Backlight Photo Festival 2026 Open Call

Selected artists will exhibit their work at the Backlight Photo Festival, in Tampere, Finland, in September 2026, and will receive a €500 artist fee.

Overview

Backlight Photo Festival invites photographers and artists working with lens-based media to submit projects for its 2026 edition in Tampere, Finland. This year's theme, The Art Of Lying, seeks artistically, critically, and socially engaged bodies of work. Selected artists will be presented as part of the international Backlight Photo Festival in September 2026, with works shown in gallery spaces, large exhibition halls, and outdoor screens across the city. Each participating artist receives a €500 artist fee, curatorial support, and production within the limits of the festival budget.

This year's theme can be considered as a provocation. It probes the evolution of photographic truth in our contemporary world where the material and online realities we inhabit are shifting at accelerating speed. The Art Of Lying encourages participants to think through subjects that converge two opposing truths, methods or technologies, and to be open to contradictions that may pertain to truth regardless of their apparent incompatibility.

Practical Info

The call is open to committed photographers and art professionals working with lens-based media.  Applicants may submit projects as an individual or as an artist group/collective/pair. The curators are particularly looking for larger bodies of work, either produced as a series, or site specific installation.

Submissions must include 5 - 15 images, a short, written personal introduction, and a short, written proposal describing their artwork submission. Texts should include the location(s) most suitable for the work. (screen, gallery, or exhibition hall) The text can be free form, but the curators would also be interested in hearing how the “the art of lying” is reflected in the proposed artwork, and more about the artist’s relationship to the subject of their work.

Special attention will be given to projects that mix or hybrid techniques under the category of lens based art. The curatorial team is particularly interested in applications that consider power structures along with the artist’s own position (in relation to their subject) as well as projects that share intimacy and speak to our common humanity.

The artwork selected for this exhibition will be presented as part of the Backlight '26 International Photo Festival in Tampere, Finland, in September 2026. The participating artists will receive a €500 presentation fee. The festival will be presented in two different kinds of locations: indoors, in a gallery setting or large exhibition hall, and outdoors, on screens, around the city, and on trams. The festival will consider the needs of each project, and produce projects whenever possible within the limitations of the festival budget.  

Backlight strives to minimise the festival's carbon footprint, and therefore is committed to use local materials and/or prefers to print images locally, in Finland, whenever possible. Images printed in Finland will be paid for by the festival.

Selected artists are encouraged to apply for travel grants from their local governments and foundations.

The jury is composed of Anna Ruth (Curator and Visual Artist), Dana Benlakhdar (Writer and Critic), and Franek Ammer (Curator and Multimedia Artist).

About Backlight Photo Festival

Backlight Photo Festival is an international photography festival organised every three years in Tampere, Finland. Founded in 1987 and organised by Photographic Centre Nykyaika, Backlight is one of the oldest international photo festivals in Northern Europe. The festival showcases contemporary photography that addresses social, cultural and global issues. Each edition presents a curated programme of exhibitions and side programme.

Throughout its triennial cycle, Backlight continues its work year-round by hosting exhibitions and developing long-term partnerships across Europe and beyond. The Photographic Centre Nykyaika, the organisation behind the festival, runs a contemporary photography gallery in Tampere, where monthly exhibitions form the core of its ongoing programme alongside the triennial festival.