Photo Book Summer is a new Berlin festival dedicated to the photo book as an artistic medium. It will take place for the first time from July 17 to September 22, 2026, at the Haus Potsdamer Straße of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library). The festival is organized by musuku – Museum der Subkulturen. Stationary and mobile exhibition formats will be accompanied by events, workshops, and the concluding Photo Book Days, featuring book tables, lectures, and presentations by international guests.

The photo exhibition Berlin Wonderland – Hidden Treasures transforms the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Hall in the library’s foyer into a cabinet of curiosities. The mobile exhibition Berlin Wonderland Road Show features five converted cargo bikes displaying large-format photographs from the popular photo book. The photo book exhibition Fragmente der Stadt (Fragments of the City) gathers the perspectives of various photographers to create a multi-voiced portrait of the city. Events in public spaces will extend the festival beyond the library walls and into the city.

Berlin Wonderland – Hidden Treasures

Berlin Wonderland – Hidden Treasures tells the story of the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Berlin-Mitte became a magnet for artists, visionaries, squatters, and cultural creators from around the world. A vast space of possibilities emerged between crumbling facades: clubs, bars, exhibition spaces, and galleries opened, while techno parties and performances invited people to discover the city center’s many empty spaces. The exhibition revives 1990s Berlin and features motifs from the photo book Berlin Wonderland – Wild Years Revisited 1990–1996 (which is finally back in print), supplemented by unseen material and newly discovered portfolios. It includes photographs by Ben de Biel, Joe Dilworth, Philipp von Recklinghausen, Andreas Rost, Rolf Zöllner, and a mysterious unknown photographer named Anna.

Berlin Wonderland Road Show

The mobile bicycle exhibition Berlin Wonderland Road Show tours through Berlin. When unfolded like the solar sails of a spaceship, it transforms public spaces into an open-air photo exhibition. It creates an astonishing effect—an analog “before and after” experience that connects the Berlin of yesterday with today, prompting questions about future possibilities and freedoms.

Photo Book Summer

The inaugural edition of Photo Book Summer is held under the motto Open Doors, focusing on Berlin as a city of encounters, (sub)cultures, and stories. It showcases works by numerous photographers and publishers. In the photo book exhibition Fragmente der Stadt in the library’s foyer, each book opens a window into a different Berlin. It features books by Maria Sewcz, Arwed Messmer, Christian Reister, Miron Zownir, Andreas Rost, and Wiebke Loeper, among others.

On the opening night of Photo Book Summer, the Filmriss Photoclub is organizing an open Print Swap and accompanying pop-up gallery on the theme of Berlin Wonderland. Visitors are invited to bring 2–3 of their own photographic works and place them on a growing exhibition wall. This will create a collective, constantly evolving exhibition throughout the evening.

The festival’s highlight will be the Photo Book Days from September 11–13, a weekend featuring the Thousandfold Photobook Fair by dienacht e. V., concerts, exhibitions, lectures, and presentations.

Photo Book Summer is an initiative of musuku – Museum der Subkulturen and is realized in cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. musuku is an initiative of Berlin artists and cultural creators founded in 2019 by Anke Fesel and Chris Keller. It operates as a nomadic exhibition and storytelling space, presenting its projects at changing locations, in public spaces, and in cooperation with various partners, artists, and institutions.

Friday, July 17, 2026, 7 – 10:30 pm
Opening reception “Photo Book Summer”

Friday, Sep 11 – Sunday, Sep 13, 2026
Photo Book Days
“Berlin Wonderland – Hidden Treasures”, “Berlin Wonderland Road Show”, “Fragmente der Stadt” (Fragments of the city), “Filmriss Print Swap” exhibition

Friday, Sep 11, 2026, 7pm
Slide Music – Berlin Wonderland
Lillevan & Der Elektronaut. Live: video projections with electronic music in the Otto Braun hall.

Sat, Sep 12, 2026 & Sun, 13, 2026, from 10 am
Thousandfold Photobook Fair
with Talks Program in the foyer of the Otto Braun hall.
Registration deadline for publishers and photographers: August 1, 2026
Details

Sat, Sep 12, 2026
Photo Book Open House
“Photo Book Open House” for the “Day in the Green” and Road Show Exhibition at the Kulturforum.

Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 12 noon – 7 pm
Festival program

Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7 pm
»Slide Music« music performance

Sat, Sep 12, 2026, from 12 noon
»Tag im Grünen«
Day in the Green at the Kulturforum

Sunday, Sep 13, 2026
Photo Book Open House