Strong event program across the city

Image credit: Joakim Eskildsen from his series 'Home works' exhibition at Fotografisk Center opening with a talk on 2. june.

Copenhagen Photo Festival presents the final festival program of the year, which, in addition to all the photo exhibitions, offers everything from inspiring talks and investigative panel debates to thought-provoking films and workshops that focus on rewilding. The festival opens with a curated grand opening event on 1 June, while three time World Press Photo winner Mads Nissen rounds off the festival with the last talk of the year on 11 June and unveiling of next year’s theme.

Copenhagen Photo Festival opens on Thursday 1 June with a large grand opening event that marks the beginning of 11 days filled with contemporary photography, powerful films and insightful talks. The festival's grand opening is celebrated with DJ, happy hour and a rewilded photo performance as well as guided tours by the exhibiting artists in the exhibition park's 13 exhibitions on Refshaleøen as a taste of what the festival has to offer.

Explore all exhibitions and events at the festival center

Topical talks and panels examine art, photography and sustainable practices

In addition to presenting its visitors with contemporary photography, Copenhagen Photo Festival also wants to create a space for dialogue and inspiration through an extensive program of talks and panels.

Under this year's main theme of ‘rewilding’, the festival opens the doors to a series of panel debates in collaboration with FUTURES Photography, where sustainable art practices, art in public space and the importance of artificial intelligence for future photography and art are discussed.

The panels include photographers exhibiting at the festival flanked by a number of guest speakers and experts such as Carina Hammer, responsible for sustainability at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Lisa Giomar Hydén Exhibitions Director at Fotografiska Stockholm and Majken Overgaard from Korridor, but also Raphaël Biollay, curator at Images Vevey and Jacob Theilgaard, director of Bæredygtigt Kulturliv.nu.

Reserve your seat at the panels

From Fryd Frydendahl to Torben Eskerod

In addition to the professional program on Refshaleøen, this year you can experience interesting conversations about photography all over the city, including at the photo book market at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Theilgaard Academy, Thiemers Magasin and at the Fotografisk Center and Det Kgl. Library and a number of other exhibition venues of the festival. On the program are, among others, Fryd Frydendahl, Joakim Eskildsen, Per Bak Jensen, Ole Christiansen, Lærke Posselt and Torben Eskerod.

Explore all talks

‘Rewild’ your photographic skills

During the Copenhagen Photo Festival, there will be a series of workshops that will take you back to the early techniques of photography. Here you can try your hand at cyanotype, wet plate photography, polaroid transfer or sew your own notebook with the elegant Japanese bookbinding technique.

Explore all workshops

Photography in the Cinemateque

This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival also offers an extensive film program with subsequent talks both on Refshaleøen and in a special photo film program at the Cinematheque that shows e.g. acclaimed films by Sally Mann, Jacob Riis, Nan Goldin,Helmut Newton and the pioneeren and mad amn Eadweard Muybridge.

Explore all film screenings

Phie Ambo in dialogue about ‘rewilding’

At the festival center you can experience Phie Ambo's latest film "Organised Wildness", which focuses sharply on the dilemmas and conflicting interests that arise in a community in Thy in North Jutland, when the community is introduced to the rewilding of a local forest area. The film will be with English subtitles and after the screening Phie Ambo will enter a conversation on how we can rewild Denmark and have more wild nature. The film screening is made possible in collaboration with Imagine5 and Bio Bio.

Book your seat for Organiseret vildskab

Three-time World Press Photo winner puts the finishing touches on this year's festival

One of the world's most recognized photographers, Mads Nissen, who has won the main prize in World Press Photo three times, rounds off the Copenhagen Photo Festival with an artist talk about his latest project SANGRE BLANCA.

SANGRE BLANCA was made in a unique collaboration with the Colombian artist Juan Arreaza, and examines the journey of cocaine from a laboratory in Colombia to a nightclub in Kødbyen in Copenhagen. The project unfolds through photographs, oil paintings and installations and gives a unique insight into the historically high cocaine trade and its human consequences.

Open call 2024 kickoff

With this presentation, Mads Nissen connects to the Copenhagen Photo Festival 2024, where he will be headliner with his exhibition of SANGRE BLANCA. In connection with the talk, the veil will also be lifted for next year's main theme which kicks off the open call for the 2024 edition of Copenhagen Photo Festival.

Read more about the closing event

Explore the full festival programme

by Presse CPF

Phie Ambo’s ‘Organiseret Vildskab’ at the festival center

Image credit: Still from Phie Ambo's film 'Organiseret Vildskab' 2022. Drone photo by Anders Morgenthaler.

How do you make something wild that has been tamed for centuries? On 8 June we invite you to join us at the festival center for a screening and panel discussion of Phie Ambo’s latest film ‘Organiseret Vildskab’ about the rewilding of Hammer Bakke. The event is made possible by Imagine5 and Bio Bio.

Did you know that in Denmark we have less than two percent of wild nature left in Denmark? This makes us the second most cultivated country in the world. Rewilding nature is becoming increasingly important in the face of biodiversity loss and climate change

Denmark is, after Bangladesh, the most cultivated country in the world. This can be seen in our biodiversity, which has plummeted since the 1980s. We actually have less than two percent of wild nature left in Denmark, and something must now be done about that.

The dilemmas of ‘rewilding’

The Danish Nature Foundation has acquired a large area in Hammer Bakker with production forest, which is to be converted into wild nature with large grasses, butterflies and, with a little luck; a golden eagle or two. It is Denmark's largest forest project and the rewilding of Hammer Bakker in a way forms a kind of vanguard for the 15 nature national parks that the government has decided must be created in the future.

How can we go back?

Phie Ambo’s Organiseret Vildskab is about the process in which we all – both humans and animals – must participate in order to save the pieces of Danish nature. Because how do you make something wild that has been tamed for so long?

Organiseret Vildskab is about how we humans can be included in the great narrative that is of nature.

Film screening and panel discussion 8 june

Join us for the screening of Organiseret Vildskab followed by a panel discussion and conversation with the director, Phie Ambo around how we can rewild Denmark, what will the transformation realistically look like and how can individual citizens do their part to ensure we get there. The panel will be led by Alexander Holm (podcast host and Den dyriske Time) and include the perspectives Phie Ambo (director), Rasmus Willig (Andelsgaarde) and a student film maker.

16:30 - Welcome & Screening of "Organiseret Vildskab"
17:30 - Panel + Q&A
18:30 - Delve into guided reflection & get to know the panelists and one another
19:00 Closing of Event

This event is created as a collaboration between CPF, Imagine5 who is an impact media foundation co-creating for a sustainable future and Bio-Bio who disseminates the green transition through documentaries, talks and theater.

Limited seating – book your seat here!

NB! Please note that the event is free if you have a festival ticket, but you need to reserve your seat via Imagine5's Billetto-link – if you have already bought a festival ticket, you will get it refunded via Imagine5 when showing your ticket at the screening.

by Presse CPF

Extensive photo film programme at Cinemateket

Image credit: Helmut Newton - The Bad And The Beautiful

As part of this year's Copenhagen Photo Festival we are happy to present an extensive film programme at Cinemateket in the center of Copenhagen. The film house is celebrating the art of photography by showing a number of unique films by and about prominent photographers – from Muybridge and Newton to Nan Goldin, Sally Man, Jette Bang and Steen Møller Christensen.

Several screenings are followed by a talk about the film and photographer. We look forward to seeing you at Cinemateket!