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.
‘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.
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.
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
Celebrating photo books!
Image credit: Leporello by Louise Bøgelund Saugmann at Blankt Papir Press
The photo book has a special place in most photographers' hearts – as well as in the hearts of many photography lovers. This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival, together with selected partners, has therefore chosen to give special space and attention to the photo book. We look forward to enjoying lots of inspirational photo books and talks all over the city.
The festival has this year teamed up with the Kunstforeningen GL STRAND to present a special festival photo book market in the center of Copenhagen with around +20 publishers and actors as well as a day-long talk and screening program on the 4 June.
Indulging in photographic narratives at GL STRAND
We look forward to welcoming both photo book publishers, artists, festival guests and art gallery visitors to a day indulged in photo books, talks and screenings in the art gallery’s beautiful hall decorated by Erik A. Frandsen.
The market is the perfect place to visit if you want to keep in touch with contemporary Nordic photo books. And if the weather is nice the gallery will open the courtyard and outdoor bar to the visitors.
You can find the full list of exhibitors and the talk & screening programme (which will be announced primo May) in our focus section. If you have a festival ticket you get free entrance to the photo book market and half price on the entrance to see the exhibitions at The art association GL STRAND 4 June.
Talks at Thiemer’s
Likewise, every day during the festival period, a local cultural hotspot for books and coffee on Frederiksberg, Thiemers Magasin, invites festival guests to visit their photo book exhibition and a daily happy hour from 5 to 6 pm called ‘Sign & Talk & Drink’. Here photographers talk about their recent work and practice in relation to the photo book. The full talk programme will be announced primo May.
Celebrating the best of photo books at Refshaleøen
In addition, the festival is very happy to host Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation's celebration of the past year's prize-winning photo books in the festival center on Refshaleøen this year.
2022 marked the 10th anniversary of the Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Awards – a celebration of the photobook’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography. The award recognizes excellence in 3 major categories of photobook publishing: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year.
The exhibition of the 35 books shortlisted for the 2022 PhotoBook Awards was exhibited at the Grand Palais Ephémère during Paris Photo in November and has recently been on view in Printed Matter in New York City – thereafter the exhibition will tour internationally and reach Copenhagen in June where it will be presented at the festival center on Refshaleøen.
Find our photo book focus here
Explore the exhibition programme 2023!
Image credit: Joakim Eskildsen / Fotografisk Center
Copenhagen Photo Festival can today announce the final exhibition program with the overarching theme of ‘rewilding’. An ambitious theme that is not only brought into play in the festival center on Refshaleøen, but also unfolds across the festival partner venues, which include major institutions such as Arken, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Royal Library to the Maritime Museum, The Museum of National History and others.
When the Copenhagen Photo Festival starts in June, the exhibitions are not limited to Beddingen on Refshaleøen. With a wide range of exhibition partners, the Nordic region's largest photo festival also branches out to numerous of the capital's recognized art venues throughout the region with exhibitions in cities from Helsingør to Ishøj as well as Kerteminde on Fyn and Falsterbo in Sweden.
Copenhagen Photo Festival rewilds Copenhagen
During the festival, the festival theme of ‘rewilding’ is unfolded across our festival exhibition partners. At Nordatlantens Brygge, you can experience two exhibitions with photography and film that embrace the Greenlandic and Icelandic nature. The two exhibitions examine modern man's relationship with nature and remind us of the climate changes we are experiencing.
Not too far from there, at Harbo Bar in Nørrebro, Lene Harbo has curated an exhibition based on the photo festival's main theme of rewilding, based on the artist Yana Wernicke's exhibition Companions. In the photographs, the artist examines the human relationship with animals and shares rare and special moments of empathy and care with animals.
During the festival period, several of the festival's solo artists also rewild the urban space in Copenhagen. At Højbro Plads, the Finnish photographer Hilla Kurki exhibits her flower portraits, while English Craig Ames's AI-created algae images can be experienced at Thorvaldsens Plads throughout June. In Vesterbro, you can go exploring for wild, exotic birds when the Swedish artist Erik Berglin rewilds the walls of the district with his project The Bird Project.
This year's photo festival blooms from Helsingør and Landskrona to Ishøj and Kerteminde
The festival also invites guests from outside the capital to explore photography in collaboration with a number of local festival partners. In May, Landskrona Foto & Museum opens the group exhibition Des Oiseaux, which shows the fascination and fascination with birds of 13 international photographers, including the photographer Roger Ballen. In addition, the festival is also collaborating with Landskrona Foto on a special screening of one of this year's main names from the festival center, namely Craig Ames, who can therefore also be experienced outdoors in Sweden over the summer.
In Johannes Larsen Museum in Kerteminde you can experience the special exhibition Reflections by Janne Klerk. The photographs in the exhibition were taken in the water surface of the same small lake and raise a wide range of questions; about the refraction of light in water, about the ecosystem, the universe, the sun, the atmosphere and about reflections between people.
