On March 2nd, during the PhotoReplica Handbag Store Festival, the recipient of the MPB Grant was officially revealed.
Selected by MPB and PhotoVogue, Ukrainian artist Kristina Podobed received a €5,000 voucher to spend on used photo and video gear, a tangible investment in her creative future. The announcement will be a key moment of the festival, and attendees are invited to join the celebration and discover this year’s grantee in person.
Podobed’s work, This Too Shall Pass, was chosen by MPB for its delicate narration of femininity. In this project, delicacy is intertwined with quiet strength, where becoming and transformation are felt through the body and accepted as inevitable and fundamental to the creation of identity. Drawing from Ukrainian folklore, Kristina Podobed captures the volatility of life and the resolute, serene acceptance of death as the force that reveals the preciousness of life. Femininity becomes an act of surrender to cosmic unpredictability, and the end of something, through Podobed’s lens, becomes the beginning of something that goes beyond expectations and imagination.
MPB is the world’s largest online platform for used photo and video equipment, making it simple, fair and accessible to buy, sell and trade camera gear. Founded in 2011 by Matt Barker, MPB was built on the belief that great kit shouldn’t cost the earth. Today, the company serves photographers and videographers across the UK, US and Europe, recirculating more than 615,000 cameras, lenses and accessories every year to keep equipment in use for longer and creativity flowing. Each piece of gear is individually inspected by specialists and sold with a warranty, ensuring that choosing used never means compromising on quality. By extending the life cycle of creative equipment, MPB actively reduces waste and the carbon footprint of the photo and video industry — proving that used doesn’t mean used up.
MPB is proud to support the festival’s Women by Women initiative, which champions the female gaze and elevates a globally diverse community of image-makers. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to making visual storytelling more inclusive, representative and accessible, while supporting the next generation of photographers and videographers shaping the industry.
