Creative and Visual Arts Awards 2025 | 5 From June to October last year, the annual Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo event was held in Baden near Vienna, Austria. The theme was ‘Australia & The New World’, and 30 exhibitions have been on display reflecting this, spread out over a 7km trail spanning a garden route and an urban route. Along the way, visitors could view 1,500 large photographs taken by the world’s leading photographers. This was the latest iteration of an event that has been running since 2018, and to find out more about it, we caught up with Lois Lammerhuber, master mind and director of the festival. Best Open-Air Photography Event 2025 numbers (336,000 in 2025) and media impact (833 reports published in 2025) – it is important for the festival to ensure that it is built on a foundation of quality, passion, and a deep respect for the artists whose work is on display. Of course, there are challenges. An economic crisis of sorts has befallen the field of cultural events over the past few years, and budget cuts have become a regular thing. Despite being an official partner of the City of Baden and having a network of more than 90 sponsors the reality is that Silvia and Lois and their team are having to do the same, if not more, with less. Whilst this is not ideal, the commitment Lois and the team have to the success of Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo sees them do whatever it takes to make sure it is bigger and better year on year. 2025 was no exception to this rule, with millions of locals and travellers alike walking or driving past its signs and adverts and even the images themselves in town, making the event a resounding triumph. This was a sentiment echoed across the hundreds of press outlets who attended the event itself. For example, Ben Lorenz of Imaging Media House in Berlin commented: “Some days remind us why we love photography so much – and my visit to the Baden Photo Festival 2025 was just such a day. Hosts Silvia and Lois have created a festival that touches and inspires with their big hearts and curatorial sensitivity.” Similarly, journalist Gianmarco Maravigia, representing Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg and Newsweek, added: “It was one of the most inspiring photographic experiences I’ve ever had. It will definitely become a regular yearly event for me.” On the back of this acclaim, it is no surprise that the next iteration of Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo is already planned. It will take place from 12 June to 11 October 2026 under the title So British! This is the kind of passion that cannot be feigned, and it is for this reason that we are proud to recognise the latest event in this series of annual happening as the Best Open-Air Photography Event in our Creative and Visual Arts Awards 2025. Contact: Lois Lammerhuber Company: Foto Festival Baden Web Address: https://festival-lagacilly-baden.photo/en rganised by the non-profit association Foto Festival Baden, Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo sees the streets, squares, and gardens of this charming spa town in Lower Austria transformed into all-embracing works of arts for about four months of the year. Taking the ever-relevant theme of nature and putting it at the centre of their exhibitions, the photographers create visual narratives that reflect the lived themes of beauty, reflection, anger, and despair at every turn. Taking things a step further, Lois told us: “The festival has two main narratives. The first is based on a yearly changing geography on which documentary and reportage photographers ‘discuss’ the human condition in a respective part of the world.” As mentioned above, in 2025, this was Australia and the New World (the Americas). Lois continued: “The second narrative is dedicated to the state of our planet.” Combined, these themes are conducive to some exceptional photographs being shown. Festival Director Lois Lammerhuber and co-inventor of the festival Silvia Lammerhuber curate relevant photographs from leading talent to display, leveraging their nearly 30 years of experience in photography publishing – during which they have won nearly every notable award in the field – to create a journey that resonates with the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the event each year. For 2025, the festival worked with Australian , European and American photographers alike, as well as local Austrian photographers, to capture the defining themes of identity and the environment. Every year, Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo looks to outdo itself, working with the best photographers of our generation to open new humanistic windows to better understand our world. Given this is by far the largest photo festival in Europe – not only in terms of scale, but also visitor O
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