##### Menu, footer and redirects — Appearance › Menus · Settings · Redirection === Main menu — labels and links, in this order (Menu) === - Program 2026 → /program/ - Artists → /artists/ - Visit & Tickets → /visit/ - WITNESS → /witness/ - Press → /press/ - Support us → /support-us/ === Footer column 1 — Visit (Footer / Text) === Visit - Visit & Tickets → /visit/ - Program 2026 → /program/ - Exhibitions → /exhibitions/ - Volunteer → /volunteer/ === Footer column 2 — Festival (Footer / Text) === Festival - About → /about/ - WITNESS → /witness/ - Partners 2026 → /partners/ - Press → /press/ - Past editions → /past-editions/ === Footer column 3 — Contact (Footer / Text) === Contact hi@bucharestphotofest.ro Centre for Alternative Music & Arts 4 Ion Berindei Street, District 2, Bucharest === Footer — about line (Footer / Text) === Bucharest Photofest is an international photography festival founded in 2016 and organised by the Centre for Alternative Music & Arts Association, an independent cultural organisation. We believe in the power of the image to question, document and educate. === Footer — bottom line (Footer / Text) === © 2016–2026 Centre for Alternative Music & Arts · Privacy & Cookie Policy · #LetsGetVisual === Footer — volunteer line (replaces the "#" links) (Footer / Text) === Career & volunteering We are always looking for committed collaborators in festival production, artist and venue management, communication and media production. Join the volunteer team → /volunteer/ === 301 redirects (Redirection plugin or .htaccess) (Redirects) === /program2026 → /program/ /2026 → /program/ /editorial2025 → /witness/ /tickets → /visit/ /practical-information → /visit/ /partners2025 → /partners-2025/ === Pages to hide (set to Draft) (Checklist) === - /support/ — 2025 festival overview, duplicate of /support-us/ - /events/ — empty 2024 calendar - Open calls 2024 (portfolio items) - /corporate-income-tax-redirection/ — until RO and EN give the same fiscal year - /privacy-policy/ — theme demo text; replace with the approved policy ##### Page titles and meta descriptions — Yoast / Rank Math, per page === Homepage (SEO) === Title: Bucharest Photofest 2026 — WITNESS · 9–18 October, Bucharest Description: The 11th Bucharest Photofest, 9–18 October 2026. WITNESS: exhibitions, films, workshops and talks across Bucharest. Most events are free. === Program 2026 (SEO) === Title: Program 2026 — Bucharest Photofest Description: Day-by-day program of Bucharest Photofest, 9–18 October 2026: exhibitions, films, masterclasses, workshops and photo walks in 11 venues. === WITNESS (SEO) === Title: WITNESS — the theme of Bucharest Photofest 2026 Description: WITNESS: photography as presence, as long-term commitment and as a form of responsibility towards what is photographed. === Artists (SEO) === Title: Invited artists 2026 — Bucharest Photofest Description: Evgeniy Maloletka, Mohamed Mahdy, Rubén Salgado Escudero, Joakim Kocjancic and the other invited artists of Bucharest Photofest 2026. === Exhibitions (SEO) === Title: Exhibitions 2026 — Bucharest Photofest Description: Exhibitions of Bucharest Photofest 2026 at Kulturhaus, CdRF, ARCUB, Rezidența 9, CAV, OTOTO Station, POINT and Control Club. Free entry. === Visit & Tickets (SEO) === Title: Visit & Tickets — Bucharest Photofest 2026 Description: Venues, addresses, free and ticketed events of Bucharest Photofest, 9–18 October 2026. === Press (SEO) === Title: Press — Bucharest Photofest 2026 Description: Press information, accreditation and boilerplate for Bucharest Photofest 2026, WITNESS, 9–18 October. === Volunteer (SEO) === Title: Volunteer — Bucharest Photofest 2026 Description: Join the volunteer team of Bucharest Photofest, 9–18 October 2026. Contract, certificate and access to every festival event. ##### Homepage — / === 1 · Hero — small line above the title (Heading (small)) === Bucharest Photofest · 11th edition === 1 · Hero — title (Heading (H1)) === WITNESS === 1 · Hero — dates (Heading (H2)) === 9–18 October 2026 · Bucharest === 1 · Hero — text (Text editor) === Ten days of photography as presence, as long-term commitment and as responsibility. Exhibitions, films, masterclasses, workshops and photo walks in 11 venues across Bucharest. Exhibitions and most events are free. === 1 · Hero — buttons (Button ×2) === See the program → /program/ Plan your visit → /visit/ === 1 · Hero — numbers line (Text editor) === 10 days · ~50 events · 200+ artists · 11 venues · 20+ countries === 1 · Hero — swap during the festival (9–15 Oct) (Heading (small) + Button) === Now on · until Sun 18 October Button: What's on today → /program/ === 1 · Hero — swap for the last days (16–18 Oct) (Heading (small) + Button) === Last days · ends Sun 18 October Film night on Friday at Cinema Union. Closing gala on Sunday at Control Club. === 1 · Hero — swap after 18 Oct (Heading (small) + Text) === Thank you The 11th edition has ended. Thank you to the artists, audiences, volunteers and partners who made WITNESS. === 2 · Coming up — heading (Heading) === Coming up === 2 · Coming up — content (HTML widget) === Embed the agenda block from the project (bpf-agenda-block.html), filtered to the next days — or link: Full program → /program/ === 3 · Three evenings — heading and intro (Heading + Text) === Three evenings The festival opens, turns to film and closes. The rest of the program runs around these three nights. === 3 · Card 1 — Opening (Image box / Text) === Opening · Fri 9 October · POINT The 11th edition opens at POINT with the collective exhibition Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget, followed by Minamata (Andrew Levitas, 2020), the story of W. Eugene Smith's last great assignment. - 19:00 · Official opening · Free - 19:30 · Exhibition Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget · Free - 20:00–22:00 · Screening Minamata · Ticketed POINT, Strada General Eremia Grigorescu 10 === 3 · Card 2 — Film night (Image box / Text) === Film night · Fri 16 October · Cinema Union Four short films, then Raoul Peck's Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, on the South African photographer who first showed the world the reality of apartheid. - An Underground Bird — Eero Tammi (Finland) - Forgetting — Antoni Orlof (Poland) - Finding the Landscape — Carlos Vin Lopes (Germany) - KIN — Ana Baer and Rocio Luna (Mexico / USA) - Ernest Cole: Lost and Found — Raoul Peck, 2024 20:00–22:30 · Ticketed · Cinema Union, Strada