2025 Kranj Foto Fest Open Call Winners Announced

This year, we received a record-breaking 1,181 submissions, featuring 1,523 projects with a total of 24,168 images from photographers across 80 countries.

Kranj Foto Fest is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 Open Call for Exhibitions. Photographers from all backgrounds were invited to apply, with up to two projects on a theme of their choice. Submissions were open from December 20, 2024, to February 23, 2025, and, for the first time, were managed via the Picter platform.

The jury was responsible for selecting 13 projects to be exhibited at the Kranj Foto Fest 2025, consisting of 1 (one) winner and 12 (twelve) finalists.

After nearly a month of intensive review, the jury—comprising Carol Körting (Photo Editor at Leica Fotografie International, Germany), Emese Mucsi (Curator at the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Hungary), Krzysztof Candrowicz (Co-founder of Fotofestiwal, Poland), Sandra Križić Roban (Head of the Office for Photography, Croatia), and Fernanda Prado Verčič (Director of Kranj Foto Fest, Slovenia)—made the exceptional decision to name two winners (instead of one), recognize one special mention, and shortlist twelve finalists, bringing the total number of selected projects to 15.

The two Grand Prize winners will each receive a solo exhibition at the festival, a cash prize of €1,000 and travel expenses to Kranj (up to €400). The special mention and the 12 finalists will be presented in group exhibitions. The festival will cover the exhibition production costs and provide up to three nights’ accommodation for all exhibitors during the Opening Week of Kranj Foto Foto Fest 2025.

The selected photographers will collaborate with the festival’s team to curate their exhibitions and present their work to an international audience of curators, photo editors, gallery owners, and publishers. For one month, at the height of the European summer, Kranj’s historic old town will once again transform into an open-air gallery—a vibrant hub of contemporary photography, bringing together emerging and established talents from around the world.

We would like to thank all the photographers who submitted their projects and give special recognition to the jury members for their dedicated and inspiring work over the past month in reviewing the submissions. We congratulate all the selected photographers who will showcase their work in Kranj this summer. For those who were not chosen this year, we encourage you to apply again in 2026.

Scroll down to discover the photographers exhibiting their projects at Kranj Foto Fest 2025.

THE WINNERS 2025

WINNER Pasha Kritchko (Belarus)

Project “Map of Memories” (2020-ongoing)

The project “Map of Memories” by emerging Belarusian photographer Pasha Kritchko (1987) stands out as a powerful exploration of the ongoing political turmoil in Belarus. Rather than simply depicting suffering, it invites us into the deeply complex emotions of the individuals captured, allowing the viewer to feel the tension of the political climate. The project offers a narrative about the struggles of an entire nation, especially its younger generations. The photographer’s courage to document this journey under his real name is a bold political statement that amplifies his voice. This work serves as a critical reminder that the current political moment demands our attention and reflection. It is this combination of relevance, personal narrative, and artistic bravery that makes Pasha Kritchko deserving of this recognition.

WINNER Balázs Turós (Hungary)

Project “The Nature of Things” (2018-ongoing)

The project “Nature of Things” by Hungarian photographer Balázs Turós (1990) is the opposite of spectacle – it is a quiet and deeply poetic exploration of the natural course of life. Through an intimate collaboration with his grandmother, Turós approaches the subject with simplicity and sensitivity. His work strips away excess, reducing existence to its essence: the fragility of memory, the inevitability of loss, and the quiet beauty of continuity. By juxtaposing his grandmother’s struggle with dementia with the arrival of his newborn child, the project reveals time not as a straight line, but as a circular experience. Turós himself writes: “Man is the only living being who is aware of the finite nature of life and who tries to give meaning to his existence by clinging to the illusion of leaving some sign or trace behind. What does it mean to exist authentically in a world where transience is unavoidable?” This project is truly deserving of this recognition for its quiet power and emotional depth.

SPECIAL MENTION 2025

Emilia Martin (Poland)

Project “I saw a tree bearing stones in the place of apples and pears”

The project “I Saw a Tree Bearing Stones in the Place of Apples and Pears” by Polish photographer Emilia Martin (1991) stands out for its ability to merge historical narrative, mythology, and scientific discourse into a visually sophisticated exploration of truth and belief. Martin writes: “This is a fantasy in which a rock, long seen as mute and voiceless, reclaims its voice to tell thousands of stories, to claim its place in history and imagination, to challenge a simplistic and binary definition of representations of truth”. The work challenges dominant perspectives, questioning who has the authority to define truth and whose stories are dismissed as myth. Treating the rock as both a relic and a witness, it bridges the sacred and the mundane, reality and imagination. Its poetic and conceptual depth makes it deserving of the special mention.