The international festival of contemporary photography Odesa Photo Days 2021 will hold an evening screening of German photography selected by Tina Schelhorn.

Together with the Bavarian House Odesa and with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, the international festival of contemporary photography Odesa Photo Days 2021 will hold an evening screening of German photography. To show the variety of styles, authorial approaches and themes in which photographers work, we invited three institutions — a festival, a competition for young photographers and a gallery — to prepare a selection of the most interesting series. The show will take place on Saturday, May 22.

For the second time within the framework of the festival, the event will take place in the Passage Gallery — an outstanding architectural landmark of Odessa, built in 1898-1899 according to the latest standards of the time. This is our attempt to rebuild the bridges between history and modernity, to explore not only photography but also our own city and to implement photo stories from different parts of the world into the public spaces of Odessa.

You will see:

Presentation of the festival and selection of finalists of the 2020 competition from LUMIX Festival for Young Photojournalism

The LUMIX Festival presents young, socially-oriented photojournalism of the 21st century and actively explores political, cultural, social, environmental and technological processes. Using the means of expression inherent in journalistic, transmedia story formats, the authors focus on the current perspectives of the documentary, understanding it as a means of active participation in the global debate.

Since 2008, the LUMIX Festival for Young Photojournalism, organised by the students of the ‘Photojournalism and Documentary Photography programme at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts with the support of Panasonic and the Freelens photographers’ association, has taken place. Every two years over the five days of the festival 40,000 visitors find a broad range of photo and multimedia exhibitions in seven exhibition locations around Expo Plaza in Hanover.

The German Youth Photo Award will present a selection of young German photographers, finalists of last year’s competition. The German Youth Photo Prize is one of the most popular photo competitions in Germany since 1961. It is organised by the German Centre for Youth and Children’s Films and is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Thousands of young photographers participate in the competition every two years. A variety of formats (digital, print, photo books, etc.) are submitted, showing a wide range of subjects, techniques and skill levels.

Asking myself: let’s see what photographers here in Cologne and in Germany are doing during this pandemic time? Some are working intensely to document the impact of lockdowns and emotions while we are all obliged to maintain social distance.

Tina Schelhorn

A selection of series by German authors reflecting on the theme of the pandemic, from Galerie Lichtblick, curated by Tina Schelhorn.

Tina Schelhorn — Director and curator of the Galerie Lichtblick, curator of the festival Kolga Tbilisi Photo in Georgia. She is a member of the jury of international festivals and competitions, conducts portfolio reviews and collaborates with festivals in Arles, Paris, Lodz, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai and others.

Some are working on archiving, scanning, printing, preparing future exhibitions. Some are working on editing for publications and books and making dummies. Some photographing a project they always wanted to do but did not have the time. Some getting stuck by sudden border closings and cancellations of travel and flights

Tina Schelhorn

Galerie Lichtblick, founded in 1986, is a non-profit organization for contemporary photography. Over 300 exhibitions since 35 years dedicated to photography in cooperation with Wolfgang Zurborn.

Musical accompaniment by Anastasia Boychenko.

The announcement features the image by Birte Kaufmann — The Travellers series.