At the Maritime Museum in Helsingør, 26 monumental portraits of Haenyeo women, taken by Hyung S. Kim, are presented. Haenyeo women are deep-sea divers who live in South Korea and who for generations have lived by fishing in a very special way, and therefore live in close connection with the rhythm of the sea.
South of Copenhagen, at Arken in Ishøj, Refik Anadol's exhibition Winds of Denmark can be explored. Here he presents three digital installation works, all of which focus sharply on the mass media's visual representation of nature, and which thereby influence our perception of what nature is and how it looks.
Photo books get special attention
The photo book has a special place in most photographers' hearts. This year, Copenhagen Photo Festival, together with selected partners, has therefore chosen to give special space to the photo book as a format and has teamed up with Kunstforeningen GL STRAND to present a special festival photo book market with around 20 publishers and actors as well as a day-long talk and screening program on the 4 June. Likewise, every day during the festival period, Thiemers Magasin invites you inside for Sign & Talk & Drink, where current photographers talk about their work. In addition, Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation's celebration of the past year's prize-winning photo books will guest the festival center on Refshaleøen this year.
NB The full program of activities for the festival is continuously updated on the website and is expected to be completely ready in the beginning of May.
The festival's photo book programme can be found here
List of exhibition partners
Atla · Banja Rathnov Kunsthandel og Galleri · Barbara Nolsøe · Bien Contemporary · Danish Architecture Center · Dark Gallery · Det Grønlandske Hus · Det nationale fotomuseum · Det Nationalhistoriske Museum · DMJX · FABRIKKEN for Kunst og Design · Falsterbo Fotomuseum · Fotografisk Center · Galleri Format · Galleri Møller Witt · Galleri Rocks · Kunstforeningen GL STRAND · Harbo Bar · Johannes Larsen Museet · KBH Film & Fotoskole · Kulturhuset Støberiet // Blågårdens bibliotek · Landskrona Foto · Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst · Martin Asbæk Gallery · Arden Asbæk Gallery · Nikolaj Kunsthal · Nordatlantens Brygge · Oblong · Oslo Met · Paul Pape x Inter.pblc · Prospekt Space · PRUST · Ryesgade – Kunst 86 · Simian · Stig Stasig Archive · M/S Museet for Søfart · Thiemers Magasin · Tingbjerg Kulturhus · Vandrehallen i Hillerød · VERA skole for kunst · Wei Weng x Copenwater x Big Bio
List of photo book publishers and people at the photo book market at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND 4 June
At Last Books · Blankt Papir Press · BOOK LAB · Books & Music · Breadfield Press · Disko Bay · Famn Publishing · Forlaget Aftryk · FORLAGET tidløs · Fragment · Jacob Aue Sobol · KATALOG – Journal of Photography & Video · Martin Asbæk Gallery · NW Gallery · Roulette Russe · Space Poetry · Strandberg Publishing · Tira Books
Help us get better!
Photo: Skabertrang by Aftenskolen Fountain House at Den Sociale Blomsterhave, photo by Hans Vedsted.
We are very curious to hear how your experience of this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival was? What did you like? What would you like more of and how can the festival best meet your expectations in the future?
As a festival that wants to evolve creatively and organically, meet our visitors in the best possible way and present new innovative exhibitions, emerging and established artists as well as present you with great events in a nice setting, we are always open to suggestions, constructive ideas and new partnerships.
It only takes 5 minutes!
We therefore hope you will use 5 minutes of your time to fill out a short survey about your festival experience. You can also fill it out, if you did not attend. Either way you may have ideas, comments or suggestions for new paths or partnerships for the festival that could be interesting for us.
If you participate you get the chance to win two tickets for next year's festival. We will find the winner 15 August.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Click here for the English survey
Klik her for at få spørgsmålene på dansk
A Big Heartfelt Thank You
Video: Sonia Tomegros Regalado / @noia_de_mon
We want to thank everyone who made Copenhagen Photo Festival 2022 so very special. We are so happy for every single visit to the festival venue and at all the festival partner venues across Copenhagen and Scania – we are grateful you were part of this year's festival!
And of course we also want to thank everyone who made this year’s Festival Center so very special and worth the visit: Our three international solo artists, Hien Hoang, Alexandra Rose Howland and Krista Svalbonas, Tofu Collective’s exhibition at the Space Frame with Chinese artists Luo Yang and Lin Zhipeng, DMJX’s presentation of three photo journalistic talents Jesper Houborg, Louise Herrche and Mads Frost, Odesa Photo Days’ two exhibitions Granny by Olena Morozova, the group exhibition The Thin Line and the Norwegian curator Charlotte Wiig’s group exhibition of a host of female photographers called A Female Gaze and not least the five selected FUTURES Nordic Talents, Iben Gad, Tine Bek, Oscar Scott Carl, Inuuteq Storch and Luna Scales.
