JURY
MIHA COLNER / CHIEF JUROR
Miha Colner (1978) is an art historian who works as curator at Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki. He is also active as a lecturer and publicist in the extended field of visual art and visual culture. In the period 2017-2020 he was curator at MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana and in the period 2006-2016 at the Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana. Since 2005, he has been publishing articles in newspapers, magazines, and professional publications, as well as in his blog. He lives and works in Ljubljana and Kostanjevica na Krki, Slovenia.
MIRIAM MARZURA
Miriam Marzura (Bozen, 1988) lebt und arbeitet in Wien. Sie ist Kuratorin und Kulturarbeiterin. Ihren Master im Studienprogramm Educating / Creating / Managing absolvierte sie an der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien.
Seit 2017 ist sie für das Ausstellungsprogramm der Leica Galerie Wien verantwortlich. Dort kuratiert sie internationale Fotoausstellungen und entwickelt begleitende Formate wie Artist Talks, Workshops und Portfolio Reviews. Im Laufe der Jahre hat sie zahlreiche Ausstellungsprojekte in unterschiedlichen internationalen Kontexten realisiert und arbeitet dabei mit einem Netzwerk aus Kulturinstitutionen, Galerien und Festivals zusammen.
© Leander Höfler
REINER RIEDLER
Reiner Riedler ist ein österreichischer Fotograf und Filmemacher, der in Wien lebt und arbeitet. Nach einer fotografischen Ausbildung an der Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt Wien entwickelte er eine internationale Karriere, deren Arbeiten in renommierten Medien wie National Geographic, Geo, Der Spiegel, The New York Times und Wired erschienen.
Sein künstlerisches Schaffen bewegt sich zwischen dokumentarischer und konzeptueller Fotografie. Im Mittelpunkt seiner Arbeiten stehen gesellschaftliche Randzonen, menschliche Sehnsüchte und die Fragilität der Existenz. Ausgehend von dokumentarischen Methoden untersucht Riedler soziale Phänomene und hinterfragt etablierte Wertvorstellungen. Seine Projekte reflektieren zugleich die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Fotografie selbst und widmen sich zunehmend auch dem Medium Film.
Riedlers Werke wurden weltweit in bedeutenden Museen und Institutionen präsentiert, darunter das Centre Pompidou, die Kunsthalle Schirn, die Deutsche Kinemathek sowie zahlreiche internationale Fotofestivals. Seine Fotobücher wurden mehrfach ausgezeichnet und in renommierten Verlagen veröffentlicht. Zu seinen bekanntesten Arbeiten zählen Fake Holidays, Will, Sweat, Memory Diamonds und This Side of Paradise.
Die Zusammenarbeit mit Regisseuren wie Ulrich Seidl führte zu einer verstärkten Hinwendung zum Film. 2024 feierte sein erster Dokumentarfilm Die guten Jahre Premiere bei der Diagonale und erhielt mehrere Festivalnominierungen und Auszeichnungen.
Neben seiner künstlerischen Tätigkeit arbeitet Riedler seit vielen Jahren als Lehrender für Dokumentarfotografie in der Schweiz, engagiert sich als Mitbegründer verschiedener Kulturinitiativen und Mitbegründer des still//moving Filmfestivals und Gründer des Fotobuchlabels Reflektor. Seit 2026 wird er von der deutschen Fotoagentur LAIF vertreten. Er ist verheiratet und Vater von zwei Söhnen.