Ion Câmpineanu 21 === 3 · Card 3 — Closing (Image box / Text) === Closing · Sun 18 October · Control Club The last evening brings together David Burlacu's portraits of the Control Club community, CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming, and the Ending Gala with The Speakers live. - 19:30 · Exhibition CTRL 18 · Free - 19:30–23:00 · Ending Gala with The Speakers LIVE · Ticketed Control Club, Strada Constantin Mille 4 === 4 · Invited artists — heading and intro (Heading + Text) === Invited artists Long-term work, made from inside: war reporting, a collective archive written with a fishing community, portraits lit by solar power, analogue street photography and pinhole cameras. === 4 · Artist card — Evgeniy Maloletka (Image box) === Evgeniy Maloletka · Ukraine Stayed inside besieged Mariupol in 2022. Archive of Evidence · Sun 18 Oct, 17:00 · Kulturhaus === 4 · Artist card — Mohamed Mahdy (Image box) === Mohamed Mahdy · Egypt A collective archive of letters to the sea, written in El Max, Alexandria. Broken memory · Thu 15 Oct, 19:00 · CdRF === 4 · Artist card — Rubén Salgado Escudero (Image box) === Rubén Salgado Escudero · Spain Portraits lit only by the solar bulb the sitter depends on. Solar Portraits · Wed 14 Oct, 20:00 · Rezidența 9 === 4 · Artist card — Joakim Kocjancic (Image box) === Joakim Kocjancic · Sweden Analogue black and white; Bucharest streets, a Swedish summer house. SOLVARV · Sun 11 Oct, 18:00 · Kulturhaus === 4 · Artist card — Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson (Image box) === Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · Iceland Six years of eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula. Reykjanes Awakens · Tue 13 Oct, 19:00 · Kulturhaus === 4 · Artist card — Vedad Divović (Image box) === Vedad Divović · Bosnia and Herzegovina People in transition, lives between borders. Home of the Perpetually Lost · Tue 13 Oct, 19:00 · Kulturhaus === 4 · Button under the cards (Button) === All artists → /artists/ === 5 · Plan your visit (Heading + Text + Buttons) === 11 venues. Most of it is free. All exhibitions, openings, Meet the artist tours and photobook presentations are free, and so are the masterclasses at CdRF and ARCUB. Films, the Night at the Museum, the Ending Gala, the photo walk, the outdoor pinhole masterclass and some workshops are ticketed. Kulturhaus, Strada Sfânta Vineri 4, is the main exhibition hub. Buttons: Visit & Tickets → /visit/ · All exhibitions → /exhibitions/ === 6 · WITNESS — quote (Blockquote / Heading) === "To bear witness does not mean speaking in someone else's place, nor claiming possession of an experience that is not ours. It means creating the conditions of an encounter in which what has been marginalised, silenced or pushed outside the visible field can no longer be ignored." === 6 · WITNESS — line under the quote + button (Text + Button) === The urgent question is no longer only what can be photographed?, but what makes an image matter? Button: Read the curatorial statement → /witness/ === 7 · Newsletter (Heading + Form) === One email when it matters. Program announcements, ticket releases and open calls. Field: Your email address Button: Subscribe Consent: I agree to receive emails from Bucharest Photofest. I can unsubscribe at any time. Success message: Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm your subscription. === 8 · Partners (Heading + Logos) === Partners 2026 Bucharest Photofest 2026 is made possible by its partners. Button: All partners → /partners/ === 8 · A decade (Heading + Text + Button) === 2016–2025: ten editions before this one 300+ events, 1,000+ artists and guests, 50,000+ participants. Button: Past editions → /past-editions/ === 8 · Support (Heading + Text + Button) === Keep the festival independent Bucharest Photofest is organised by an independent cultural organisation. Donations and partnerships keep most of the program free. Button: Support us → /support-us/ ##### Program 2026 — /program/ (move 2025 to /program-2025/) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Program 2026 === Intro (Text editor) === From Friday 9 to Sunday 18 October, Bucharest Photofest brings exhibitions, film screenings, masterclasses, workshops, photo walks, photobook presentations and night projections to 11 venues across Bucharest. Most of the program is free. Times listed for exhibitions are the opening (vernissage). The exhibitions stay on view after it — see Exhibitions and Visit & Tickets. Free — no ticket needed. Ticketed — see Visit & Tickets. === Live agenda (recommended) (HTML widget) === Paste the full contents of bpf-agenda-block.html (project file claude/agenda-web/). === Fri 9 October — Opening (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Fri 9 October — Opening - 19:00 · Official opening · Official opening of the 11th edition · POINT · Free - 19:30 · Exhibition · Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget — collective exhibition · POINT · Free - 20:00–22:00 · Film · Minamata — Andrew Levitas, 2020 · POINT · Ticketed === Sat 10 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Sat 10 October - 10:00–13:00 · Workshop · In Plain Sight I — with Miluță Flueraș, in collaboration with Save the Children · OTOTO Station · Free - 10:00–13:00 · Workshop · In Plain Sight II — with Justin Quinnell, in collaboration with Save the Children · CdRF · Free - 10:00–13:00 · Workshop · How to Be Lost on Purpose — with Vedad Divović, powered by SONY · Downtown (outdoor) · Ticketed - 15:00 · Exhibition opening · Displacement (Ghorbat) — Toulo Adl Parvar · Kulturhaus · Free - 17:00 · Exhibition opening · Searching for Great Beauty — Eva Bystrianská · CAV Multimedia · Free - 20:00–23:00 · Night event · Night at the Museum: Afterlight — photo projections and silent party · National Museum of Maps and Old Books · Ticketed === Sun 11 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Sun 11 October - 10:00–13:00 · Photo walk · Witnessing on the streets of Bucharest — with Joakim Kocjancic · Downtown (outdoor) · Ticketed - 10:00–13:00 · Workshop · Somewhere to Look From — with Justin Quinnell, in collaboration with UNHCR · OTOTO Station · Free - 14:00–15:00 · Masterclass · No Such Thing as Bad Weather — Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · CdRF · Free - 15:00–18:00 · Masterclass · Pinhole photography and other obsessions — Justin Quinnell · Downtown (outdoor) · Ticketed - 18:00 · Exhibition opening · SOLVARV — Joakim Kocjancic · Kulturhaus · Free - 19:00 · Exhibition opening · Still Birth — Chiara Ernandes · Kulturhaus · Free === Mon 12 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Mon 12 October - 11:00 · Meet the artist · Chiara Ernandes — guided tour of Still Birth · Kulturhaus · Free - 12:00 · Meet the artist · Joakim Kocjancic — guided tour · Kulturhaus · Free - 18:00–22:00 · Photobooks · Presentations and signings — Bucharest — Joakim Kocjancic · Here, The Doors Don't Know Me — Mohamed Mahdy · Reykjanes Awakens — Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · Fig. M. signings — Ioana Moldovan, Alex Gâlmeanu, Cosmin Bumbuț · CdRF · Free === Tue 13 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Tue 13 October - 11:00 · Meet the artist · Vedad Divović — guided tour · Kulturhaus · Free - 19:00 · Exhibition opening · Home of the Perpetually Lost — Vedad Divović · Kulturhaus · Free - 19:00 · Exhibition opening · Reykjanes Awakens — Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · Kulturhaus · Free === Wed 14 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Wed 14 October - 13:00–15:00 · Masterclass · The Long Way In — Rubén Salgado Escudero, powered by SONY · ARCUB · Free - 19:00 · Exhibition opening · Nature Witnessing the City — collective exhibition · OTOTO Station · Free - 20:00 · Exhibition opening · Solar Portraits — Rubén Salgado Escudero · Rezidența 9 · Free - 20:00–23:00 · Night event · Afterlight — photo projections and DJ set · OTOTO Station · Free === Thu 15 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Thu 15 October - 11:00 · Meet the artist · Mohamed Mahdy — guided tour · CdRF · Free - 14:00 · Exhibition opening · In Plain Sight — with Save the Children and Justin Quinnell · ARCUB · Free - 19:00 · Exhibition opening · Broken memory — Mohamed Mahdy · CdRF · Free === Fri 16 October — Film night (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Fri 16 October — Film night - 11:00 · Meet the artist · Rubén Salgado Escudero — guided tour of Solar Portraits · Rezidența 9 · Free - 20:00–22:30 · Film night · Four short films + Ernest Cole: Lost and Found — An Underground Bird (Eero Tammi) · Forgetting (Antoni Orlof) · Finding the Landscape (Carlos Vin Lopes) · KIN (Ana Baer, Rocio Luna) · Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Raoul Peck, 2024) · Cinema Union · Ticketed === Sat 17 October (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Sat 17 October - 12:00–15:00 · Workshop · Off the Paper — photo transfer and painting with SăFițiCuminți Crew · OTOTO Station · Ticketed - 15:00–18:00 · Workshop · Second Shot — single-use camera upcycling with °iso Film Lab · CdRF · Free - 18:00–20:00 · Film · In Passing — Gailė Garnelytė, Lithuania — on photographer Artūras Morozovas · Cinema Union · Ticketed - 20:00 · Photobook · The Siege of Mariupol — Evgeniy Maloletka · Kulturhaus · Free - 20:00–23:00 · Night event · Afterlight — photo projections and DJ set · CdRF · Free === Sun 18 October — Closing (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Sun 18 October — Closing - 17:00 · Exhibition opening · Archive of Evidence — Evgeniy Maloletka · Kulturhaus · Free - 19:30 · Exhibition · CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming — David Burlacu · Control Club · Free - 19:30–23:00 · Closing · Ending Gala — with The Speakers LIVE · Control Club · Ticketed === On view during the festival (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === On view during the festival - Lines of Connection. Photographers of the IPFA Award 2025 — 50 photographers · Kulturhaus · Free - Witnesses from Gaza — Omar Ashtawy · Kulturhaus · Free - Wish You Were Here! Iceland and Edinburgh Souvenir — Dora Huiban · Kulturhaus · Free - Sensitive Data — Jolana Havelková · CAV Multimedia · Free - CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming — David Burlacu · Control Club (Alt Shift), from 3 October · Free ##### WITNESS — /witness/ (301 from /editorial2025) === Small line (Heading (small)) === The 11th edition of Bucharest Photofest · 9–18 October 2026 === Title (Heading (H1)) === WITNESS === Curatorial statement (Text editor) === We live in an excess of images and, at the same time, in a steady erosion of their capacity to produce a response. WITNESS is our curatorial answer to that situation: an edition built around photography as presence, as long-term commitment, and as a form of responsibility towards what is photographed. To bear witness is not a passive act, not a gesture that crosses impassively over the surface of events; it presupposes a real presence. At its most demanding, photography is precisely a practice of that engaged presence. It can turn looking into a form of knowledge, and knowledge into an ethical obligation. If almost any moment of existence can today be captured, transmitted and consumed instantly, the urgent question is no longer only what can be photographed?, but what makes an image matter? A photograph's capacity to fix an experience in collective memory, to claim attention or to produce a form of responsibility is not guaranteed by the mere act of recording; it has to be earned: through responsibility, through commitment, through the rigour of the relationship with the subject and the clarity of the ethical stake. Testimony is not a method applied retrospectively, but a condition that shapes the work from the moment the camera is raised. It may mean years of work inside a community before any image is produced. It may mean approaching the material traces of absence: fragmentary archives, devastated spaces, disappeared bodies, histories left without representation. It may mean turning the camera on oneself: interrogating one's own privilege, one's own vulnerability, one's own role in relation to what is photographed. WITNESS does not delimit a narrow thematic territory, nor does it privilege a single photographic language. It includes collective memory and personal testimony; war and its intimate consequences; the intergenerational transmission of trauma; the erosion of landscapes and communities; the structural violence that shapes everyday life; the faces of those made invisible by the dominant visual order; but also fragility, care, solidarity and the persistence of hope. The festival does not look for images that beautify the real, consume it as spectacle or comfortably confirm what we already know. It puts forward works born of long, sometimes