On Saturday, 14 June 2025, the festival hosted a unique photo summit. In an 8-hour tour, each exhibition was visited by a group of around 150 photographers, journalists, international media representatives from all over Europe and the USA, and sponsors, and the artists spoke about their exhibitions on site. Matthew Abbott, Adam Ferguson, Bobby Lockyer and Anne Zahalka travelled from Australia, George Steinmetz from the USA, Viviane Dalles and Gaël Turine from France, Hans-Jürgen Burkard, Herbert Frei and Ulla Lohmann from Germany, and Isolde & Dieter Bornemann, Craig Dillon, Markus Eisl, Reiner Riedler, Pia Scharler and Alfred Seiland from Austria. All of them thrilled the audience with their artist talks.
Matthew Abbott, Adam Ferguson, Bobby Lockyer and Anne Zahalka travelled from Australia, George Steinmetz from the USA, Viviane Dalles and Gaël Turine from France, Hans-Jürgen Burkard, Herbert Frei and Ulla Lohmann from Germany, and Isolde & Dieter Bornemann, Craig Dillon, Markus Eisl, Reiner Riedler, Pia Scharler and Alfred Seiland from Austria. All of them thrilled the audience with their artist talks.
No less inspiring were the stories behind the winning photos of the world’s largest photo competition, ‘Our World is Beautiful’, which attracted around 665,000 entries. The competition was organised by CEWE and presented by Austria’s head of marketing, Michael Pollaschak, and jury members Ulla Lohmann and Lois Lammerhuber.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, known as ME/CFS for short, is a disease that robs sufferers of almost all their energy. Photographer Brent Stirton has made the almost invisible visible and brought the suffering hidden behind the approximately 80,000 ME/CFS patients in Austria into the public eye. His pictures are on display in an exhibition this year. Kornelia Span, one of those affected by this terrible disease, revealed her feelings in moving words in front of her pictures at the exhibition.
After the school project, in which schools from Lower Austria and Morbihan in Brittany are participating, was presented by Mélina Le Blaye and Christian Schörg and the exhibition of the Niederösterreichischen Berufsfotograf:innen was visited, the photography caravan was able to engage in physical activity during a relaxation exercise on the green lawn of Doblhoffpark. Under the guidance of Kerstin Klimt, medical director of the Badener Hof, and Alexander Walter-Frosch, managing director of the facility, one of the 12 stations installed at this year’s festival was completed. Then, with renewed energy, the group was able to continue from exhibition to exhibition until dusk…
Photos © Johannes Zinner / Festival La Gacilly Baden Photo 2025