An Open Call for Fotofestiwal Open Program gives you an opportunity to present your works to the audience of the International Festival of Photography held in June 2021 in Łódź (Poland). We are looking for artists with exceptional personalities and projects which present bold visions. The call for entries is open – with no thematic or age limits. We invite specialists from the world's most important media and photographic institutions to join the jury. From among the submitted projects, the jury will select six which, in cooperation with the curators of Fotofestiwal, will be presented in the form of an exhibition.

What selected authors receive

• Exhibition during FOTOFESTIWAL in Łódź (over 20.000 viewers) for 6 artists,
• Artistic fee 400 euro,
• Accomodation for main opening weekend of the festival (4 nights),
• Reimbursement of travel costs up to 200 euro,
• Exhibition production budget 450 euro.

About Fotofestiwal

Fotofestiwal was established in 2001 as one of the first photography events in Poland. Since then it has grown into one of the most relevant photographic festivals in Europe but its core mission has not changed: presenting photography in its various ways (via exhibitions, films, slideshows, workshops etc.) but also talking about important social issues and introducing the unobvious beauty and unique history of our city to the audience. For such reason we organize thematic exhibitions in various post-industrial spaces, which Łódź is well known for, we put stress on networking parties – (we are quite famous for those), but also every year we try to develop new ways of talking about photography: via events such as Photo-Match: Completely Different Portfolio Review, during which we focus on having equal status granted to the curators as well as artists, with formula of presentation that numerous festivals are applying worldwide now with a success. Since 2016 we work as a collective, with no board of directors, developing a new way of cultural institution management.

Edition 2022 will take place in Łódź in June.

FRANEK AMMER

Curator, International Festival of Photography - Fotofestiwal in Lodz, (PL)

Franek Ammer (born 1988 in Lodz, Poland). Graduate in photography at the Lodz Film School. Artist, curator and organizer. He co-founded TIFF International Photography Festival in Wroclaw with which he cooperates to this day. He devoted a large part of his work to bringing up aspects related to the photobooks and popularizing them in Poland. This interest resulted in several exhibitions, lectures and cooperation with prominent figures from the world of photography and the publishing scene of photobooks. In the Fotofestiwal collective he is responsible for the festival program, coordination of exhibitions, events and publications. He is also a co-founder of Przestrzeń Robocza (Working Space) - place dedicated to experimental work in visual and multimedia arts.

NINA KASSIANOU

She holds a PhD in History and Theory of Photography from Panteion University of Athens. She has gained a scholarship from Princeton University in the USA. to research photographic archives relating to the Greek Civil War and the Greek Resistance against Nazi. She has worked for a decade as a photo book critic for the prestigious newspaper "To Vima" (Sunday edition).She has participated as a portfolio reviewer in many important festivals in Europe.

Nina Kassianou has curated more than 80 exhibitions of famous artists in Greece and abroad and edited a significant number of photo book publications. She has collaborated with the Photographic Center of Skopelos, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (for more than 10 years) and with the Athens Photo Festival. She was the artistic director of the M55projects gallery in Athens, a space aiming in inviting photographers and curators from all over Europe to exchange works and ideas with Greek Artists. She has collaborated with various galleries based in Athens. She has authored numerous academic essays, and articles on the Greek and European Photography History. She has written the Greek History of Photography from 1900-1969 in the publication of "The History of European Photography 1900-2000." During the last two years she is photography director at the DL Gallery in Piraeus, having curated international group exhibitions.

She is the founder of Periplus, an artist in residency program held in the island of Ithaca.

EYAL LANDESMAN

Eyal Landesman is an artist, founder and the director of PHOTO IS:RAEL. His works have been published in many magazines and have been exhibited around the world. His works include motion art "Her Morning Elegance" which was nominated for the 2010 Grammy award, in the video clip category. It was screened at Cannes Lion Festival, L.A. Film Festival, contemporary film festival at the Centre Pompidou and SXSW.  In 2006 Harvard University purchased the archive of his works. In 2009 he founded The Israeli Photography Festival, A 14 day's unique and independent international festival. In 2012 he founded  PHOTO IS:RAEL, a non-profit public benefit company that promoting social outreach and a dialogue between art and various communities across Israel. Since its formation, the company has offered platforms for exhibition and research and has spotlighted artistic and social topics through the language of photography.

ANNA KARPENKO

Anna Karpenko - curator, researcher from Minsk (Belarus). Graduated from the Philosophy Department of Belarusian State University. Made her MA at European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania) in curatorial theory. In 2018 had become a member of Berlin Art Institute as a participant of Cross-Cultural Program (ifa, Germany). In 2020 received a scholarship of Ministry of Culture in Poland "Gaude Polonia" to make a research on W. Strzeminski oeuvre and the connections between belarusian and polish avant-garde at Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz. Working as a curator and art critic with different institutions and independent initiatives in Belarus, Poland, Germany.