difficult contact with the world; works in which the frame does not close experience but keeps its complexity open and makes the responsibility of the photographic act visible. === Pull quote (Blockquote) === Under what conditions can photography function simultaneously as an act of knowledge and as an ethical intervention in the order of representation? Who becomes visible and who remains outside the frame? Who has the right to bear witness, and what responsibility does that right entail? === Closing paragraph + signature (Text editor) === Over a decade, Bucharest Photofest has built its program around themes with real cultural and political stakes: Identity, Resistance, Solidarity, Resilience, Legacy. WITNESS continues and intensifies that curatorial line, shifting the question from what an image can show towards what it is obliged to sustain. To bear witness does not mean speaking in someone else's place, nor claiming possession of an experience that is not ours. It means creating the conditions of an encounter in which what has been marginalised, silenced or pushed outside the visible field can no longer be ignored. In this perspective, photography becomes a space of active memory; it becomes a form of responsibility. Ionuț Trandafirescu Founder and artistic director, Bucharest Photofest === Buttons (Button ×2) === See the 2026 program → /program/ Meet the invited artists → /artists/ ##### Invited artists — /artists/ === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Invited artists === Intro (Text editor) === Nine invited artists come to Bucharest for WITNESS. Their work includes war reporting, a collective archive made with a fishing community, portraits lit by solar power, volcanic eruptions followed for six years, analogue street photography and the pinhole camera. Among them are photographers recognised by the Pulitzer Prize, World Press Photo, the Ian Parry Grant and National Geographic. === Evgeniy Maloletka (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Evgeniy Maloletka · Ukraine Evgeniy Maloletka is a Ukrainian photojournalist working with the Associated Press. He has documented Ukraine for more than a decade, from the Revolution of Dignity to the full-scale invasion. In spring 2022 he stayed inside besieged Mariupol with AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko; their images formed the basis of the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. The coverage earned the AP team the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and Maloletka the World Press Photo of the Year 2023. At the festival - Photobook · The Siege of Mariupol · Sat 17 Oct, 20:00 · Kulturhaus · Free - Exhibition · Archive of Evidence · Sun 18 Oct, 17:00 · Kulturhaus · Free === Omar Ashtawy (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Omar Ashtawy · Gaza, Palestine Omar Ashtawy is a Palestinian photojournalist working from the Gaza Strip for APA Images and, as a freelancer, for the Associated Press, Reuters and DPA. He covered the 2021 war and, without interruption, the conflict that began in 2023, photographing both the destruction and the life that continues inside it. In 2025 he received the Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant. He works under constant risk, as a witness from within his own community. At the festival - Installation · Witnesses from Gaza · on view during the festival · Kulturhaus · Free === Mohamed Mahdy (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Mohamed Mahdy · Egypt Mohamed Mahdy was born in 1996 in Alexandria, where he still lives, next to the fishing neighbourhood of El Max. He studied arts and design at Pharos University and holds two diplomas from DMJX in Aarhus, and is a Magnum Foundation Fellow (2021) and a National Geographic Explorer. Since 2016 he has worked with the residents of El Max, a community facing demolition and relocation. His web documentary Here, The Doors Don't Know Me received regional and global World Press Photo awards in 2023. At the festival - Photobook · Here, The Doors Don't Know Me · Mon 12 Oct, 18:00 · CdRF · Free - Meet the artist · Thu 15 Oct, 11:00 · CdRF · Free - Exhibition · Broken memory · Thu 15 Oct, 19:00 · CdRF · Free === Rubén Salgado Escudero (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Rubén Salgado Escudero · Spain Rubén Salgado Escudero was born in Madrid and raised in the United States. He trained at the Savannah College of Art and Design and spent a decade in Berlin as a lead 3D animator in video games. A National Geographic Explorer, he has worked since 2014 on Solar Portraits, made in 40 locations across 12 countries on five continents. His work has appeared in National Geographic, TIME and GEO. At the festival - Masterclass · The Long Way In, powered by SONY · Wed 14 Oct, 13:00–15:00 · ARCUB · Free - Exhibition · Solar Portraits · Wed 14 Oct, 20:00 · Rezidența 9 · Free - Meet the artist · Fri 16 Oct, 11:00 · Rezidența 9 · Free === Joakim Kocjancic (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Joakim Kocjancic · Sweden Joakim Kocjancic was born in Milan in 1975 and has lived in Stockholm since 2006. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Italy and holds an MA in Photojournalism from the London College of Communication. Starting from painting, he works exclusively in analogue black and white, in a line that runs through Anders Petersen and Christer Strömholm. His books include Paradise Stockholm and Europea, winner of the Swedish Photo Book Prize. From 2019 to 2023 he photographed the streets of Bucharest. At the festival - Photo walk · Witnessing on the streets of Bucharest · Sun 11 Oct, 10:00–13:00 · Downtown · Ticketed - Exhibition · SOLVARV · Sun 11 Oct, 18:00 · Kulturhaus · Free - Meet the artist · Mon 12 Oct, 12:00 · Kulturhaus · Free - Photobook · Bucharest · Mon 12 Oct, 18:00 · CdRF · Free === Justin Quinnell (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Justin Quinnell · United Kingdom Justin Quinnell is a Bristol-based photographer regarded as one of the leading experts in pinhole photography, camera obscura and experimental photography. He has taught at The Photographers' Gallery, the Martin Parr Foundation, the Science Museum and the British Library, and has been an associate lecturer at Falmouth University for twenty years. His work includes the book Mouthpiece (Dewi Lewis), pinhole video and solargraphy. He is a founding director of the Bristol Community Darkrooms. At