FUTURES Nordic Talents of 2026
Get to know the FUTURES Nordic Talents of 2026
Copenhagen Photo Festival is excited to introduce this year’s FUTURES Nordic Talents. Four young artists with distinct and unique approaches to photography. Their work spans across fine art and documentary photography, representing a new generation within the Nordic region.
Every year through our open call the festival’s programme committee selects young artists, who reflect the diversity of photography in their own personal way. As part of the FUTURES Photography platform, these artists will gain access to professional development opportunities, networking, and mentorship within an international photography community. Their project will be exhibited as part of this year’s festival at our venue in Rafshaleøen.
This year’s Talents
For 2026, the CPF programme committee has selected four artists, two from Denmark, one from Finland, and one from Iceland, for their strong and individual works.
Photos: © Liv Latricia Habel
Liv Latricia Habel (DK) – Belonging
In 2017, Liv Latricia Habel met her family in Philadelphia, USA, for the first time. By combining archival family photographs from her African American heritage with still and moving images from her life in Denmark and Germany, she explores the gap between her sense of self and her cultural and biological roots.
Read more
Mari Mäntynen (FI) – Stranger
By participating in her own images with strangers on a first encounter with them, Mäntynen urges us to question the unspoken rules and preconceptions around meeting people, and the effects these have on our interactions with one another. The images are a collaboration between artist and subject, inviting conversations with her subjects and her viewers on how we can challenge social norms and alter our reality.
Read more
Photos: © Mari Mäntynen
Photos: © Loulou Buxbom
Loulou Buxbom (DK) – Too stupid to die on a Wednesday
An ongoing, intimate portrait of Buxbom’s mother and her three siblings in Denmark and Cuba, exploring their differences in adult life and the inherited characteristics and generational influences which unite them. Her investigation takes form in two honest, raw documentary films depicting family dynamics and personal insights into the daily struggles of her relatives, with a third installment in the works.
Read more
María Kristín Antonsdóttir (ISL) – Family Album
Through collaging and manipulating family photographs and home videos, Antonsdóttir explores themes of attachment and origins. Family Album is a deeply personal, process-driven project that looks at how images shape our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Through this process, she both holds on to and challenges these narratives, revealing how we actively construct and reshape our own realities. Read more
Photos: © María Kristín Antonsdóttir
Congratulations to this year’s FUTURES Nordic Talents!
We’re excited to present their work at Copenhagen Photo Festival 2026 and to follow their future paths.
Header photos: © María Kristín Antonsdóttir
Highlight 2026: Carolyn Drake
Highlight Announcement 2026: Carolyn Drake
It is with great excitement that Copenhagen Photo Festival announces acclaimed American artist and Magnum photographer Carolyn Drake as the exhibition highlight at the Royal Danish Theater in the centre of Copenhagen from 11 to 17 June 2026. It will be the first time that a Nordic audience can experience the award-winning artist with an extensive solo exhibition.
Older men lay nude on sofas posed like the sex workers photographed by EJ Bellocq, women in a rural Mississippi town disguise themselves mischievously behind flower arrangements and death masks, the artist herself is seen enacting absurd interpretations of a beauty and charm guide for women in the 1940’s. The photographic work of artist Carolyn Drake playfully brings forward important discussions around gender, culture, and identity, bringing new color to the grey zone between documentary and conceptual photography. Her work is ignited by wonder with tints of anger and empathy.
Playing with gender rules and identity standards
Carolyn Drake endeavors to understand the inner workings and ‘rules’ of gender and cultural identity, enriches us with new perspectives on these deeply embedded patterns, and leaves us speculating about their influence on culture and identity. The result is often surprising, intriguing and with stints of humorous self-reflection.
The work of Carolyn Drake perfectly intersect with this year’s theme ‘Forestillinger | Scenarios’. With images that twist and spin preconceived notions about gender in our society and culture on the head – from the historical concepts of femininity in the 1940s to confronting us with reframings of male nudity – she evokes a new sense of sensitivity to established cultural frameworks. We look forward to presenting Drake’s performative works with The Royal Danish Theatre’s foyer as the perfect playful backdrop. – CPF Managing Director Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen.
The exhibition at the Royal Danish Theatre in June will feature works from Drake’s most recent and prize winning oeuvre based on collaborative practices and self portraiture, specifically her projects Knit Club (2012-2020), Men Untitled (2020-2023) and Glorify Yourself (2020-2023).
