The Leipzig Photobook Festival will take place on March 7 and 8, 2026, at HALLE 14 – Centre for Contemporary Art. It is organized by the association dienacht e. V. in cooperation with HALLE 14. In addition to the international photobook market with more than 40 publishers and photographers, there will be an extensive supporting program and accompanying exhibitions.

The fifth Leipzig Photobook Festival is dedicated to the theme of “Power / Fragility”.

“Power” as a political force that shapes societies, as an economic dynamic that deepens inequalities, and as a social energy that sustains communities. Power can be physical – visible in bodies, architecture or forces of nature – as well as subtle and invisible in structures, symbols and looks. It manifests itself in resistance and emancipation, in technology control or in the self-empowerment of the individual. It also becomes clear how toxic power can be when it is misused for oppression or manipulation.

“Fragility” appears not only as a weakness, but also as a starting point for transformation. Building on the concept of antifragility (Nassim Nicholas Taleb), we understand instability and disruption as productive forces: what breaks opens up new perspectives; what falters can lead to unexpected renewal. Between fragile, robust and antifragile, a field of tension unfolds in which the photographic itself is put to the test. These include panel discussions, presentations, talks, photobook and photo exhibitions, film screenings, portfolio reviews, projections, workshops, etc.

Admission is free.

Program (excerpt)

Photobook market

Publishers and photographers:

Blow Up Press (PL), bt:st verlag (DE), Camera Austria (AT), Carla Pohl (DE), Community of Armenian photobooks (AM), Der Greif (DE), dienacht Publishing (DE), Dust Collective (USA), Ediciones Posibles (ES), Editions du Caïd (BE), f/stop Leipzig (DE), Fotohof Edition (AT), Hartmann Books (DE), Hong Kong Photobook Festival (HK), Irina Kholodna (DE), ist publishing (UA), Janine Bächle (DE), Joel van Houdt (UK), Klasse Buchkunst der Burg Giebichenstein (DE), Lubok Verlag (DE), Lunik Berlin (DE), Martin Ruckert (DE), Metapaper (DE), MOKSOP (UA), musuku – Museum der Subkulturen (DE), Palais Books* (FR), Photobookpoint (CZ), Ruslan Hrushchak (DE), Rust Publishing (PL), Spector Books (DE), Self Publishers United (NL), SHIFT BOOKS (DE), shushushushu books (CN/DE), Steffi Drerup (DE), The Angry Bat (SL), Untitled (CZ), Uschi Groos (DE), ZONE (TR/IT).

Photobook exhibitions

Photobook exhibition (till April 2nd, 2026)
Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2025

Launched in November 2012 by Aperture and Paris Photo, this prestigious award is highly regarded in the photography community and the announcement of the shortlist is eagerly awaited. It recognizes the photobook‘s contribution to the evolving history of photography in three main categories: First Photobook, Photobook of the Year and Photo Catalog of the Year. All 37 nominated books, including the winning books in each category from 2025, can be browsed in an exhibition during the festival.

Photobook exhibition (till April 2nd, 2026)
Fragile Volumes – The photobook beyond paper – curated by Jenny Starick

What constitutes a photobook when the paper is missing? The exhibition Fragile Volumes radically questions the classic materiality of the medium and examines how photography and book form can be experienced beyond the familiar. One of the starting points is Loh Xiang Yun‘s project Organized Scenery, which uses translucent images printed on chiffon to make the fragile boundary between nature and urban space visible. Such experimental approaches open up new perspectives on the photobook as an artistic medium: between the tactile and the immaterial, between spatial installation and book object, between photography and sculpture. Fragile Volumes understands the photobook not only as a carrier of images, but also as an open space of possibility that is constantly reinventing itself precisely in its fragility.

Photobook exhibition
Hong Kong Photobook & Photozine Dummy Award

Hong Kong Photobook & Photozine Dummy Award gives young artists the opportunity to present their work at international festivals. Last year‘s winners and finalists have already been exhibited worldwide – including in New Zealand, India, Taiwan, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy – and will now also be presented in Leipzig.

Photo exhibitions

Photo exhibition (till April 2nd, 2026)
Lina Scheynius – Intimacies – curated by Calin Kruse

With her unmistakable view of intimacy, the body and closeness, Swedish photographer Lina Scheynius has shaped a visual language that has had an impact far beyond the art scene and earned her a large following. Despite this international fame, she is regularly censored or secretly blocked by Instagram – a process that not only curtails her reach, but also reveals the power relations of digital platforms. As part of the photo exhibition, we look at the power of a company vs. Lina‘s self-empowerment as an artist: her work shows how artistic freedom asserts itself even when it rubs against the boundaries of structures.

