Feelings & Photography

The jury, consisting of Felix Hoffmann (Foto Arsenal and Foto Wien), Linda Conze (Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf), Rebecca Racine Ramershoven (freelance artist, Cologne), G. Kühnhardt Alvarez (International Photoscene Cologne), Donja Nasseri (International Photoscene Cologne) and Jan Borreck (International Photoscene Cologne) have selected a total of 24 outstanding projects, which depict a wide range of emotional expressions - from deeply ecstatic states, to capturing the passing of time, to passion, identity and utopian love, coupled with the pursuit of happiness. The work is a powerful exploration of the different dimensions of human emotion, and attempts to show how photography and its media allow for a unique way of seeing and expressing emotions in relation to people and the world.

Alongside the Artist Meets Archive project, the group exhibition was the central curatorial program of the 2025 Photoszene Festival in Cologne, taking place at five venues across the city. It is curated by Jan Borreck and Donja Nasseri at two locations: the Temporäre Haus der Fotografie, Hahnenstr. 8 (formerly Stoff Pavillon-Moeller), and the Kunsträume am Ebertplatz.

In addition to the presentation of 24 selected works at two locations, the open call “Feelings & Photography” offered visitors an extensive supporting program with artist talks, panel discussions, and a symposium in cooperation with and at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.

Über den Open Call

The Open Call focuses on contemporary phenomena in photography, and simultaneously takes a look at what stirs our feelings in the world. Equally, it poses the question of what, under what circumstances, prompts our compassion. Feelings are one of the last specifics of human – or natural – life and appear to be a significant marker of differentiation against the supremacy of machines. At the same time, feelings are quite deliberately incorporated into media-based and visual communications, and algorithms get daily emotional reactions out of us as consumers of images. They are something internal, but shaped by society at the same time; feelings are profoundly personal and yet not private; feelings are political dynamite and are simultaneously often negated; feelings influence life paths and create new visibilities; feelings form connectedness and transform social structures at the same time. In short: Feelings mould our existence and our togetherness in the world.

Questions we pose for guidance:

• • What role can photography play during engagement with feelings and what role do feelings play in contemporary photographic concepts?
  • How do feelings find their way into the picture and in what way do they reach beholders?
  • And all other open questions that can be additionally raised and answered!

Although feelings, by definition, are immaterial and subjective, photography can make them visible, experienceable and comprehensible – and stir and amplify them, too. Every day, through being disseminated in the media, the potentials of photographic images influence our entire life sphere; they convey to us emotions, states of mind, attitudes and equally, perspectives onto what prompts our feelings.

With the Open Call, Photoszene offers a platform to current photographic positions and looks forward to a diverse array of entries from artists and image designers who work with the medium of photography and its extended tools. The submitted works will be viewed by a diverse jury and selected for a group exhibition as part of the Photoszene Festival in May 2025. Each juried position will receive a €500 exhibition fee. The application deadline is 31 January 2025.

The Jury

• Jan Borreck (Curator, Essen)
• Linda Conze (Head of Photography, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf)
• Felix Hoffmann (Artistic Director, Foto Arsenal Wien and Foto Wien)
• Donja Nasseri (artist and curator, Düsseldorf)
• Rebecca Racine Ramershoven (Artist, Cologne)
• G. Kühnhardt Alvarez (International Photoscene Cologne)