timescales, the industrial age seems like a fleeting moment.