Finnish Flow in Analog Waters
Four analog dimensions bound by one element: water as Finland’s existential lifeline and fluid backbone. Serving as a projection for a larger body of work, this NextGenAFK group exhibition spans Peter Eriksson’s poetic documentation of traditional shoreline carpet bridges, Albin Ljungqvist’s stark B&W studies of coastal urbanization, and Serafima Parland’s inquiry into virtual intimacy. Accompanying […]
Polizeipferde für Österreich
The solo exhibition “Polizeipferde für Österreich” by Jonas Höschl at Bildraum 01 presents a documentation of his performative intervention of the same name, which took place as part of the opening of the Parallel Vienna 2026 art fair. The work takes as its starting point the plans to introduce a mounted police unit in Vienna. […]
Raining Blood: Photography & Arms Trafficking
With “Raining Blood: Photography and Arms Trafficking”, the Welt museum Wien explores the international arms trade around 1900 and its legacy, which is closely linked to colonialism and imperialism. The exhibition uses the arms trade of this era as a lens through which to portray war and armed conflicts in all their pro foundly ambivalent […]
Still Life – Life Still
Vera Mercer reinterprets the classical still life, transforming it into a con temporary visual language of extraordinary power. Her neo-Baroque photo graphs combine crusta ceans, fish, game, flowers, and antique accessories in opulent, meticulously com posed tableaux rich in color, detail, and sensual presence. The guided tour will be held on Wednesday, 02.12.2026 18:00-20:00 About […]
The past is the hardest thing to predict
I explore the functioning of memory and the possibilities for constructing alternative versions of one’s own narrative through the medium of photography. Through re-scanning and intervening in my own negatives, I generate new interpretations of what has been recorded, just as happens when we recall memories. Analog material is physical proof of a moment’s existence. […]
Winners of Open Call »Anthropocene: Hybrid Realities«
We are excited to present the 20 winners of this year’s open call, which took place under the theme ‘Anthropocene: Hybrid Realities’. The selected photographers stood out for their critical explorations of the hybrid realities of the Anthropocene, revealing the fragile, shifting boundaries between the organic and the artificial, control and collapse, human intervention and […]
Designated Ground Zeros – Grand Prix Exhibition / Grand Prix Ausstellung Rotlicht 2026
Beihua Guo, Grand Prix winner of ROTLICHT Festival 2026, explores a subject that, at first glance, seems to belong to a distant past. In his project “Designated Ground Zeros”, he photographs sites identified as potential targets for nuclear attacks in the “Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959”, compiled in 1956. His work thus revisits a […]
Postcards from Cacti Falls
There are moments in an artist’s trajectory when the production of images ceases to obey the logic of visibility. In such moments, it returns to its original function, becoming a pure gesture directed inward. “Postcards from Cacti Falls” emerges from precisely this state of suspension. The Polaroids that comprise this body of work – produced […]
Sichtbarkeiten
Die Fokussierung der Photographie auf eine Ideologie des Abbildens verkennt, dass ihre „picture politic“ im Potential des Sichtbarmachens, des Herausbildens begründet ist. Das vielgestaltige, über Jahrzehnte entstandene photographische Oeuvre von Fritz Simak thematisiert im Spannungsfeld von figurativ und abstrakt die Frage nach der Sichtbarkeit der Welt. Dabei geht es um den Blick auf Alltägliches ebenso […]
Winners of Open Call »Life After Extinction?«
ROTLICHT Festival for Analog Photography was excited to receive 332 submissions from 43 countries engaging with the possibility of »Life After Extinction?« which was the theme of this year’s Open Call. Inspired by the need and desire to broach a difficult and arguably disheartening topic, the jury was delighted to find artists from various parts […]
Eop Pop-up Ausstellung
In 2025, the association eop (Emergence of Projects) will host a pop-up exhibition at OpenCave under the dual theme »Life After Extinction« and »Cave Painting«. More than 20 artists explore how cave painting can be reimagined today, employing analog photo graphic techniques such as the enduring cyanotype, designed to outlast generations. Central questions arise: What […]
Quiet on the Extinction Front
As silence falls, the remains speak loudly of a past that created its own demise. While the demise was caused by an inability to focus, the silence after screams of desperation and failure. There was one thing we shouldn’t do, yet it was done, or rather, actions were not taken and hence, there are no […]
Floating Bonds