the festival - Workshop · In Plain Sight II, with Save the Children · Sat 10 Oct, 10:00–13:00 · CdRF · Free - Workshop · Somewhere to Look From, with UNHCR · Sun 11 Oct, 10:00–13:00 · OTOTO Station · Free - Masterclass · Pinhole photography and other obsessions · Sun 11 Oct, 15:00–18:00 · Downtown · Ticketed - Exhibition · In Plain Sight · Thu 15 Oct, 14:00 · ARCUB · Free === Vedad Divović (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Vedad Divović · Bosnia and Herzegovina / Germany Vedad Divović was born in Sarajevo and came to Germany at a young age, where he studied photography; he works between Hamburg and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His photographs follow people in transition and identities that stay unresolved. He has travelled through the former Yugoslavia photographing people, places and everyday life without naming locations, photographed bus passengers in Ukraine through fogged windows, and, in his most personal series, his mother. His work treats a life between borders as its subject. At the festival - Workshop · How to Be Lost on Purpose, powered by SONY · Sat 10 Oct, 10:00–13:00 · Downtown · Ticketed - Meet the artist · Tue 13 Oct, 11:00 · Kulturhaus · Free - Exhibition · Home of the Perpetually Lost · Tue 13 Oct, 19:00 · Kulturhaus · Free === Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · Iceland Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson (Siggi Sig) is an Icelandic photographer based in Kópavogur. He graduated in photography from Tækniskólinn in 2012 and brings 36 years of search-and-rescue experience to his work, which sits between documentary photography and humanitarian intervention. Since January 2020 he has photographed the volcanic unrest on the Reykjanes peninsula and its effect on the people who live there. His book Reykjanes Vaknar (2024) appears in English in 2026 as Reykjanes Awakens. At the festival - Masterclass · No Such Thing as Bad Weather · Sun 11 Oct, 14:00–15:00 · CdRF · Free - Photobook · Reykjanes Awakens · Mon 12 Oct, 18:00 · CdRF · Free - Exhibition · Reykjanes Awakens · Tue 13 Oct, 19:00 · Kulturhaus · Free === Toulo Adl Parvar (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Toulo Adl Parvar · Iran / Netherlands Toulo Adl Parvar is an Iranian photographer based in the Netherlands. Growing up in Iran, she saw how political decisions made beyond national borders shaped everyday life. She works across photography, video and sound; archival material, text and poetry are central to her practice. Her work explores belonging, visibility, memory and identity, drawing on diaspora artists who negotiate homeland, displacement and life between cultures. At the festival - Exhibition · Displacement (Ghorbat) · Sat 10 Oct, 15:00 · Kulturhaus · Free === Romanian photographers in the program (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Romanian photographers in the program Ana Alexandrescu, Anca Cioltan / Anca Punkt, Cătălin Alexandru, Cătălin Chiriloi, Cosmin Gârleșteanu, Cristina Bîrlădeanu, Daria Radu, Denise Lobonț, Dora Huiban, Elena Corbu, Emilian Avramescu, Florin Ghebosu, Lăcră Grozăvescu, Laura Dragomir, Nadina Stoica, Nicoleta Gabor, Patricia Iordache-Niculescu, Ștefania Crăciun, Tamas Borza. ##### Exhibitions 2026 — /exhibitions/ (new) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Exhibitions 2026 === Intro (Text editor) === The exhibitions of WITNESS open across the ten days of the festival, most of them at Kulturhaus, the festival's main exhibition hub. Entry to every exhibition is free. Times below are the openings; the exhibitions stay on view after them. === Archive of Evidence (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Archive of Evidence Evgeniy Maloletka · Sun 18 Oct, opening 17:00 · Kulturhaus · Free Archive of Evidence presents photographs from The Siege of Mariupol, Evgeniy Maloletka's photobook published by Ukraїner. It brings together images and personal reflections from the first twenty days of Russia's full-scale invasion, when he stayed inside the besieged city with Mstyslav Chernov and Vasilisa Stepanenko. Each photograph carries its date, place and context, the stories of the people shown and the photographer's reflections. The exhibition asks how images become evidence against historical erasure. === Broken memory (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Broken memory Mohamed Mahdy · Thu 15 Oct, opening 19:00 · CdRF · Free El Max, a fishing neighbourhood on the edge of Alexandria, is being demolished and its residents moved inland. Mahdy, who lives next to it, has photographed El Max since 2016. Drawing on a local tradition of writing letters to the sea, he invited residents to write a last letter before leaving their homes. The archive holds photographs, letters, family albums, drawings, oral histories and more than a thousand replies from strangers. Residents tell their own stories and choose how they are remembered. === Solar Portraits (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Solar Portraits Rubén Salgado Escudero · Wed 14 Oct, opening 20:00 · Rezidența 9 · Free A population roughly the size of Europe's still lives without electricity. Solar Portraits borrows chiaroscuro, the lighting of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, but the light source is a solar bulb: each person is lit by the light they depend on every day. Instead of showing electrification through power plants and grids, the series works at the scale of the household lamp. Salgado Escudero has made it since 2014, in 40 locations across 12 countries on five continents. === SOLVARV (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === SOLVARV Joakim Kocjancic · Sun 11 Oct, opening 18:00 · Kulturhaus · Free SOLVARV was made over two summers at a house of that name in the Swedish countryside, a place without electricity or running water where the day follows the arc of the sun. The title refers to the turning of the year and the return of light. Forests, lakes, gardens and children running through fields are photographed without staging, in analogue black and white. === Home of the Perpetually Lost (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Home of the Perpetually Lost Vedad Divović · Tue 13 Oct, opening 19:00 · Kulturhaus · Free Vedad Divović photographs people in transition and identities that stay unresolved, from his own perspective as a migrant who came to Germany at a young age. Travelling