The German Photographic Association (DGPh) is a non-material organization that primarily supports the cultural concerns of photography and related pictorial media. Its activities include conventional techniques of photography and their multiple fields of application in arts, science, education and journalism, economy and politics as well as non-conventional techniques and new pictorial media.

Ever since 1959, the Cultural Prize of the DGPh has been awarded annually. With this prize, the DGPh honours living persons for "significant achievements in the field of photography." Among others, honourees of the Cultural Prize of the DGPh were Bernd and Hilla Becher, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chargesheimer, F.C. Gundlach, David Hockney, Daido Moriyama, Irving Penn, Man Ray, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ed Ruscha, August Sander and Wim Wenders. In 2008, the Cultural Prize was awarded to the inventor of the digital camera, Steven Sasson.