Subverting power dynamics through collaboration and role reversals
In her early career, Drake often worked with communities and people on the margins of power, including Uyghurs in western China and young women sequestered in an ex-Soviet orphanage. Over time, her photographic projects have paid increasing attention to the power dynamics inherent in human relationships, including those formed through documentary practices. She draws attention to and tries to subvert these dynamics through collaboration, performance, role reversals, and creative play.
Award winning Magnum photographer
Carolyn Drake has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work. Since 2019 she has been part of the renowned photographic community, Magnum Photos. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, was awarded with a Fulbright Fellowship in connection with her work in Ukraine and winner of The Lange Taylor Prize. She had major solo exhibitions at the Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation in Paris, SFMOMA in San Francisco and at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, who also represents her. ‘Knit Club’ was Paris Photo Aperture Book of the Year finalist in 2020. She has a degree in media culture and history from Brown University.
Knit Club (2012-2020)
Knit Club’ is a collaborative project that imaginatively explores the lives of a group of women living in Mississippi who are united by manual work, motherhood, and friendship. The project portrays a lively yet not fully knowable community that manages to exist beyond the gaze or control of men.
Glorify Yourself (2020-)
With this project Drake looks at her own relationship to misogyny. By using a beauty and charm guide that proliferated widely in the US during the 1940s and 50s, she interferes with gender-codes by employing humor, conflating past and present, and distorting scale.
Men Untitled (2020-2023)
In this project Drake places men in front of the camera, vulnerable and naked. She faces the strangely ‘dangerous’ act of looking at men, observing how the male body is not a subject that dominant western culture has encouraged its audiences to scrutinize the way it does women’s bodies.
Header photo: Knit Club, 2012-2020 © Carolyn Drake
Kontakt I Contact
General · talkto @ copenhagenphotofestival.com
Press · press @ copenhagenphotofestival.com
Martin Parr (1952 – 2025)
Martin Parr (1952 – 2025)
It is with the greatest sadness we received the message of Martin Parr’s passing this weekend. His influence on the photo community worldwide is unparalleled and we feel so privileged to have worked with him this past year.
Thank you, Martin, for sharing your eye, passion, incredible kindness and work with us this past June in Copenhagen. We feel incredibly honored to have collaborated with you in connection with your large exhibition ‘Tell Tale Mirrors’ at The Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen.
Throughout our collaboration before and during the festival you came across as incredibly generous, curious and open minded with an incomparable work ethic always carrying a camera at hand ready to shoot. You embraced our whims and ideas for presenting your work in the untraditional exhibition setting at the theatre and agreed to give a guided tour in a canal boat in the harbour, an exclusive masterclass and much more.
You shared your passion and energy with both students, passionate photographers and the broader audiences at our festival, who all felt your presence and energy for creating change and community through photography.
Thank you!
© Yolanta C. Siu (header), Hanne Ellemann, Christine Almlund, Kenneth Møller, Søren Pagter and Jens Skou Olsen
Kontakt I Contact · talkto @ copenhagenphotofestival.com
Announcement: Solo Artists and Selectees 2026
Copenhagen Photo Festival is thrilled to announce the 10 artists carefully selected from 1019 applications to be presented with a solo or digital exhibition at Copenhagen Photo Festival 2026. In the evaluation process, the quality of the applications has this time been exceptionally high, making the jury process more challenging than usual, director of the festival, Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen says.
In the selection process finding next year's headliners the programme committee has keenly focused on consistency in the connection between concept and content of the individual projects, diversity in approach as well as coherence with the theme, ‘Forestillinger | Scenarios’ and how the projects engage and interact with the curatorial context.
"The final 10 selected projects stand out for their eyeopening, thought provoking and innovative approaches, fresh perspectives, and consistent visual storytelling – enriching the next year’s festival and the theme with new and diverse perspectives," Maja Dyrehauge points out.
Forestillinger / Scenarios doming to life
The 2026 lineup of headliners selected through the open call this summer all engage with the theme Forestillinger / Scenarios in profound ways. They invite you to reflect on imagination, narrative, and the ways we stage reality. They explore how scenarios — imagined, real, or somewhere in between — shape our perception, emotions, and understanding of the world (read more about the theme).