through the former Yugoslavia, he photographs people, places and everyday life without naming locations. The work resists classification and takes hybridity, a life lived between borders, as its subject. === Reykjanes Awakens (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Reykjanes Awakens Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson · Tue 13 Oct, opening 19:00 · Kulturhaus · Free Since January 2020, Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson has photographed the volcanic unrest on the Reykjanes peninsula in south-west Iceland: repeated eruptions, the evacuation of the fishing town of Grindavík and the work to protect the town and its infrastructure. The volcanoes are present, but the subject is people meeting unpredictable nature with adaptability, ingenuity and strength. The project continues as books, exhibitions and a growing archive. === Displacement (Ghorbat) (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Displacement (Ghorbat) Toulo Adl Parvar · Sat 10 Oct, opening 15:00 · Kulturhaus · Free In Farsi, ghorbat names the condition of being away from home and no longer fully belonging anywhere. On 13 June 2025, when Iran was attacked, Toulo Adl Parvar was in the Netherlands under a calm sky, far from a home under threat. Pairing Dutch and Iranian landscapes, and returning to Iran after the attacks, she uses photography, symbols, text and archival material to look at memory, fear and hope. The focus is the emotional reality of displacement. === Witnesses from Gaza (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Witnesses from Gaza Omar Ashtawy · On view during the festival · Kulturhaus · Free An installation of photographs by Omar Ashtawy, a Palestinian photojournalist who has worked from inside the Gaza Strip since the 2021 war and without interruption since 2023, photographing both the destruction and the life that continues inside it. === In Plain Sight (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === In Plain Sight Save the Children, with Justin Quinnell · Thu 15 Oct, opening 14:00 · ARCUB · Free In Plain Sight is about children's rights and about adults' responsibility not to remain passive witnesses. It sets up a dialogue between children facing bullying, exclusion, violence, displacement, separation from parents working abroad or barriers to education, and the adults who have the power to shape their world. It asks visitors not only to look, but to consider what they do once they have seen. === Still Birth (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Still Birth Chiara Ernandes · Sun 11 Oct, opening 19:00 · Kulturhaus · Free Chiara Ernandes was born without signs of life on 8 August 1989 and resuscitated after five minutes. Still Birth (2018–2020) grows out of that threshold between life and death, which over the years came to account for her sense of distance from the world. Taking the roles of speleologist, astronaut, diver and researcher, she treats the work as a rite of passage that reconstructs a first imprint. In her words, she "started from death, by contradiction". === Searching for Great Beauty (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Searching for Great Beauty Eva Bystrianská · Sat 10 Oct, opening 17:00 · CAV Multimedia · Free Searching for Great Beauty began around 2018, in a period of personal crisis. Most of the photographs were taken on the Jihlava housing estate where Eva Bystrianská lives, and in the estates, suburbs and countryside around it. They are documentary slices of reality that leave their reading open: where does reality end and fantasy begin? The artist calls photography "an act of self-defence". === Sensitive Data (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Sensitive Data Jolana Havelková · On view during the festival · CAV Multimedia · Free Jolana Havelková finds publicly installed webcams, in cities, in the countryside and in places where little happens beyond the passage of light and dark, and appropriates their images. She composes them into vertical strips of hundreds of small frames covering one place over twenty-four hours. From a distance they read as fields of colour and shadow; up close, places, people and the artist herself appear. The work asks how our existence becomes public property. === Wish You Were Here! Iceland · Edinburgh Souvenir (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Wish You Were Here! Iceland · Edinburgh Souvenir Dora Huiban · On view during the festival · Kulturhaus · Free Two series of short video works made from animated photo collages. Dora Huiban turns her own travel photographs into speculative landscapes between memory and imagination. Instead of documenting places, these moving postcards rebuild the emotional residue of travel and treat the archive as living material that reshapes memories rather than preserving them. === Lines of Connection. Photographers of the IPFA Award 2025 (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === Lines of Connection. Photographers of the IPFA Award 2025 50 photographers · On view during the festival · Kulturhaus · Free The 50 finalists of the IPFA Award 2025, selected through the international open call of the International Photography Festivals Association. The call had an open theme, and the projects range across documentary, contemporary, experimental, analogue, urban and conceptual approaches. Each project is an individual voice; together they form a constellation of perspectives on contemporary photography. The touring exhibition began in Barcelona. === CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming (Heading (H2) + Text editor) === CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming David Burlacu · From 3 Oct · Control Club (Alt Shift) · festival evening Sun 18 Oct, 19:30 · Free For eighteen years Control Club has been more than a Bucharest venue: a place where a community found and defined itself. Through portraiture, David Burlacu returns to people who met there in its early years, kept coming back and in many cases came of age within its culture. The portraits are fragments of a collective memory, connected by a formative place where music opened the way to other people and other versions of oneself. Curated by Raluca Oana Radu; produced by Control Club. === Collective exhibitions (short entries) (Text editor) === - Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget — collective exhibition · Fri 9 