This summer, Baden once again became the beating heart of environmental photography. From June 13 to October 12, 2025, the Austrian spa town hosted the seventh edition of Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo, bringing together some of the world’s finest photographers in a celebration of art, awareness, and shared humanity. Under the motto ‘Australia and New World’ this year’s festival offered a journey through more than 40 exhibitions across parks, gardens, and streets—freely accessible to all, twenty-four hours a day.
The 2024 edition dedicated to “Natural Heritage” was as much attractive. And the results speak for themselves. Over 320,000 visitors discovered the open-air exhibitions in Baden in 2024, a record attendance that confirms the festival’s growing reputation as Europe’s largest outdoor photography event. Final results for 2025 are still in progress but the festival expects 336 288 visitors for this year. Together with La Gacilly Photo Festival in Brittany (300,000 visitors), The Garden Tulln (148,000 visitors), and the Global Peace Photo Award in Bratislava (66,000 visitors), the joint French-Austrian initiative reached an extraordinary 885,000 visitors in total. The numbers alone tell a story of success—but behind them lies a deeper impact, one rooted in education, culture, and sustainability.
The festival’s economic value creation for the region was estimated at 7.6 million euros in 2024, according to Baden’s tourism director Klaus Lorenz, while the media value reached approximately 4 million euros, with coverage in leading outlets such as National Geographic, Der Standard, Profil, Kurier, FAZ, and Stern. 91 national and international journalists attended the press preview and the festival’s Long Night of Photography, resulting in 447 high-quality media features across Europe. Since its creation, the event has established itself alongside the likes of Les Rencontres d’Arles, Visa pour l’Image, and Paris Photo—a remarkable achievement for a festival that began only seven years ago.
The 2025 edition continued to expand the partnership between France and Austria, confirming La Gacilly-Baden Photo as the largest French-Austrian cultural initiative and a leading European platform for photographic dialogue. Its curatorial direction, led by Lois Lammerhuber and Cyril Drouhet, once again offered a compelling blend of artistic excellence and environmental consciousness. Through the works of more than 30 photographers from 15 countries—including Australia, Brazil, Japan, Iran, South Africa, and the United States—the festival explored how photography can help us understand and protect our changing world.
This year’s thematic focus on Australia and the New World resonated deeply. The exhibited artists, among them Trent Parke, Narelle Autio, Matthew Abbott, and Bobbi Lockyer, unveiled the fragile beauty and stark realities of a continent both blessed and threatened. Their images of fire and drought, ocean and sky, reflected the complex balance between humanity and nature. Parallel exhibitions in Baden highlighted environmental and social issues across the globe, from George Steinmetz’s Feed the Planet to Gaël Turine’s poetic journey through Benin’s sacred forests. Together, they formed a visual dialogue about resilience, creativity, and hope.
But beyond its artistic dimension, La Gacilly-Baden Photo remains above all a civic and educational project. In 2024, the festival hosted 99 side events, including talks, workshops, and collective photography projects. Its School Photo Festival, linking 16 schools from Brittany and 16 from Lower Austria, fostered cross-cultural exchange and creative learning among young participants. The Artist-in-Residence Program, featuring writer Irmie Vesselsky and photographer Ina Künne, further underlined the festival’s commitment to nurturing new voices and perspectives.
Accessibility and inclusion are central to the festival’s identity: open-air, barrier-free, and entirely free of charge, it transforms Baden’s beautiful public spaces into a living stage for photography. Over 1,500 photographs, some as large as 200 square meters, were displayed along seven kilometers of exhibition routes, blending garden design and photographic art into a seamless visual experience. Visitors could stroll through lush parks, cobblestoned streets, and riverside paths—discovering not only the works on display but also a renewed sense of connection with nature.
In a time of global uncertainty, La Gacilly-Baden Photo continues to stand for optimism, beauty, and action. It sees photography as “the strongest cultural driver of our time”—a medium that unites people around the essential questions of coexistence, sustainability, and peace. As director Lois Lammerhuber puts it, the festival’s mission is to “look, think, and act.” Each image, each story, becomes an invitation to awareness—and a call to care.
