“So, what do you do the rest of the year?”
Image credit: Fransesco Martello
The short answer to that question is that making a festival is all about making connections. With artists, curators, collaborators, partners, venues, producers and sponsors.
Making new connections
Making a festival is like making a big unruly puzzle that has to fall into place – from conceptualising and planning the festival to making the initial contacts, finding funds and doing the final production, communication and execution of all the activities related to the festival. It takes time, collective effort and perseverance.
Supporting and establishing our community
As an organisation that is passionate about photography, we in addition to the festival also support our local Nordic photo scene with various initiatives year round. From special events or tours, editorial recommendations of new exhibitions, books and events on our platforms, to special opportunities for emerging talents and commercial collaborations.
Open calls, kick-off and exhibition pop-ups in the fall
So, over the fall we will be working at next year’s festival and supporting local photo related initiatives. We run our open calls to exhibit at next year’s festival, participate in Culture Night for the first time and invite existing and invite new partners for a partner kick-off meeting where we will present our ideas for next year’s festival!
Invitation to collaborate!
If you already have ideas for collaborations, partnerships or new initiatives, do not hesitate to reach out – send us an email via the link below and sketch up your idea or suggestion. Your input is very important for us and for the festival to thrive and grow organically in sync with our contemporary world.
Mark these dates!
Speaking of our activities! To keep you posted about our activities in the coming months we have also collected a list that relates to both the festival and our year round activities below. We hope you will mark the dates and we will follow up with more info soon!
Editors’ recommendations: Tip us now
Our first round of recommendations to what’s happening on the Danish and Nordic photo scene is coming up very soon. We hope to send the first newsletter out around 1 September, so do not hesitate to tip us if you have lens-based exhibitions, book launches or events in the making!
Open call 2024: Deadline for applying is 15 september
We already announced next year’s theme, ‘entanglement’, on the last day of the festival in June. And right now we are in the middle of our annual call for artists, who wish to engage with the theme and present a solo exhibition in our festival center.
Visit us at Kulturnatten: 13 October 6 to 12 pm
In October we plan to be part of the big Copenhagener event Kulturnatten (Culture Night) for the first time ever. You can meet the team and see works by Magnum photographer Nanna Heitmann and our FUTURES talents 2023 at our venue FRAME in Refshaleøen.
Festival exhibition partner kick off meeting: 1 november
In November we invite new and future exhibition partners interested in exhibiting with the festival next year to an afternoon kick off meeting. Here we will present our festival, thoughts on next year’s edition. Our hope is that we can also learn more about our partners, brainstorm together on new initiatives to lift the partnership and inspire to new partnerships!
FUTURES Talents Open Call 2024: 1 november to 1 december
In November we also open the call for emerging photography talents to become next years selected FUTURES Talents. Each year we get to choose 5 talents that are offered special mentorship, networking and exhibition opportunities within the European FUTURES Photography platform.
Open Call with Shirin Neshat
Image credit: Rodolfo Martinez
Do you want to have your photographic art reviewed by renowned artist Shirin Neshat? Our media partner, the award winning photography organization Der Greif, is right now inviting photographers worldwide to submit their works that respond to a line from the poem Common Love by Persian poet Ahmad Schamlou: “I am a common pain, scream me!”. The open call is guest edited by Shirin Neshat and the chosen photographers will be featured in Der Greif’s upcoming print issue #16. Deadline for submitting work is already 25 May!
Neshat, who often uses poetry as a source of inspiration, explains that the poem deeply resonates with her and speaks about our shared humanity. She adds, “We all grapple with grief and trauma, both on an individual and collective level. But with this common ground, we feel less alone. This is human nature: we see and feel that others experience similar struggles therefore we feel bonded and hopeful. That is why we create art and culture to reach beyond our differences.”
Der Greif is excited to receive submissions for issue #16, and this is a rare opportunity for artists to have their work seen by Shirin Neshat, one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time. Selected artists will have their work published in the upcoming issue, and get the chance to be part of related events Der Greif will organise for the magazine release during the international photography fair Paris Photo 2023, which takes place November 9th -12th.