FLOATING BONDS is a journey into the world of thousands of curious seahorses that inhabit the aquariums of a farm in Australia. Founded by a biologist, the farm was originally intended to breed seahorses for the Chinese market in order to help secure their survival in the wild. Unfortunately, the project did not succeed, and […]
Put on the Red Light
LUMEN X is a self-organised, open photo lab in Vienna, supported by a diverse community of artists, activists and self-taught photographers. The exhibition shows analog works created between the darkroom, exchange and improvisation. It reflects photographic processes and social realities: as a lab in precarious circumstances, we work with limited resources but great dedication. Our […]
The Wind Has Ruffled Everything / Der Wind hat alles Zerzaust
The group exhibition »Der Wind hat alles zerzaust« (The Wind Has Ruffled Everything) shows current works by artists Julia Maria Gruber, Noah Kolb, Ilay Schwingshandl and Niclas Venneker. The individual positions shed light on different forms of death and destruction and formulate reflections on what remains to us or how we remember. A brief glimpse […]
The Wind Has Ruffled Everything / Der Wind hat alles Zerzaust
The group exhibition »Der Wind hat alles zerzaust« (The Wind Has Ruffled Everything) shows current works by artists Julia Maria Gruber, Noah Kolb, Ilay Schwingshandl and Niclas Venneker. The individual positions shed light on different forms of death and destruction and formulate reflections on what remains to us or how we remember. A brief glimpse […]
Japanese Nights
Japanese Nights is a visual exploration of Japan’s creative energy after dark. From glowing neon streets to quiet back alleys, the project captures the unique atmosphere, colors, and moments that define the night in Japanese cities. It highlights the contrast between stillness and movement, tradition and modern life, told through moody, analog photography. This series […]
Flowers Of Hope / Blumen der Hoffnung
The artist’s task is to deepen the mystery. There are many things that escape the eye or consciousness, are not visible at first glance, develop in secret. The flowers of hope were created in this way. If you look closely, you will discover the number 3:16 and 8, numbers of hope. It is the most […]
A Closer Look
Bruce Gilden is considered one of the last great representatives of classic street photography and one of the most uncompromising portrait photographers of our time. As a member of the legendary Magnum Photos agency since 1998, he has been pointing his camera at those who otherwise remain invisible: the »underdogs«, »misfits«, and marginalized figures of […]
Grand Prix Exhibition / Grand Prix Ausstellung Rotlicht 2025
It has become a valued tradition that the Grand Prix winners of the ROTLICHT Festival Open Call are given a solo exhibition in our gallery, complementing the group exhibition at the festival headquarters. This year, we are especially pleased to present the work of Canadian artist Ella Morton. Morton’s innovation lies in transferring the idea […]
Female Transition and Transience
The works shown by Anna Tihanyi present fictional transition stages of life. The situations are rooted in intimate questions of the artist’s personal past, through which a common aspect of rootlessness and alienation, the permanent feeling of outcasts and the desire to be integrated can be conveyed. In the project of Maria »Poems of Vanishing« […]
Ihr Traumhaus im Grünen
Klaus Titzer explores the language of real estate advertising for newly built single-family homes, duplexes, and row houses, juxta posing glossy marketing promises with the reality of the projects. Phrases like »Your dream home in the countryside, surrounded by nature, with first-class architecture« were used as input for the AI Midjourney to see how artificial […]
Ihr Traumhaus im Grünen
Klaus Titzer explores the language of real estate advertising for newly built single-family homes, duplexes, and row houses, juxta posing glossy marketing promises with the reality of the projects. Phrases like »Your dream home in the countryside, surrounded by nature, with first-class architecture« were used as input for the AI Midjourney to see how artificial […]
Hot Glass / Heisses Glas
The project »Hot Glass« focuses on the way established structures in visual arts encounter chance. It allows two different layers of film to interact mechanically and observes how content and form spill over from one substrate to the other. The connection creates a new authentic layer that randomly makes one story or the other legible. […]
Offline
OFFLINE is a visual journey born out of a time of upheaval – a dive into the streets of Southeast Asia and New York. Between neon lights, fleeting encounters, and handwritten notes, fragmentary memories emerge – raw, powerful, and unfiltered. The photographs feel like pages from a travel diary, telling of disorientation and the longing […]