Oct, 19:30 · POINT · Free - Nature Witnessing the City — collective exhibition · Wed 14 Oct, 19:00 · OTOTO Station · Free ##### Visit & Tickets — /visit/ (301 from /tickets and /practical-information) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Visit & Tickets === At a glance (Text editor) === Dates: Friday 9 – Sunday 18 October 2026 Where: 11 venues in Bucharest. Main exhibition hub: Kulturhaus, Strada Sfânta Vineri 4. Entry: all exhibitions, openings, Meet the artist tours and photobook presentations are free, and so are the masterclasses at CdRF and ARCUB. Tickets: needed for films, the Night at the Museum, the Ending Gala, the photo walk, the outdoor pinhole masterclass and some workshops. === Free — no ticket needed (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Free — no ticket needed - Official opening · Fri 9 Oct, 19:00 · POINT - All exhibitions and openings - All Meet the artist tours - Photobook presentations and signings · Mon 12 Oct and Sat 17 Oct - Workshops In Plain Sight I and II (Save the Children), Somewhere to Look From (UNHCR), Second Shot (°iso Film Lab) - Masterclasses No Such Thing as Bad Weather (CdRF) and The Long Way In (ARCUB) - Afterlight projections at OTOTO Station (Wed 14 Oct) and CdRF (Sat 17 Oct) === Ticketed (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Ticketed - Minamata · Fri 9 Oct, 20:00 · POINT - How to Be Lost on Purpose (workshop) · Sat 10 Oct, 10:00 · Downtown - Night at the Museum: Afterlight · Sat 10 Oct, 20:00 · National Museum of Maps and Old Books - Witnessing on the streets of Bucharest (photo walk) · Sun 11 Oct, 10:00 · Downtown - Pinhole photography and other obsessions (masterclass) · Sun 11 Oct, 15:00 · Downtown - Film night · Fri 16 Oct, 20:00 · Cinema Union - Off the Paper (workshop) · Sat 17 Oct, 12:00 · OTOTO Station - In Passing · Sat 17 Oct, 18:00 · Cinema Union - Ending Gala · Sun 18 Oct, 19:30 · Control Club === Tickets — buy (Text editor + Button) === Tickets are sold online. Each ticketed event links to its own ticket page. Button: Buy tickets → (ticket platform link) === Venues — heading (Heading (H2)) === Venues === Venues — list (Text editor) === POINT Strada General Eremia Grigorescu 10 Opening night, Fri 9 Oct: official opening, the exhibition Witness: Images That Refuse to Forget and the screening of Minamata. Kulturhaus (Garage Hall) Strada Sfânta Vineri 4 The main exhibition hub: Maloletka, Ashtawy, Kocjancic, Divović, Sigurðsson, Adl Parvar, Ernandes, Dora Huiban and Lines of Connection; Meet the artist tours. CdRF – Centrul de Resurse în Fotografie Strada Popa Tatu 68 Photobook evening, masterclass, workshops, Mohamed Mahdy's Broken memory, Afterlight on Sat 17 Oct. OTOTO Station Strada Sfinții Voievozi 20-24 Workshops with Save the Children, UNHCR and SăFițiCuminți Crew; Nature Witnessing the City; Afterlight on Wed 14 Oct. ARCUB Strada Lipscani 84–90 Masterclass The Long Way In; the exhibition In Plain Sight. CAV Multimedia Strada Biserica Enei 16 Exhibitions by Eva Bystrianská and Jolana Havelková. Rezidența 9 Strada Ion Luca Caragiale 32 Rubén Salgado Escudero's Solar Portraits and Meet the artist. Cinema Union Strada Ion Câmpineanu 21 Film night, Fri 16 Oct; In Passing, Sat 17 Oct. National Museum of Maps and Old Books Strada Londra 39 Night at the Museum: Afterlight, Sat 10 Oct. Control Club Strada Constantin Mille 4 CTRL 18 (from 3 Oct) and the Ending Gala, Sun 18 Oct. Downtown (outdoor) meeting point Bulevardul Unirii 1 Photo walk and outdoor workshops on 10 and 11 Oct. === Outdoor events (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Photo walk and outdoor workshops How to Be Lost on Purpose (Sat 10 Oct, 10:00–13:00), Witnessing on the streets of Bucharest (Sun 11 Oct, 10:00–13:00) and Pinhole photography and other obsessions (Sun 11 Oct, 15:00–18:00) start from the meeting point at Bulevardul Unirii 1. Please arrive ten minutes early and dress for the weather. === FAQ (Accordion / Text editor) === Is the festival free? Most of it. All exhibitions, openings, Meet the artist tours and photobook presentations are free, and so are the masterclasses at CdRF and ARCUB. Films, the Night at the Museum, the Ending Gala, the photo walk, the outdoor pinhole masterclass and some workshops are ticketed. Where is the main exhibition venue? Kulturhaus (Garage Hall), Strada Sfânta Vineri 4. Where do the outdoor events start? At the meeting point at Bulevardul Unirii 1. Can the program change? Yes. The program on this site is kept up to date; check it on the day. Who do I contact? hi@bucharestphotofest.ro === Contact (Text editor) === Questions about your visit: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro Centre for Alternative Music & Arts, 4 Ion Berindei Street, District 2, Bucharest ##### Press — /press/ (new) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Press === Intro (Text editor) === Bucharest Photofest 2026 runs from 9 to 18 October in Bucharest, under the theme WITNESS. This page has the essentials for coverage: facts, accreditation and contact. Press enquiries and accreditation: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro === Accreditation (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Accreditation Journalists, photographers and media teams covering the festival can request accreditation by writing to hi@bucharestphotofest.ro with their name, publication and planned coverage. We confirm by email. Interview requests with invited artists are handled the same way; please include the artist's name and your deadline. === Key facts (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Key facts - 11th edition · WITNESS · 9–18 October 2026 · Bucharest - ~50 events in 11 venues; most of the program is free - Invited artists include Evgeniy Maloletka (Pulitzer Prize, World Press Photo of the Year 2023), Omar Ashtawy (Ian Parry Grant 2025), Mohamed Mahdy (Magnum Foundation Fellow, National Geographic Explorer), Rubén Salgado Escudero (National Geographic Explorer), Joakim Kocjancic, Justin Quinnell, Vedad Divović, Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson and Toulo Adl Parvar - Opening: Fri 9 Oct, POINT · Film night: Fri 16 Oct, Cinema Union · Closing: Sun 18 Oct, Control Club - Organised by the Centre for Alternative Music & Arts Association === Boilerplate (long) (Text editor) === About Bucharest Photofest Bucharest Photofest is an international photography festival founded in 2016 and organised by