WIKTORIA MICHAŁKIEWICZ
Wiktoria Michałkiewicz, PhD, is an interdisciplinary expert and arts and culture strategist with extensive international experience in talent development, talent management, creative strategy, global partnerships and photography. Alongside her academic achievements—holding five degrees from six European universities, including a PhD in Sociology, she has established a career as a contributing editor for prestigious international magazines like National Geographic, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. Additionally, she has excelled as a film and photography producer, talent agent, and exhibition curator. Michałkiewicz has played a pivotal role in producing and curating exhibitions for renowned artists and collaborating with international festivals and institutions, having worked in various roles with some of the most renowned photography artists, including Deborah Turbeville, James Nachtwey, Sebastião Salgado, Paul Nicklen & Cristina Mittermeier, Ralph Gibson, Mary McCartney, Ragnar Axelsson, Paul Hansen, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Bastiaan Woudt, Paolo Verzone, Ciril Jazbec, Cooper & Gorfer, among others. In one of her roles, she was part of Fotografiska Stockholm and Fotografiska International, contributing to its global expansion to Tallinn and New York. She serves as a judge and nominator for international photography awards and portfolio reviewer at international festivals, including the Prix Pictet, Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Xposure International Photography Awards, Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography, among others. She often shares her know-how during workshops and masterclasses, including Houston Center for Photography, and the World Press Photo Foundation (Joop Swart Masterclass). Michałkiewicz is a founder of REZO agency, a consulting agency specializing in global career strategies for visual artists, talent development, international art PR, and art advisory services. Operating globally from Lisbon, Warsaw, and Stockholm, she often works with most prestigious international art events, galleries, organizations, and venues as a contributor, jury member, speaker, and consultant.
SABINA SALAMON
curator at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Sabina graduated Philosophy and History of Art at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. In the nineties, she became a member of The Club of Young Artists of Rijeka which represented Rijeka’s visual art scene. From 2002 till 2005 was appointed the position of acting director of the Mediterranean Sculpture Symposium of Labin (Istria region). Between 2006 – 2010 she ran the program of the City Gallery in Labin. Since 2010 she has been working as a curator at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka and is responsible for the Photography and New Media collections. As a curator, she puts efforts into interdisciplinary approach in art and presentation of the Croatian artists internationally, in collaboration with institutions that share similar goals.
ISTVAN VIRÁGVÖLGYI
István Virágvölgyi (1982 – Budapest, Hungary) studied freehand drawing, desktop publishing, photography and earned a master’s degree from library and information studies at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary). He worked at the leading Hungarian news portal Origo first as photo editor and then as head of photography between 2007 and 2011. Then he joined MTI Hungarian News Agency and served as head of the photo desk for three years. He lectured about documentary photography and photo editing at the Budapest Metropolitan University between 2014–2019 and about photo history at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in 2022–2023. Since 2014 he workes as curator of the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, since 2022 he also serves as artistic director, he is secretary of the Capa Grand Prize Hungary and the editor of Weekly Fortepan blog. Since 2016 he is cultural advisor of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma and since 2018 volunteer editor of the Fortepan digital photo archive. Since 2021, he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Pécsi József Photography Scholarship. He is married, has two children, lives and works between Budapest and Vienna.
© Tamas Andronyi
FLORENCE DROUHET
Artistic director of the Photo Festival LaGacilly-Baden (Austria).
Independent curator specialized in environmental topics.
Florence Drouhet is currently the artistic advisor and associated curator of the Albert-Kahn Museum Festival (Paris), the PHOTOCLIMAT Biennale (Paris), the Photo Festival INPAKT (Basque country, France), and Higashikawa Youth Photo Festival (Japan).
She collaborates with the Gobelins school (Paris), the Jeu de Paume Gallery (Paris), the Orchestre National de Bretagne (Brittany, France)
Florence is La Gacilly Festival president, and Baden festival Direktor.
?/ CHIEF JUROR
Dr. Hanin Hannouch (she/her) is Curator for Analog and Digital Media at the Weltmuseum Wien, where she is in charge of the collections of photography, film, and sound. In 2025, she became the president of the European Society for the History of Photography and the editor-in-chief of its journal “PhotoResearcher”. Hanin is an expert on color photography around 1900 with publications such as “Gabriel Lippmann’s Colour Photography: Science, Media, Museums” (Amsterdam University Press, 2022) & “Three-Color Photography around 1900: Technologies, Expeditions, Empires” (PhotoResearcher, 2022). Moreover, being excited about the use of 19th century analog photography today, both as an artistic medium as well as a counter-cultural societal movement, Hanin has served as chief juror of Rotlicht Festival in 2024; a nomination she has accepted again in 2025.
© Dino Rekanovic