Documentary Photography • Youth Culture • Scotland and Northern Ireland • 2004–ongoing
Toby Binder is a German documentary photographer based between Germany and Argentina. Born in Esslingen in 1977, he studied communication design at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. His long-term projects examine social, environmental and political conditions through everyday experience, frequently from the perspective of children and young people.
Binder began photographing in Scotland in 2004 as part of his degree project. Working in Glasgow and Edinburgh, he documented young people, street football and everyday life in working-class communities. These photographs developed into Youth of the UK, a wider study of young people in former industrial towns and cities.
Binder first photographed in Belfast in 2006. Following the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership, he returned and concentrated on young people living in Protestant–unionist and Catholic–nationalist communities. The resulting work was published as Wee Muckers – Youth of Belfast by Kehrer Verlag in 2019 and has continued as a long-term document of youth in the city.
British Culture Archive represents selected photographs from Binder’s British work for print editions and image licensing.
Binder’s long-term Belfast project Divided Youth of Belfast received first place in the Documentary Projects category of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition. In February 2026, The Divided Youth became the inaugural winner of the Visa d’Or Online, established by Visa pour l’Image with support from the Douglas Kirkland Estate.
Selected earlier recognition includes the 2019 Felix Schoeller Photo Award, second place in the 2018 Philip Jones Griffiths Award, and UNICEF Photo of the Year honourable mentions in 2017 and 2021. Binder’s first photobook, Wee Muckers – Youth of Belfast, was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2019. His second book, #053KIDS, documenting young people in Duisburg-Hochfeld, was published by Dietz Verlag in 2026.
His photographs have appeared in publications including Stern, Die Zeit, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Washington Post, National Geographic and Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
British Culture Archive represents selected photographs from Toby Binder’s Youth of the UK and Wee Muckers – Youth of Belfast projects for editorial, publishing, exhibition and commercial licensing.
For image research, reproduction rights and licensing enquiries, contact:
contact@britishculturearchive.co.uk
Photographs © Toby Binder / British Culture Archive. All rights reserved.