About Der Greif
Der Greif is an award-winning contemporary photography organisation. Through crowdsourcing, Der Greif brings together diverse voices and provides a platform and visibility for a range of practitioners and their works. Since 2008, Der Greif has engaged with topics like changing authorship perceptions, image de- and re-contextualization, appropriation, and artistic approaches to photographic archives and remix culture.
Der Greif's publications demonstrate how pairings of images by different authors can generate new meanings. Der Greif explores the creation, distribution, and reception of images - in print, on screens, and in exhibitions. The organisation reflects on and questions the role of images: how we construct and perceive our environment and our respective responsibilities within it.
Since issue #11, Der Greif has been guest-edited by artists Jason Fulford, Broomberg & Chanarin, Penelope Umbrico and Sylvie Fleury, among others.
Der Greif has worked with institutions such as FOAM, Aperture Foundation, C/O Berlin, Fotomuseum Winterthur and published works from about 3.000 photographers, artists and authors in printed publications as well as online.
Hvad sker der på fotoscenen?
English below
Hvem har lige udgivet en fed fotobog? Hvilken udstilling er et must-see? Og var der ikke noget med en fantastisk film om fire kvindelige fotografer i Grand for nylig?
Vi i teamet bag CPF har ofte savnet et sted, hvor man kunne orientere sig om dansk og nordisk fotografi. Det er vi måske ikke de eneste, der har. Måske ville vores mange fotoengagerede følgere faktisk også blive glade for anbefalinger til den næste tankevækkende fotooplevelse?
Vi ved det ikke. For vi har hverken lavet en brugerundersøgelse eller fokusgrupper. Det er blot en mavefornemmelse. Men vi ved, at vi er godt orienteret i fotomiljøet og ofte også får skønne tips om fantastiske fotooplevelser. Desværre har vi ikke altid haft mulighed for at dele dem.
Et naturligt samlingspunkt
Så måske skulle vi gøre en indsats for at dele dem og selv være det samlingspunkt? I vores arbejde har vi helt naturligt snitflader til mange forskellige aktører på fotoscenen – fra kunstnere, gallerier og museer til dokumentarfotografer, fotobogforlag og mange internationale samarbejdspartnere.
Få nyheder fra fotoscenen i din indbakke
Derfor har vi nu besluttet at gå i luften og simpelthen prøve et format af, hvor vi deler vores personlige anbefalinger og aktuelt nyt fra primært den danske fotoscene i vores nyhedsbrev. Ambitionen er at sende noget ud ca. hver anden eller tredje uge.
Vi håber, I vil tage vel imod det – det er som I fornemmer stadig under udvikling! Vi tager derfor rigtig gerne imod tips og konstruktiv feedback på konceptet. Kontakt os på info@copenhagenphotofestival.com
Hvis du ikke allerede abonnerer på vores nyhedsbrev, kan du skrive dig op her
_________
What's happening on the Nordic photo scene?
Shout out to all our lovely followers in the Nordic countries! Get our best tips and recommendations to photo exhibitions, events, books and more: Our new photo recommendation initiative is now live via our newsletter!
We – in the team behind CPF – have often longed for a place to get the latest news about Danish and Nordic photography. We are probably not the only ones. Maybe a lot of our photo enthusiastic audience would actually also appreciate qualified recommendations for the next thought provoking photo exhibition, engaging photo talk or joyful photo book?
Get news about the photo scene via our newsletter
We actually do not know – we have not made a user survey or a focus group. It is just a gut feeling – our passion jolting! Therefore we have now decided to try a new format out, where we will share our recommendations and news from primarily the Danish photo scene in our newsletter.
Our ambition is to publish the recommendations in Danish to our Nordic audience every two or three weeks to test the format. Our hope is to follow up with recommendations in English too for our international newsletter followers.
Sign up here
We hope you will! And do not hesitate to contact us if you have any tips for exhilarating photo events in the Nordic region via press@copenhagenphotofestival.com