Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo 2025
7 km open air photo festival - 1.500 photographs in Baden bei Wien
PHOTOFESTIVAL 2025 - AUSTRALIA & THE NEW WORLD
The La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival Moves, Captivates, and Touches with Masterpieces of Environmental Photography
On June 13, Europe’s largest photography festival begins. With the theme AUSTRALIEN & DIE NEUE WELT, Baden will inspire visitors along a 7 km trail with 1,500 works by top-tier photographers.
Our world faces increasingly extreme challenges. Since its inception in 2018, the open-air gallery has remained true to its mission: showcasing the beauty of nature and emphasizing the urgency of protecting it. On enormous canvases, the world's best photographers share their vision of humanity and the environment — seamlessly integrated into the stunning heritage city, where garden and photographic art blend harmoniously.
In La Gacilly, France, Jacques Rocher, son of the founder of the organic cosmetics brand Yves Rocher, launched the photo festival in 2004. His goal was to create a relatable exploration of the Earth's and humanity's future.
This exclusive partnership with Baden arose from Rocher’s friendship with Lois Lammerhuber, one of Austria’s most significant contemporary photographers.
From Heavenly Jewels, Forest Giants, and Mysterious Universes
In 30 exhibitions, images — some up to 200 m² in size — stand as appeals to preserve the poetry of creation. Whether it’s Norbert Span’s unique snow crystal photography or Beth Moon’s majestic trees, some over 4,000 years old, each photograph is a masterpiece.
Additional highlights include school photography projects, works from professional photographers in Lower Austria, and photographs from CEWE’s renowned photo competition.
Be inspired by sensational photos that leave a lasting impression.
Date: June 13 – October 12, 2025
Start Location: Visitor Center Brusattiplatz, Baden bei Wien
Entry: Free
AUSTRALIA & THE NEW WORLD
Since its inception, the festival has taken on the challenging responsibility of placing nature — the source of life — at the heart of its exhibitions. These photographic narratives oscillate between beauty, humanistic reflection, anger, and despair.
Australia, nearly a hundred times the size of Austria, has a population of only 26 million. Australian photographers serve as ambassadors for preserving the beauty of this unique continent. They express their love for the land with such passion that even criticism is conveyed poetically, overflowing with visual creativity.
Their works explore themes of identity and environment, moving between drama, dark humor, fiction, and reality. Featured artists include Matthew Abbot, Narelle Autio, Tamara Dean, Adam Ferguson, Bobby Lockyer, Trent Parke, Anne Zahalka, Viviane Dalles, and Agence France-Presse.
In the New World, we encounter the work of Louise Johns and Joel Meyerowitz from the USA, contrasted with perspectives from Austrian photographer Alfred Seiland. Mitch Dobrowner’s photographs capture the apocalyptic force of extreme weather events. In his opus magnum Feed the Planet, George Steinmetz addresses whether the world will be able to feed 10 billion people. His work is juxtaposed with Dieter Bornemann’s Austrian project Eaten Up, aimed at raising awareness about food waste.
Alessandro Cinque presents his long-term project on the consequences of mining in the Andes. Ulla Lohmann takes us to the volcanic tribes of Papua New Guinea. Gaël Turine leads us into Benin's sacred forests, where Voodoo gods are seen as true guardians of biodiversity.
Alice Pallot delves into the problem of green algae blooms along the Atlantic coast, while Sophie Zenon invites us to discover the Breton heath. Bernard Plossu presents large-format Fresson prints that give his landscapes an ethereal appearance.
The bilateral photography project The Spirit of Sports challenges schools in Morbihan and Lower Austria to reflect on whether the Olympic motto Faster, Higher, Stronger still holds relevance today.
Brent Stirton brings the hidden suffering of around 80,000 ME/CFS patients in Austria into the public eye. Hans-Jürgen Burkard’s On Days Like These offers a musically inspired photographic journey that presents a captivating portrait of Germany.
The festival will also feature works by professional photographers from Lower Austria and the Director’s Cut exhibition by jury president Christie Goodwin, showcasing CEWE’s Our World is Beautiful competition, which attracted over 500,000 entries from 170 countries. Additionally, a retrospective of 2024 will be presented through the works of Artist in Residence Reiner Riedler, accompanied by texts from 2023 Thomas-Jorda Prize winner Irmie Vesselsky.
The underwater photography of “freshwater expert” Herbert Frei will be dedicated to the UNESCO Global Water Summit 2025.
With the 4-week special exhibition Code of the Universe, the festival reflects on the feasibility of the world’s largest research project at CERN in Geneva. Another special exhibition will focus on Austria’s forests: 100 Years of Federal Forests.
Under the guiding principle Culture of Solidarity, collaborations with festival partners Garten Tulln — where The Human Footprint by Gerald Mansberger and Markus Eisl will be showcased — and Month of Photography Bratislava will continue in 2025.
We are already looking forward to your visit!
More info's on the festival homepage: www.festival-lagacilly-baden.photo
Tourist Information Baden
Brusattiplatz 3
2500 Baden
+43 (0) 2252 / 86 800-600
info@baden.at
Status: 31.01.2025