Magazine
Issue 2026
The FOTOHOF>CALLING magazine is published as part of the Europe-wide open call, which takes place every two years: Working with memories is an important recurring theme throughout this year's issue. The artists bring historical or personal archives that serve as the basis for their research into a contemporary setting. Through photographic staging and retelling, the artists not only look back but also demonstrate how past events and memories continue to shape the present. The fragmentary and implicit nature of these visual narratives becomes an important stylistic device, with political events and social concerns often reflected through the subjectivity of the artistic gaze. […] At the same time, the magazine not only features works based on archival and subjective forms of artistic exploration but also highlights staged, composite, and satirical approaches to image-making that align with the traditions of photocollage or comics. (Excerpt from the editorial text: Fragments, Gaps, and Ambivalences: Photography and the Complexity of Our Present, p.2).
Issue 2024
The chosen projects engage with pressing issues of our time. Upon closer examination, the works can be grouped into distinct thematic categories. One recurring theme is the exploration of urban space, addressing topics such as urban development, the impact on infrastructure by major events like the Olympic Games, the housing crisis, and even the imaginative use of urban traces as fictional crime scenes. Other projects shed light on the structural disadvantages faced by female identifying individuals, touching on subjects like motherhood and its perception in the art world and the patriarchal dominance in the healthcare system.
A significant number of the works revolve around the concept of belonging. The artists delve into shifting notions of home and homeland, investigate family histories and narrate personal stories of departure and return.
Photography is used throughout these projects as a medium for dialogue, creating exchange between the photographers and their subjects. This approach allows us as viewers to gain insight into diverse life experiences, generations and subcultures. Additionally, the contributions foster a dialogue between individual artistic positions. Works that use traditional photographic methods are deliberately combined with experimental approaches that question, expand, and reinterpret the medium. For example, classic documentary styles and projects utilising archival photographic material sit alongside works that incorporate artistic staging or digital manipulation. (Excerpt from introductory text: Photography in Dialogue, p. 3).