The selected projects explore a mix of themes — from personal and collective memory, identity, to society, technology, and imagined futures. While many artists work with classic photographic approaches, others experiment with AI, archival imagery, staged scenes and speculative storytelling.
Together, these projects unfold across time, space, and experience and bring new Scenarios to life. They ask us to engage with our complex world, question predefined assumptions, and imagine new futures and pasts.
We want to congratulate the 10 selected photographers for being featured at
Copenhagen Photo Festival 2026
CPF Solo Artists 2026
Helge Skodvin · Maja Daniels · Rhiannon Adam · Roger Ballen
The four solo artists will be headlining the festival and presented with a solo exhibition
at The Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen
CPF Selectees 2026
Adam Rouhana · Ana María Arévelo Gosen · Antone Dolezal & Lara Shipley · Cassandra Klos ·
Mohamed Hassan · Sasha Velichko
The six CPF Selectees will be presented with a digital exhibition
at The Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen
All 10 exhibitions will be presented at
the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen
from
11–17 June 2026
Read the programme committee’s full selection statements here.
____________________
For more information or images for printed or digital media, please contact:
Christine Almlund | Head of communications | press @ copenhagenphotofestival.com
Photos credit: courtesy of the artists; for Roger Ballen - Marguerite Rossouw
Bubbles on the Balcony – a special festival experience at The Royal Danish Theatre
Kick off your weekend with a unique experience when Copenhagen Photo Festival invites you to Bubbles on the Balcony at The Royal Danish Theatre.
On Friday and Saturday during the festival’s opening weekend (13 and 14 June), the theatre’s balcony foyer opens exclusively for a special hour of champagne, photography, and a rarely seen view over Kongens Nytorv. At 6 PM, the bubbles are served on the balcony, where you and your friends or family can enjoy a bottle of crémant – right in the heart of the festival and surrounded by works by Martin Parr, which can be experienced both on the balcony and seen from the balcony on the square below.
Bubbles on the Balcony is the perfect way to round off a day full of photographic inspiration – or a stop before heading out into the exhibitions (they are open until 8 pm at the royal theatre) or an evening in the city. On Friday, you can explore the Photo Print Market, and on Saturday the Photobook Market – both held in the theatre’s main foyer and entrance hall. Afterwards, you and your friends can head upstairs, enjoy a bottle, and let the day’s impressions settle with a glass in hand.
The ticket includes:
– One bottle of crémant (for four people)
– Four admission tickets to the festival’s main exhibitions – at a reduced price
– Access to the balcony foyer and the theatre’s iconic balcony, where bubbles are served at 6 PM
Price: DKK 820 for the full package (4 people)
Tickets must be booked no later than 10 June – limited availability.
Book your Bubbles on the Balcony ticket here
//
Bobler på Balkonen – en eksklusiv festivaloplevelse med udsigt
Kickstart weekenden med en unik oplevelse, når Copenhagen Photo Festival inviterer til Bobler på Balkonen på Det Kongelige Teater.
Fredag og lørdag i festivalens åbningsweekend (13. og 14. juni) åbnes teatrets balkonfoyer eksklusivt for en særlig time med champagne, fotografi og et sjældent vue ud over Kongens Nytorv. Kl. 18 serveres boblerne på balkonen, hvor du og dine nærmeste kan nyde en flaske cremant i ro og mag – midt i festivalens hjerte, omgivet af Martin Parrs fotografier, som både kan opleves på balkonen og ses på pladsen nedenfor.
Bobler på Balkonen er også oplagt som afrunding på en dag fyldt med fotooplevelser – eller som en pause før aftenen fortsætter. Fredag kan du gå på opdagelse på festivalens fotomarked, og lørdag byder vi på et spændende fotobogmarked – begge dele i Det Kongelige Teaters forsal og foyer ved hovedindgangen. Herefter kan du og dine venner trække op på balkonen og lade indtrykkene bundfælde sig med et glas i hånden.
Billetten inkluderer:
– Én flaske cremant (til fire personer)
– Fire billetter til festivalens hovedudstillinger – til reduceret pris
– Adgang til balkonfoyeren og teatrets ikoniske balkon, hvor boblerne serveres kl. 18
Pris: 820 kr. for hele pakken (4 personer)
Billetter skal bookes senest den 10. juni – der er begrænset antal.