From Photobook Fair to Photobook Festival
- Irma van Bommel
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
On Saturday, May 24, 2025, we organized the sixth edition of the Photobook Fair. This year, it had a new look and a new name: PHOTOBOOK FESTIVAL.
It turned out to be a success!
In addition to the fair, for which the 30 available stands were sold out well in advance, we organized an exhibition, photobook talks, an artist talk, photobook or dummy reviews, workshops, and library talks. All in honor of the photobook. The festival was built in the midst of the exhibition Gender.
Fair
The fair featured a good mix of publishers, photographers with their own photobooks, and second-hand photobook sellers. The three Brabant photobook publishers were present: Lecturis, The Eriskay Connection, and Jap Sam Books. Among the photographers were Hans Bol, Henk Wildschut, Ilse Oosterkamp, and Gijsbert Hanekroot.
Workshops
The workshops on cyanotype, zine, leporello, or button making were suitable for young and old and brought life to the event.
Photographers Boudewijn Bollmann and the duo Reinier Gerritsen and Wil van Iersel also contributed with their photobook binding demonstrations.
Music – Nick Lebeat played records – and a coffee corner created a cozy festival atmosphere.
Installation
As part of the Photobook Festival, Roos van Geffen built Media Vita, an installation with 76 open photobooks that form an associative story about transience. On the day of the festival, she opened her presentation with an artist talk. Van Geffen collected quotes from the mostly well-known photographers of the displayed books and bundled them into a zine. The presentation can be seen and heard until July 12, 2025.
Reviews
We found Paul van Mameren from Lecturis publishing house and Lisanne van Happen from Eriskay publishing house willing to review several photobook dummies.
Talks
We invited researcher and editor Marc Prüst to talk about his book Edit Your Story, with tips on making a selection of photos for an interesting publication or exhibition.
Femke Rotteveel from Fotodok interviewed Eliza-Sophie Sekrève about the photobook she made with her younger brother as the subject, Sometimes I am Fourteen. And Nicola Moscelli, who made the photobook Dead End about the border between the US and Mexico.
Huig Bartels, a photography teacher at SintLucas, discussed his favorite photobooks from the Pennings Foundation library. And Gitte Geurts, one of the library staff, gave practical tours of the library.
All in all, a full program. The new setup led to significantly more visitors than previous editions. There was buzz, contacts were made, there were great conversations, inspiration and knowledge were gained, and purchases were made.
The photobook has been on the rise for years. As a counterpoint to fleeting (social) media? The Dutch photo book also seems to be popular internationally. We are proud that the Pennings Foundation was able to offer a platform to a number of makers, publishers and sellers of interesting photo books through the festival.
The date for next year is already known: Saturday, May 23, 2026.
Photos: Lieke Winters, Nick Lebeat
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