The question ‘What does peace look like?’ is answered by photos of the international Global Peace Photo Award, which is on display in Budapest at Madách Imre Square from 23 September to 12 October 2025.
András Török, former founding director of the Mai Manó House and manager of the Fortepan community photo archive, opened the exhibition and praised the award in his speech. “This exhibition is not only beautiful, but also educational. Apart from transporting us to distant worlds and showing us individual destinies in superbly composed images that leave us truly curious about the world beyond the frame, the collection of images teaches us that all people on Earth belong together and that it is worthwhile to learn from each other even in the pursuit of individual happiness.”
In his opening speech, Lois Lammerhuber, who founded the award together with his wife Silvia Lammerhuber and Werner Sobotka, President of the Photographic Society (PHG), and has organised it since its inception, emphasised that “peace is not the absence of war, but something I would describe as a successful life. Every year, the photos submitted inspire us anew with their creativity and passion to work resolutely for good and peace in the world.”
This photo competition has been held worldwide for 13 years now. The jury selects the winning photos from around 22,000 entries from up to 160 countries. The Global Peace Photo Award aims to honour photographers who capture in their images the efforts to create a peaceful world and the search for beauty and goodness in life. The prize goes to those photographs that best express the idea that our future lies in peaceful coexistence.
The exhibition series was realised with the support of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) and its Hungarian group companies Alfa and UNION Biztosító. Hartwig Löger, CEO of VIG, explained: ‘Peace is a key concern for us. Both as individuals and as a company, we need a stable, peaceful environment in order to develop. That is why we at Vienna Insurance Group, an international insurance group operating in 30 countries, have been committed to the Global Peace Photo Award from the very beginning. We have supported the Children’s Peace Picture since its inception, and since 2022 we have also been the main sponsor of the entire award.’
The opening of the exhibition was attended by (from left to right): András Török, manager of the Fortepan community photo archive, Máté Gáspár, director of the Örkény Theatre, Lois Lammerhuber, director of the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival and co-founder of the Global Peace Photo Award, Péter Niedermüller, Mayor of Erzsébetváros, Orsolya Csépai, Deputy Director General of Alfa Biztosító, and Gábor Havas, Chairman and Director General of UNION Biztosító.
The exhibition will be on display from 23 September to 12 October 2025 at Madách Imre Square in Budapest.
The photos were selected from the submissions to the Global Peace Photo Award. We thank and congratulate the participating photographers!
Anhua Collective, Nicolas Asfouri, Jonathan Bachman, Anastasiya Bolshakova, Arthur Bondar, Stefan Boness, Anna Boyiazis, Renee Byer, Barbare Chikviladze, Maryam Firuzi, Emil Gataullin, Mohammad Golchin, Kakhaber Kalichava, Badru Sultan Katumba, Dune Laboile, Nora Lorek, Catalina Martin-Chico, Alex Masi, Marinka Masseus, Sasan Moayyedi, Ana Palacios, Altaf Qadri, Ying Qin, Boris Register, Antonio Aragon Renuncio, Tanveer Hassan Rohan, Alain Schroeder, Mohd Nazri Sulaiman, Kaja Tasevska, Tommy Trenchard, Maria Turchanova, Selma van der Bijl, Ami Vitale, Snezhana von Buedingen, Patricia Willocq, Ka Zhan, Xavier Zimbardo.
Images © Johanna Reithmayer, Gabor Fenyes Photographer / Alfa und UNION Biztosítók