Photo exhibition (till April 2nd, 2026)
Arko Datto – Where do we go when the final wave hit – curated by Calin Kruse

Between 2017 and 2020, Indian photographer Arko Datto documented the dwindling mangrove forests and rising water levels of the Sundarbans in India, where 300 million inhabitants of the delta experience the daily nightmare of climate change – people who are least responsible for it, but feel its effects the most. Using harsh flash photography at night, Datto creates a surreal, unsettling atmosphere that perfectly encapsulates the festival theme: the fragile existence of communities whose power is waning in the face of the climate crisis, while documenting their struggle for survival and dignity.

Interventions

Intervention (Guerilla Exhibition – try to find it)
Linda Zhengová: Like the waves of a Stormy Sea

Linda Zhengová is an artist whose photographic practice explores intimacy and the fragile thresholds of human experience. Through encounters with strangers, she explores fleeting emotional states and hidden fantasies, utilizing photography as a space for negotiation rather than documentation. Her images question how vulnerability, identity, and power circulate between bodies and gazes. Curated by Lucie Černá, this guerrilla intervention takes place in the most visited, least protected space, where bodies are present, and attention cannot fully withdraw. It offers a condensed entry into Zhengová’s universe: direct and uncomfortably close.

Intervention
Karolina Sobel: DZiKADiVA

Karolina Sobel presents an excerpt from the project DZiKADiVA (Polish for The Wild Diva): a fictional lesbian bar and, at the same time, a potential archive that makes lesbian identities in Poland during the transformative 1990s – and beyond – visible. Such a bar never existed in Poland in the 1990s due to political and social conditions. Sobel imagines this fictional space as a site for future exchange, where shared histories and cultures of remembrance in Poland and Germany are negotiated. The project is developed in collaboration with contemporary witnesses, archives, and initiatives and understands archiving as a social practice. It asks: what does a collective archive need? Sobel collects private images through an open call. The work centers on questions of visibility, memory, and historical omission. In her artistic practice, Sobel combines photography, video, research, and installation to explore marginalized identities and power structures.

Portfolio Reviews

As part of the Leipzig Photobook Festival, we offer you the opportunity to have your photographic works, series, photobook dummies etc. reviewed by an international jury of photography and photobook experts, curators, publishers and designers. Reviewers: Christian Gogolin, Andrea Holzherr, Lars Lindemann, Yann Linsart, Helena Melikov, Diane Smyth, Ilaria Sponda, Christina Töpfer.

You can apply here for portfolio reviews until February 15, 2026. Places are limited to 8; due to the high number of applications and limited capacity, preference will be given to photographers who have not yet been reviewed at the Leipzig Photobook Festival.

Project Presentations and Talks

The festival offers a diverse program of project presentations: Lina Scheynius discusses her work on intimacy and censorship by Instagram, while Lars Lindemann discusses with Arko Datto’s documentation of the climate change-threatened Sundarbans. Nikita Teryoshin presents his long-term research on the global arms industry, and Amin Yousefi examines how photography functions as a medium of power. Tim Gassauer links colonial continuities between Germany and Namibia, while Anna Perepechai reflects on collective memory and trauma in the context of Russia‘s war against Ukraine.

Panel Discussions

Two central discussions deepen the festival theme: “Power and Fragility in the Context of Photobooks” explores with Lina Scheynius, Amin Yousefi, and Arko Datto how artists use the photobook as a portable, immediate medium to communicate ideas. “The Potential of Form: Theory of the Photobook” brings together photographers and art historians to define the photobook as an independent medium from various perspectives. Additionally, Magnum Photos and the Nobel Peace Center discuss how visual storytelling shapes global debates about human rights and peace.

Film screenings, four workshop formats, and an educational program for children and young people round off the supporting program.

dienacht e. V. in cooperation with HALLE 14 – Center for Contemporary Art

dienacht e. V.

dienacht e. V. is a non-profit association based in Leipzig. The association’s tasks and goals are to promote art and culture, especially photobook art and photography. Since 2022, dienacht e.V. has been the organizer of the Leipzig Photobook Festival and sees itself as an interdisciplinary cultural creator with photobook art and photography as its interface.

HALLE 14

Founded in 2002, the non-profit art center HALLE 14 is a venue, think tank, and production site for contemporary art on the grounds of the Leipzig Cotton Mill. Since 2003, one to three international group exhibitions presenting socially critical positions have been held here annually. The art library, the art education program, the event series, and the studio program make HALLE 14 a lively and diverse place for art with national and international recognition.

Mar 7 & 8, 2026 / Sat & Sun 10 am – 7 pm
Festival
Admission free.

Portfolio Reviews
Limited to 8 participants. Application deadline: Feb 15, 2026

Mar 6 – 7, 2026
Workshop with Mathieu Asselin
Application deadline: Feb 15, 2026

Here you can download the complete festival program (PDF, approx. 3,7 MB)