From its beginnings as a collaboration between two small towns, La Gacilly in Brittany, France and Baden in Austria, La Gacilly-Baden Photo has grown into a cultural beacon. Its international partnerships, environmental programs, and ever-increasing audience demonstrate what can be achieved when art meets conviction. With record attendance, exceptional press coverage, and undeniable economic and social benefits, the 2025 edition stands as a success not only for the organizers but for everyone who believes that photography can change the way we see—and protect—the world.
In the following interview, Lois Lammerhuber speaks to Blind about the evolution of the festival and its challenges.
The La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival has grown steadily since its creation. How would you describe this evolution — in terms of scale, audience, and recognition — and what is your long-term vision for the festival?
Well, this cooperation with La Gacilly landed in Baden like a “Spaceship Enterprise”. It did not grow slowly – it was there all of a sudden taking the small town in a storm, attracting 189 258 visitors in its first year. And now in 2025 we could welcome 336 288 photography lovers. The international media response is overwhelming. From The Guardian to La Repubblica, and from Stern to the Neue Züricher Zeitung. We earn an average of 6 publications per festival day. And as far as I feel, see and hear it – after 8 years, everybody in the industry knows us.
How would you describe your relationship with the French town of La Gacilly and its mayor Jacques Rocher, which is an important base for the festival being held in Baden?
Our relationship is based on friendship. And of course on my vision to convince Jacques to cooperate and make the festival seen twice in Eastern and Western Europe, 1 600 kilometer apart. The same but not quite – in a good way. Together we are by far the largest photo event in the world – with almost 800 000 visitors.
This 2025 edition showcased over 30 exhibitions across a 7-kilometer outdoor route, bringing together more than 1,500 large-format photographs. What made this edition unique, and what message did you wish to convey through the theme Australia & The New World?
“Stop. Look. Think. Act.” Since its very beginning, our festival has been committed to focus our attention on nature, which gives birth to all life. Visual narratives by the world’s best photographers celebrate the beauty of planet Earth but address pressing environmental issues as well. Choosing a different geography each year, the festival places the human condition centerstage of the discussion, this year in Australia. The second narrative is dedicated to the state of our planet.
Australia, almost a hundred times the size of Austria, has a population of just 26 million people. Rich in natural resources, it is the 5th most prosperous country in the world. Australia is one of the antipodes, which is the name given to those areas that are on the ‘opposite side’ of the globe. According to this definition, Australians are the inhabitants of the Earth who live ‘with their heads down and their feet up’.
Australian photographers are ambassadors for the beauty of a unique continent that must be preserved. Their works explore themes of identity and the environment in various narrative styles such as drama, black humour, fiction and reality. Through their work, they open a window on society to advocate for the rights of the First Nations Australians. Their visual signature is full of poetry and brimming with creativity.
‘New World’ unites topics that deal with our environment: we reported about the consequences of mining in the Andean countries and travel to the People of the Volcanoes in Papua New Guinea. Or to Benin, where voodoo practitioners are considered true guardians of biodiversity. We had a close look at the problem of green algae blooms on the Atlantic coasts and witnessed the apocalypse of extreme weather phenomena. And we tried to answer the question of whether the world will be able to feed 10 billion people.
The festival is also committed to address issues that are at the heart of society. These include ME/CFS – a very severe illness that robs those affected of all their energy. The festival is an invitation to look, think and act. The power of images and their stories opens up spaces for dialogue on ecological and social issues. For 4 months, Baden becomes a place where art in public spaces creates new perspectives.
What were the key moments or new developments that defined this year’s program — in terms of curatorial choices, new partnerships, or visitor experiences?
In addition to what we share with La Gacilly we decided to look closer to pressing topics of society and bring them even closer to the attention of the general public but politicians alike. To assign Brent Stirton to take on ME/CFS in Austria is one of those efforts.
Secondly we brought to the attention of our visitors the pressing environmental situation of our trees showcasing a story “The Forest is the Greatest Artist”. To prove their point, Pia Scharler, as creative director, and Craig Dillon, as photographer, recreated 12 of the greatest works of art history using natural materials.
To make this homage to biodiversity a reality, employees of the Austrian Federal Forests spent a whole year collecting natural materials in the forests of Austria. With painstaking attention to detail, she used these materials to recreate a series of artworks. Among them are Klimt’s Kiss and The Wanderer by Caspar David Friedrich.
