The Internationale Photoszene Köln
The Internationale Photoszene Köln is an organization shaped by many contributors. Our Photoszene Festival in particular is a co-creative act. Its strength lies in the collaboration between the various actors and partners from Cologne’s urban and cultural communities – and beyond. We connect museums with the independent scene, artists with curators and multipliers. One central idea guides our work: Who has access to which institutions and spaces – and who doesn’t?
We believe that a festival is a wonderful space to create access and open up spaces for exchange. The Photoszene Festival thrives through the participation and contribution of its diverse voices. Each voice gains its meaning from the individual's context in the city, resulting in a multi-voiced dialogue that spreads like a network to connect us all.
Our Values
- We believe in the power of photography as a medium of expression, reflection, and change.
- We see photography as much more than just an art form. It connects high culture with mainstream, everyday language with visual expertise, and in its media complexity, it strongly reflects the diversity of our society.
- We are a learning and evolving institution and aim to create a welcoming space for all people – regardless of their background, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental abilities or disabilities, social class, age, or religion. Our institution considers it essential that individual characteristics and differences must not be obstacles – even though they often still are.
- We value the multiple perspectives each person brings to the festival.
- We treat one another with appreciation and respect. We reject all forms of discrimination. We advocate for diversity and strive to level out unequal starting points. Equal opportunity and cultural participation are ongoing commitments for us within the German cultural landscape and within our own organization.
- We promote visual languages that empower marginalized perspectives and challenge stereotypical portrayals that the photographic medium unfortunately still perpetuates.
- Creating access: We are continuously working to expand accessibility both conceptually and practically so that a broad audience is reached and as many people as possible can participate.
- Opening community and dialogue: We create spaces for exchange, collaboration, and critical reflection to understand photography as rich and diverse in its culture and in relation to other cultural forms.
- Considering sustainability and taking responsibility: We act and make decisions from a place of social, ecological, and ethical responsibility, aiming to incorporate sustainable cultural work into everything we do.
The History
Since its founding in 1984, the Internationale Photoszene Köln has been dedicated to promoting artistic photography. Its goal is to reflect photography in all its complexity as a defining medium of our time and to sustainably strengthen Cologne as a center for photography. The Photoszene Festival is the oldest photography festival in Germany and originated from the cultural program of photokina, the major tech trade fair on the Rhine.
Over the past 40 years, the participatory Photoszene Festival has grown into a city-wide cultural event, with museums, galleries, and independent art spaces contributing photography exhibitions. Today, the festival presents up to 100 exhibitions and attracted over 125,000 visitors in its latest edition in 2023. Its own curatorial programming focuses on emerging, current discourses and practices in photography. The Artist Meets Archive program also showcases and reflects the significance of photography in the many archives and museums throughout the city.
Cologne is a major center for artistic and academic engagement with photography. The Photoszene Festival contributes not only to these research and discourse spaces, but also serves as an accessible form of cultural participation, reflecting a diverse urban population and its understanding of what culture means to its residents. Photoszene supports contemporary and international exchange: formats and open calls are designed to include and invite international artists, protagonists, and audiences to Cologne. In this way, the festival strengthens its relevance beyond Germany with each new edition.
Activities
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Organizer of the participatory Photoszene Festival in Cologne
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International open calls for archive residencies and group exhibitions
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Initiator of international cooperation projects between Cologne-based institutions, museums, galleries, archives, and art spaces – e.g., Artist Meets Archive
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Co-organizer of the NEXT! Festival of Young Photoszene
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Supporter of Cologne’s emerging artist scene
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Publisher of photography publications
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Photography platform in Cologne
Philosophy
Introduced as the title of a think tank in 2022, We Do/Are Photography forms the central philosophy of the Internationale Photoszene Köln. Everyone who works with and for Photoszene is connected to photography in different ways. They create, analyze, observe, produce, write, or speak about it. At the same time, we are photography. Following the fascinating image theory of Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta, we understand that in recent decades the distance between viewers and images has increasingly dissolved. In the 21st century, there is barely a separation between us and the images that once hung on walls or appeared in newspapers before us.
Even more: through digitalization and distribution on social media, representations of ourselves have in part become photographs that now seem to define us entirely. Our simplified visual representability has become identity-forming, and the world we live in appears to be changed by photography. But what does that mean?
We Do/Are Photography also means that we want to analyze and observe the relationship between people and their environments (e.g., social systems, society), which today is profoundly influenced by photography and the photographic. The focus here lies in the selection of photographic subjects. Our philosophy demands that we engage progressively with these questions:
Which images of people, the world, and our surroundings are circulating?
Do our photographs – and those of others – make visible the widest possible diversity of human existence?
Who looks at whom, and how?
Photography is not just a medium; it is always a subjective act, one where ongoing decisions are unavoidable. Photography is undergoing a transformation process in which many are – and must be – involved, especially if we aim to fulfill a broad cultural mission for all. Through all our programs, we aim to reflect and understand this dense web of relationships with the world.
We are aware that as a cultural institution, we are in a constant state of transformation and continuously learning. In this spirit, we sincerely welcome your feedback to make Photoszene even more inclusive, diverse, and accessible.
We Do Are Photography!