Thank you to our generous supporters and helping hands
We are also grateful for all the generous supporters financing the exhibitions: Københavns Kommune, Det Obelske Familie Fond, Creative Europe Programme, Nordic Counsel of Ministers and Værksted for fotografi as well as all the helpful and supportive volunteers and staff that make this festival physically appear at all.
Last but not least we want to thank everyone arranging events and exhibitions around Copenhagen and Scania from the many festival partner venues, the gallery walks and artist talks to DJ sets, sound and image equipment people and all the people engaging with the amazing world of contemporary photography – we genuinely appreciate your flexibility, engagement, good work and happy spirits – we love to make this festival with you!
Thank You! Click here to see all partners and supporters!
Festival Programme for the Weekend
Still not quite sure what to do this weekend? Don't know what to see? We've got the perfect remedy. The last weekend of the festival is going to be buzzling with activities and events at our Festival Center, so do not hesitate to stop by!
To help you navigate here's the programme for this weekend at the Festival Center – to learn more click on the event!
Friday 10 June
11-20 pm Enjoy the 9 exhibitions at the Festival Center and exhibition park
4-6 pm NFT-Friday with eyeeye.me
Saturday 11 June
11-20 pm Enjoy the 9 exhibitions at the Festival Center and exhibition park:
11 am-4 pm Photo Book Market with more than 15 publishers
Sunday 12 June
11-20 pm Enjoy the 9 exhibitions at the Festival Center and exhibition park.
11.30 am - 2.30 pm Cyanotype Workshop by Fotografi på Godsbanen.
1- 4 pm Polaroid Transfer Workshop by Sille Juline Høgly Petersen
4 pm: Apéro light – enjoy the exhibitions, music and a drink at the ROOF TOP BAR
AND as a special closing event:
We hope to see you this last festival weekend!
Photo Book Market on Refshaleøen
Do you love getting your hands on a beautiful photo book? Immersing yourself in a unique photographic narrative? Or when the experience of photography, book craftsmanship and aesthetics just comes together in a unique way? Then join us at Copenhagen Photo Festival's photo book market on 11 June between 11 am-4 pm at the Festival Center on Refshaleøen.
Within photography, there is a long tradition of not only showing photographs mounted in glass and frame, but also in book form. Here the photographic narratives get a special tactile narrativity - as if the narratives live right there in your hands.
Calling all photo enthusiasts and book aficionados
At this year's festival, we are therefore particularly pleased that we can open the doors to the photo book market on 11 June from 11-16. Here, photo enthusiasts, book aficionados and everyone with a curious heart can experience and buy photo books from some of the most passionate photo book publishers on the Danish photo scene. There will be ample opportunity to meet and talk with the publishers and shops that both sell and publish photo books, and who have a unique knowledge of the photo book tradition and this particular form of expression.
Independent publishers
The participating photo books publishers have a commitment to photo books in common. The publications represent independent photographic works. The coherence of the image series helps to tell the stories and narratives that give the observer the opportunity to immerse themselves in the photograph.
The participating photo actors and publishers are:
Odder Books and Music (Vintage Photo Books)
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Fotobogmarked på Refshaleøen
Bliver du også lidt gladere, når du får fingre i en smuk fotobog? Når du kan fordybe dig i en unik fotografisk fortælling? Eller når oplevelsen af fotografi, boghåndværk og æstetik går op i en højere enhed? Så kom forbi Copenhagen Photo Festivals fotobogmarked den 11. juni mellem 11-16 på Refshaleøen.
Indenfor fotografi er der en lang tradition for ikke blot at vise fotografiet i glas og ramme, men også i bogform. Her får de fotografiske fortællinger en særlig nærhed og taktil narrativitet – fortællingerne lever lige der mellem hænderne på én.
For fotoentusiaster og bogelskere
På årets festival er vi derfor særligt glade for, at vi kan åbne dørene til fotobogsmarked den 11. juni fra 11-16. Her har både fotoentusiaster, bogelskere og alle andre interesserede opleve og købe fotobøger fra nogle af de mest passionerede fotobogforlag på den danske fotoscene. Der vil være rig lejlighed til at møde og tale med de forlag og butikker, der
Selvstændige fotobogsaktører
både forhandler og udgiver fotobøger, og som har en unik viden omkring fotobogstraditionen og udtryksformen. De medvirkende forlag og fotoaktører har et fælles engagement for fotobøger. Udgivelserne repræsenterer selvstændige fotografiske værker. Sammenhængen i billedserierne er med til at fortælle de historier og narrativer, der giver iagttageren mulighed for at fordybe sig i fotografiet.
De medvirkende fotoaktører og -forlag er:
Odder Books and Music (Vintage Photo Books)