As a third example stand out Dieter and Isi Bornemanns’s work “Eaten up! – Use food instead of wasting it“ A work which accompanies George Steinmetz “Feed the Planet” referring to the fact that 40% of all food produced worldwide is not consumed but wasted. And gives advice what you can do against it.
With the four-week special exhibition ”Code of the Universe,” the festival reflected on the feasibility of humanity’s largest research project at CERN in Geneva – the planned Future Circular Collider.
And on the artist side we paired Joel Meyerowitz and Alfred Seiland who both photographed at the very same time the very same images on the very same locations, even meeting each other while doing so. A view to America by an American born in the Bronx and an Austrian born in Leoben.
Add new partnerships to all of this: Since the very beginning I have tried to enlarge our field of communication by spreading the festival under the claim “Culture of Solidarity” to the Month of Photography in Bratislava, to Celje in Slovenia or to Budapest this year.
How do you measure the festival’s impact on the public — locally, nationally, and internationally?
We hope to register most publications nationally and internationally. During our opening- and media weekend, we welcome up to 100 journalists in Baden. And the visitors are counted by expocloud – a company based in Aachen in Germany, which specialises in visitor flow analysis and has won several innovation awards for its work. The method is a mix of anonymised WLAN- and mobile phone data, combined with the appropriate mathematics. This is state-of-the-art technology from a company that specialises in this field.
Could you share any memorable reactions or anecdotes that capture what La Gacilly-Baden Photo represents for visitors and photographers alike?
Sure. Here are a few reactions and comments. “What a celebration the opening weekend was again – full of inspiring conversations, impressive photographic works and warm encounters! It is truly a special gift that you give to the international photography community year after year,” said journalist Katharina Niu, from Stern. “Nowhere else is the organisation so perfect, the exchange so open and the proximity to the photographers so palpable.” On his side, Gianmarco Maraviglia, a Washington Post and CNN contributor, said: “It was one of the most inspiring photographic experiences I’ve ever had. The quality of the exhibitions was outstanding, as was the hospitality and the opportunity to engage with so many top-level international professionals. Thank you! It will definitely become a regular yearly event for me.” Christoph Künne, a cultural scientist and founder of Docma, added: “Under the theme ‘Australia & The New World,’ the spa town of Baden near Vienna is once again transforming itself into a sprawling gallery for excellent photographic art. For professional image creators and those who are intensively engaged with the nuances of photography and digital image enhancement, the festival promises not only a wealth of visual inspiration, but also profound insights into contemporary photographic discourse and its social relevance.” One more from Peter Filzmaier, a political scientist: “I’m at the fantastic (open-air) exhibition in Baden. There are 31 great stations covering everything from the South Seas to the 1950s along a seven-kilometre city and park trail.”
As the festival continues to expand, what are the main challenges you face — whether logistical, financial, or institutional — and what new directions or projects are you envisioning for the next editions?
In the first place it is about money. As the festival cannot and will not sell tickets it is challenging to get the budget together. We need at least 1 million to fund it all. Logistically I would like to set foot in the Czech Republic or Poland – besides Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary. If we can play in all the countries with at least one exhibition – only God knows.
The direction of the festival seems straight to environmental topics. Which is best! From the choice of photographers I will try to focus more on Central and Eastern European works in exchange to the anglosaxon-francophonic overload of photographers. But in a partnership you have quite many opinions ….
Environmental concern has always been at the heart of the festival’s identity. How do you ensure that the exhibitions continue to raise awareness about ecological issues while maintaining a sustainable production model?
From the content point of view I am not worried about offering our visitors the right feed. What worries me indeed is to find a better option for buying certificates in order to balance the carbon-footprint we cause by setting up the festival.
In a world saturated with images, what role do you believe photography — and particularly outdoor festivals like La Gacilly-Baden — can play in reconnecting audiences to both art and the planet?
I am convinced that the time of photography is now! I consider the use of cellphones by almost everyone as a camera a cultural revolution like no other. It is no less than the unlimited access for everyone to hers/his personal visual expression, anytime, anywhere. And besides this photography has become the source of non-verbal communication and non-verbal learning. I also believe that the term photography is outdated. What I see in front of us are imaging procedures from x-ray – if you will – to AI. Exciting! Very exciting is the fact that the dominance of the spoken and written word as a significant tool expressing power has become a rival which can be handled by many without the limitations of languages understood just in one country.
More information on the festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo here.
