Photobook Mania 2025

PhMuseum presents the first edition of Photobook Mania, a biennial dedicated to photobooks, which will be held on 18-19 October 2025 at Serra Madre, inside Serre dei Giardini Margherita in Bologna.

Overview

The new event will alternate with the PhMuseum Days festival, which has also become biennial and is scheduled for fall 2026.

The event, with free admission, aims to become an international reference point for independent international photographic publishing, bringing together over twenty publishers from all over the world who will offer a wide selection of publications that reflect the most current trends and experimentations in the photobook field.

Photobook Mania is part of a renewed calendar of activities, alternating with the PhMuseum Days festival, which has also become biennial and is scheduled for fall 2026, thus strengthening PhMuseum's commitment to promoting all aspects of contemporary photographic culture.

In addition to the rich editorial presence, the Photobook Mania program includes more than forty meetings with artists, curators, and industry professionals, thematic workshops, and two main exhibitions.

The first, Dummies and Books from FOLIO 2024/25 Photobook Making Masterclass, brings together the prototypes created during the latest edition of the masterclass led by Lewis Chaplin, co-founder of Loose Joints. Fourteen participants worked for eight months on developing their projects, offering a unique insight into the process that transforms a sequence of images into a complete editorial narrative.

The second exhibition is dedicated to the first edition of the PhMuseum 2025 Photobook Award, organised with the support of MPB, Europe's top camera reseller. Thirty photobook projects selected through an open call will be on display, and an international jury composed of Max Pinckers, Yumi Goto, Karla Hiraldo-Voleau, Giuseppe Oliverio and Camilla Marrese will announce the winning project on Saturday 18 October at 6.30 pm. Thanks to the contribution of MPB, the winning work will become a photobook published by PhMuseum and will be officially launched at PhMuseum Days 2026. There will also be a special mention, which will receive an £800 voucher on mpb.com for the purchase of photographic equipment.

On the same occasion, the Banca di Bologna Prize worth €1,000 will also be awarded to authors residing in Bologna who work primarily with the photographic language.

Among the events, Saturday at 6 pm will also see the debut of the first issue of PhMuseum's printed magazine.

There will also be informal events such as Photobook for Breakfast, on Sunday 19 October at 10 am: a breakfast meeting with the Modena-based association Sugar Paper, dedicated to photobooks on the theme of Acts of Resistance linked to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Belgian photographer Max Pinckers, already a member of the jury, will also be the protagonist of a talk presented by Fondazione MAST, in collaboration with PhMuseum, which will preview the festival on Thursday 16 October at 6.30 pm at the MAST.Auditorium, entitled Speculative Documentary Photography. Pinckers will explore his practice, which challenges the conventions of documentary photography.

The programme also includes the intensive Dummy Deep Dive workshop led by American photographer Aaron Schuman, aimed at those who wish to turn their work into a book.

Attending publishers and bookshops include Artphilein Editions (Switzerland), Atelier Tatanka (Italy), Cesura Publish (Italy), Depart Pour l'Image (Italy/France), FotoEvidence (United States), Giostre Edizioni (Italy), GOST Books (United Kingdom), Havaiana Papers + Tiratura (Brazil/Italy), ISIA Urbino (Italy), KABK (The Netherlands), L’Artiere (Italy), Leporello (Italy), Libreria Ulisse (Italy), Macaronibook (Belgium), Muddyisland (Italy), PhMuseum (Italy), RUST Publishing (Poland), RVM Hub (Italy), Studiofaganel (Italy), The Velvet Cell (Germany), Witty Books (Italy), Yogurt Editions (Italy), Zoetrope Athens (Greece).

The event is made possible also thanks to the contribution of the Municipality of Bologna | Settore Cultura e Creatività, the sponsorship of MPB, the collaboration with Banca di Bologna and the cultural partnership with Patto per la lettura del Comune di Bologna (Bologna Municipality Reading Pact) and Card Cultura. Media partners: About Bologna and ZERO.