the Centre for Alternative Music & Arts Association, an independent cultural organisation. It takes place every October over ten days, as a platform for photography as artistic expression, critical reflection and civic engagement. Each edition is built around a theme. The 11th edition, WITNESS, runs from 9 to 18 October 2026, with around 50 events in 11 venues across Bucharest. Across its first decade, 2016–2025, the festival presented more than 300 events to over 50,000 participants. === Boilerplate (short) (Text editor) === Bucharest Photofest is an international photography festival founded in 2016 and organised by the Centre for Alternative Music & Arts Association. The 11th edition, WITNESS, runs from 9 to 18 October 2026 in 11 venues across Bucharest. ##### Volunteer — /volunteer/ (new) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Join the volunteer team === Intro (Text editor) === A festival with around 50 events in 11 venues runs on people. Volunteers work alongside the team across the ten days of Bucharest Photofest, 9–18 October 2026, and in the days before and after. You don't need to be an expert. We are looking for curiosity. === What you get (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === What you get - Free, unlimited access to every festival event — and to what goes on behind them - The crew t-shirt - A volunteering contract, a certificate of participation that counts towards university internship credit, and a letter of recommendation on request - A place in a creative, interdisciplinary team — people who take the work seriously and enjoy it - A way into longer-term collaboration with our organisation, on projects beyond the festival - And a few things we'd rather not spoil here. There are usually goodies, small perks and the odd surprise along the way. === Apply (Heading (H3) + Text editor) === Apply Fill in the form below. We read every application and reply by email. If you are under 18, the form asks for the consent of a parent or guardian. Questions: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro === Form embed (HTML widget) === ##### About — /about/ === Page title (Heading (H1)) === About Bucharest Photofest === Text (Text editor) === Bucharest Photofest is an international photography festival, founded in 2016 and organised by the Centre for Alternative Music & Arts Association, an independent cultural organisation based in Bucharest. The festival takes place every October over roughly ten days. It is a platform dedicated to photography as a means of artistic expression, critical reflection and civic engagement. Its structure is deliberately interdisciplinary: photography meets anthropology, journalism, literature, activism, film and music. Each edition is built around a theme with real cultural and political stakes, and the program puts established names in dialogue with emerging voices. The festival works across museums, galleries, cinemas, independent spaces and the street, so that photography enters places where art is usually absent. It supports workshops for children and young people, outreach programs for vulnerable communities, and public conversations with artists, curators and educators. It does not simply present art: it produces it, contextualises it and turns it into a pedagogical tool. === Numbers and themes (Text editor) === A decade, 2016–2025: 300+ events · 1,000+ artists and guests · 50,000+ participants · around 7,000 participants per edition Themes: Identity · Trust · Resistance · Preserving · Solidarity · Resilience · Legacy · WITNESS (2026) === Team and contact (Text editor) === Founder and artistic director: Ionuț Trandafirescu Contact: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro · 4 Ion Berindei Street, District 2, Bucharest ##### Partners 2026 — /partners/ (new) · /partners-2025/ (archive) === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Partners 2026 === Intro (Text editor) === Bucharest Photofest is organised by an independent cultural organisation. Its program, most of which is free, is possible because institutions, companies, embassies, NGOs and media stand behind it. We thank the partners of the 11th edition for their trust and their work with us. To support the festival: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro === Section headings (Heading (H3) ×5) === Presenting partner Program partners Institutional partners Media partners Technical partners === International network (Text editor) === Lines of Connection. Photographers of the IPFA Award 2025 is presented with the International Photography Festivals Association (IPFA). === Archive page (/partners-2025/) — title and first line (Heading + Text) === Partners 2025 — 10th edition These partners supported the 10th edition of Bucharest Photofest, 10–19 October 2025. For the current edition, see Partners 2026. ##### Support us — /support-us/ === Page title (Heading (H1)) === Support the festival === Intro (Text editor) === Bucharest Photofest is organised by an independent cultural organisation. Most of its program is free: exhibitions, openings, talks, masterclasses and workshops for children and young people. Keeping it that way depends on people and companies who decide the festival should exist. There are three ways to help. === Donate (Heading (H3) + Text + Button) === Donate Make a one-off donation by card or bank transfer. Every donation, regardless of size, goes into making the festival happen. Button: Donate → (keep the working donation widget already on the page) === Partner with us (Heading (H3) + Text + Button) === Partner with us Companies and institutions can support an edition, a program strand or a single project. We build each partnership around what both sides need. Write to us: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro === Redirect 3.5% of income tax (Heading (H3) + Text) === Redirect 3.5% of your income tax If you pay income tax in Romania, you can direct 3.5% of it to our organisation at no cost to you. The form opens again at the start of next year's tax season; subscribe to the newsletter for a reminder. ##### 404 page — theme 404 template === Title (Heading (H1)) === This page is not here === Text + links (Text editor) === The link may be old, or the page may have moved for the 2026 edition. - The 2026 program → /program/ - Visit & Tickets: venues and what is free → /visit/ - WITNESS, this year's theme → /witness/ Or write to us: hi@bucharestphotofest.ro