The La Gacilly-Baden Photo 2026 festival is based on three narrative strands: Firstly, the human condition is explored in around ten photo stories set in a different geographical location each year. Under the title SO BRITISH!, the festival examines the everyday lives and living conditions of people in England.

The second narrative is dedicated to the state of planet Earth – that is, there are reports from several countries and continents. Since its inception, our festival has been committed to placing nature, which gives us life, at the centre of our exhibitions. We show photo reports that range from beauty and humanistic reflection to anger and despair.

The third part of the festival presents positions in Austrian photography.

30 to 35 exhibitions are dedicated to various aspects of the relationship between people and their environment. Starting at the visitor centre on Brusattiplatz, the festival stretches over 7 kilometres, divided into a garden route and a city route. Embedded in public spaces, around 1,500 photographs by the world’s best photographers can be seen in large format, some up to 200 square metres in size.

It is the largest outdoor photo festival in Europe. In 2025, 336,288 visitors attended the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival. Admission is free.

The 2026 festival will take place from 12 June to 11 October.

SO BRITISH! Great Britain and Europe share a thousand-year history full of misunderstandings and hostilities, admiration and respect. This could be due to the British tendency to do things differently from everyone else. Not only do they drive on the left, they also have their own currency, and 51.89 per cent voted for Brexit. They play darts, believe in ghosts and still have a monarchy. And they have this touch of eccentricity. Ever since Oscar Wilde walked a lobster on a leash along the banks of the Thames, we know that in this country of strict upbringing, extravagance is still cultivated as an art form. Many British photographers share this style. They are so British because they understand how to capture the spirit of their time with a great sense of clarity.

If mischief were the prerogative of the British, then Martin Parr is its photographic herald. For over fifty years, this tireless chronicler of English society has cast a razor-sharp gaze on his compatriots. Or Tony Ray-Jones, that ironic observer who gave humour its rightful place without ever resorting to unnecessary cruelty. Peter Dench has chosen to take a close look at the contradictions of a society that is considered deeply traditional. Josh Edgoose roams the streets of London in search of the unexpected. ‘Swinging London’ reminds us that iconic pop music was born on the banks of the Thames. Terry O’Neill was not only a witness to this exhilarating revolution, he was the photographic confidant of England’s ‘enfants terribles’, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones and David Bowie to Elton John.

Did you know that the United Kingdom and France share the privilege of being the inventors of photography? Although Nicéphore Niepce from Chalon-sur-Saône was the first to capture an image on a metal plate, it was an English botanist who was the first to develop this technique in 1843. Anna Atkins was a pioneer in the field of cyanotype, using it to create herbariums of fascinating beauty. Gina Soden explores manor houses and old villas that their owners have left behind, disused factories and dilapidated hospitals where nature has reclaimed its rightful place. Cig Harvey experiments with colours, our sensory experiences and bodies merging with nature. Finally, Mary Turner takes a tender look at the marginalised populations of post-industrial England.

Christian Skrein reminds us of the Beatles‘ visit to Obertauern, where they had travelled to shoot the video for Help! – and were greeted by the population with banners reading: Beatles Go Home! And Baden-based filmmaker Richard Ladkani creates a photographic memorial to Jane Goodall from the intimate perspective of a now abruptly severed lifelong friendship: ‘Just me, Jane!’ Inge Prader will visit Andreas Kronthaler in London to trace the legacy of his long-time companion and wife Vivian Westwood.

Mike Taylor’s work ‘Bend it like Beckham’ shows us football from the perspective of feverish fans in British pubs – without a single footballer appearing in the picture.

Queen guitar god Sir Brian May is not only an iconic rock musician, but above all a passionate stereo photographer and the world’s largest collector of this art form. Following 2019, when his work ‘The Moon Landing in 3D’ had its world premiere at the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden, the festival will present ‘Stereoscopic Adventures In Hell’, an absolute rarity from his collection, created shortly after the invention of photography 150 years ago. For this purpose, the festival will erect an imperial panorama in the Kaiserhausgarten. A very special photographic treat in the context of the 200th anniversary of photography – as is the retrospective of the unique work of photo icon and Magnum founder Robert Capa, the festival’s first collaboration with the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Centre Budapest.

