About PWA
Since 2014, Galleri Image and the Aarhus School of Architecture have collaborated on organising Photobook Week Aarhus (PWA), a yearly festival focused on the rapidly growing international interest in photobooks in recent years.
PWA reflects a continuous study of the evolution and role of the medium and presents the photobook to the general public and to individuals who work professionally with photobooks and photography, be it from an artistic, communication-related or academic standpoint. User involvement, openness and dialogue are key words when it comes to the form and content of the festival. For this reason, PWA has placed great emphasis on inviting a large number of exhibitors and speakers who can present the photobook in a cross-disciplinary perspective. This has made it possible to exhibit significant but rare photobooks that have been discussed by researchers, photographers, leading curators, architects, representatives of The Danish School of Media and Journalism, and many other qualified contributors from around the world.
Chief Curator
Moritz Neumüller
Curatorial Team
Beate Cegielska, Director of Galleri Image, Aarhus
Anne Elisabeth Toft, Assoc. Professor, PhD in Architecture & Photography, Aarhus
Jesper Rasmussen, Artist, curator, and publisher, Aarhus
General coordinator
Martin Dannesboe Singh
Production team
Asta Nyyssonen
Anna Brix
Sara Arroyo Knudsen
Book Market
Vreni Hockenjos
Advisory Board
Irene Attinger
Kyungwoo Chun
John Fleetwood
Russet Lederman
Carole Naggar
Thyago Nogueira
Mette Sandbye
Louise Wolthers
Organised by Galleri Image & Aarhus School of Architecture
Photobook Week Aarhus 2023 is made possible by the City of Aarhus (Kulturudviklingspuljen), The Dreyers Foundation, The Politiken Foundation, Instituto Camões, Portugal’s Embassy in Denmark, The Nordea Foundation and Institut Français Danemark.
Some impressions about Photobook Week Aarhus from our guests:
‘The Photobook Week in Aarhus inspires with perfect organisation and a personal atmosphere that invites visitors to concentrate on the essentials, the photo books. The second advantage is the thematisation of historical photobook topics, together with a program that deals with the photobook culture of individual countries and traces trends in current photobook creation. This allows for a wide range of content, but without falling into arbitrariness. Creating a pleasant working atmosphere and offering an interesting range of topics, Photobookweek in Aarhus is probably unique in the festival landscape.’
Thomas Wiegand, Kassel, Germany
‘It’s admirable due to all challenges that Photobook Week Aarhus 2020 took place. Let’s hope we can all turn the devastating virus into a positive virus called creativity.’
Erik Kessels, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
‘Dear PWA-team, the Photobookweek in Aarhus is a great and ambitious initiative, that allows visitors to get in contact with photobooks from all over the world. The much needed debate and discussions on photobooks are stimulated and shared with a broad audience. It was a great collaboration and I’m looking forward to discover the next edition in 2021!’
Tamara Berghmans, Antwerpen, Belgium
‘Photobook Week Aarhus is one of the smaller festivals out there. What seems to be a weakness at first sight, turns out to be the festival’s biggest strength. It allows the attendees to engage with the content in profound ways that you will thoroughly miss once you go someplace else. Furthermore its informal and almost familial atmosphere opens opportunities to connect and to form friendships that might last for a very long time. Me, I cannot wait to go there again.’
Georg Zinsler, Vienna, Austria
‘Dear PWA-Team, I hope you are getting a bit of rest and basking in the glory of the success. Congratulations, it is truly beautiful what you have created.”
Sarah Giersing, Copenhagen, Denmark
‘Dear PWA team, on behalf of Reflektor I would like to thank you for your efforts organising a real life event! For obvious reasons none of us could join you, but I’ve watched photos and videos from the Open Book Market with great pleasure. Congratulations to such a huge success! And looking very much forward to the next edition!’
Thomas Licek, Vienna, Austria
‘Please continue your valuable work and efforts to highlight and promote photobook culture in all it’s glory’
Frederic Lezmi, Cologne, Germany
‘PWA is my favourite festival! Visiting and being part of the event, it has felt like coming home, together with other passionate photobook lovers, meeting new friends and learning about the photo book as medium. Thank you guys for making it happen, you are awesome!’
Nina Worren, Copenhagen, Denmark
‘Dear PWA-Team, I appreciate very much your effort to keep on going with the Book Festival and Book Market like in 2020. Book designers, editors and publishers need to have real platforms like this to keep strong in what they believe in, and above all to communicate with the audience, people who love books, thank you.’
Willem van Zoetendaal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
‘I took part in Photobook Week Aarhus in 2015. It was a great experience. I had the opportunity to share my work with a so nice community of photobook experts and lovers in a wonderful city. All so well organized, talks, exhibitions, portfolio reviews and amazing kanelsnegles with coffee. I am looking forwards to be invited again to spend the days talking about books, photography and meet other passionate colleagues in the field.’
Toni Amengual, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
‘Being an activist myself of photography and its visual language, I think it’s very important to develop ways of judging a cultural meeting by the quality of the interactions rather than the amount of them. It is a bliss that you have the time and attention of a very dedicated group of people to develop a presentation, and then have an extended feedback momentum. You manage to promote, as a team, an intense and deep exchange from people that otherwise wouldn’t meet, relate and even develop projects. I can assure you I am a witness of those dynamics developing and, of course, I became a fan of your city, activity and guests. Long life to PWA, thanks for all!’
Luis Weinstein, Valparaiso, Chile
‘Dear PWA, I communicate to you to express my gratitude as a presenter and curator in Photo Book Week Aarhus 2019. It was an amazing professional adventure, full of learning and dialogues with the public and the city. I am very proud to have presented my country; Chile, through photography. Long life and best to PWA.’
Tatiana Sardá, Santiago, Chile
‘I am very thankful and happy to have been part of PWA in this complex year. It is great to see how our books managed to travel and meet other people, while we were staying at home due to COVID. Thank you for counting with The Book of Sand, for the photos you sent and for your care for photobooks. Long life to PWA!!’
María Primo, Madrid, Spain
‘Many thanks for your great work of uniting artists and sharing interesting works from different countries. Despite the covid-restriction you managed to get great coverage both offline and online. I was really happy to be a part of this wonderful event! Good luck with the significant work you are doing!’
Anna Karaulova, Moscow, Russia
‘Dear PWA-Team, thanks for giving me a chance to share my photobook at the Open Book Market, for being super organized and for sharing photographs and videos of the event with us. Unfortunately, I couldn’t travel to the PWA this year but at least books can travel during these challenging times.’
Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Limassol, Cyprus
‘Being part of PWA 2018 edition was a great opportunity to augment my peer community through new inspiring and time enduring encounters, while receiving refreshing critical views on my work. Your festival is quite unique and intimate, the experience and discussions still inhabits me today.’
Michel Huneault, Montreal, Canada
‘Dear PWA team, I think it’s great how you mastered the last photobook week under such difficult circumstances. I particularly enjoyed the live streams and loved your whole Instagram appearance. Thank you for everything and I was really happy to be represented with my book.’
Marco Leitermann, Berlin, Germany
‘The Photobook Week Aarhus is a great festival in a small world, and being in the libraries of Aarhus was a return to the libraries of my childhood – a feast of books. It is wonderful that there is a team of makers and believers that can put together such a wonderful venue!’
Rolf Sachsse, Bonn, Germany