Ashkan Shabani’s The Quiet Rise named LensCulture Top 10 winner

Ashkan Shabani’s The Quiet Rise was named a Top 10 winner in LensCulture’s 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards and also selected as a finalist for the Photo Journalism Prize. The competition drew entries from more than 121 countries and was judged by a panel of 19 photography experts, with the Top 10 set for a group exhibition in London.

The series, photographed in 2024 and 2025, tracks the growing visibility and normalization of neo-Nazi and far-right extremist groups in Germany. Shabani built the work with more than just rallies and symbols in frame: the sequence also includes counter-demonstrations, activists, and local communities defending democratic values.

The project is personal as well as journalistic. As a queer refugee from Iran, Shabani experienced racism and hostility shortly after arriving in Germany, and that experience pushed him to look harder at why hatred takes hold and how quickly it spreads. In a Nov. 14, 2025 interview with Der Greif, Shabani said one of the earliest demonstrations he documented was sparked by a leaked AfD audio discussing the expulsion of immigrants, including people born in Germany.

Germany’s politically motivated crimes rose by more than 40% in 2024 to 84,172 cases, extreme-right crime climbed by nearly 50%, and violent political crimes reached 4,107 cases, the highest level since 2016. The recognition extends beyond LensCulture. Der Greif featured The Quiet Rise after the 2025 Hamburg Portfolio Review and included it in Issue 18, while World Press Photo listed Shabani among the 2025 Joop Swart Masterclass nominees.