Another rarity is the exhibition by Michel Bouvet, I Love The Beatles, who is a true Beatles fan and illustrates the most legendary songs of the mythical band from Liverpool in 35 extraordinary images, a work that is above all the result of an imagination fuelled by his passion for music, painting, literature and travel.

2024 was the hottest year since records began. This is due to the ever-increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, are an important regulator of the Earth’s climate. They absorb over 90% of the excess heat in the climate system, leading to increasingly violent hurricanes and storms. Who better to give us a vivid insight into the fragile ecosystem of the Blue Planet than marine biologist Laurent Ballesta, one of the best underwater photographers of his generation. We take a refreshing dip with Robert Doisneau, whose work extends far beyond Paris and its suburbs. Stéphane Lavoué set out this winter to meet the people who live from and with the oceans. Indian photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee has been working in the Sundarbans archipelago for years. He shows us the everyday lives of people confronted with climate disasters and rising sea levels.

And, of course, the festival will and MUST pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of the lido in Baden. Under the title ‘Water is Life!’, with the help of UNESCO World Water Chair Helmut Habersack, we take a sobering look at the world’s rivers. We learn about their beauty and their dramas and discover what science can do to make their water refreshing again. Innsbruck researcher Günter Köck takes us to the farthest reaches of the world, where Arctic char are used as an ‘instrument’ for environmental monitoring. An even more unexpected exoticism emerges when the festival accompanies a young woman from Baden, Christin Gerstorfer, into the fascinating, silent and dark world of freediving.

In Emotive Africa, the tireless traveller, fashion photographer and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Françoise Huguier, explores the soul of people from Mali to Ethiopia, from Benin to Mozambique.

Frédéric Noy locates his long-term project Udzungwa in Tanzania, where populations of endemic monkeys live in the heart of a primary forest threatened by urbanisation. In an essay that is as documentary as it is artistic, Axelle de Russé uses infrared photography to examine our two inhabited polar worlds in the north and south. Corey Arnold’s report documents how bears, coyotes and raccoons venture into our cities in search of food that they can no longer find in their original habitat.

As a fleeting gift to nature and an ode to travel and contemplation, we are exhibiting the sensual world of François Fontaine, winner of the 2025 Leica Award for New Environmental Photography. His images, taken at the height of summer, resemble prints and show dappled light, magical reflections, the wind in the trees and the blossoming of a new season.

Finally, Norbert Span will surprise us with his visual journey into the microscopic structures of vitamins, revealing their enchanting inner beauty.

The dream of flying shows what people are capable of when driven by a zest for action and curiosity, and proves what belief in the possible can achieve. Every take-off, every flight, every landing is a reminder of this. The dream of flying is a joint photographic project by Ana María Arévalo Gosen, Hans-Jürgen Burkard, Heinz Stephan Tesarek, Jérôme Gence, Martina Draper, Nadia Ferroukhi, Ulla Lohmann and Lois Lammerhuber.

The bilateral photography project Pop Nature challenges schools in Morbihan and Lower Austria to approach nature from a free, carefree, psychedelic, rhythmic and lively photographic perspective. The focus is on bright colours and a sparkling, vibrant, carefree and positive world.

The exhibition ‘I love Coffee, I love Tea’ of photographs by Lower Austrian professional photographers and the exhibition of the world’s largest photo competition, CEWE’s ‘Our World is Beautiful’, will round off the festival, as will a retrospective of 2024 in the pictures of artist in residence Sabine Starmayer, whose pictures are accompanied by texts by the 2024 Thomas Jorda Prize winner Elisabeth Steinkellner.

Under the guiding principle of Culture of Solidarity, the collaboration with festival partners Garten Tulln – where we will be showing the CEWE exhibition ‘Our World is Beautiful’ – and Bratislava Month of Photography will continue in 2026. New this year is the partnership with the city of Belgrade, where we will be showing the Global Peace Photo Award.

And Christoph Künne pays tribute to the 450-year history of Manfred Schneider’s Annamühle bakery with innovative AI-inspired images.

More about the festival…