Martin Parr is one of the best-known documentary photographers of his generation. With over 100 books of his own published, and another 30 edited by Parr, his photographic legacy is already established.

Parr also acts as a curator and editor. He has curated two photography festivals,Arles in 2004 and Brighton Biennial in 2010. More recently Parr curated the Barbican exhibition, Strange and Familiar.

Parr has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1994 and was President from 2013 - 2017. In 2013 Parr was appointed the visiting professor of photography at the University of Ulster.

Parr’s work has been collected by many of the leading museums, from the Tate, the Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Martin Parr established the Martin Parr Foundation in 2017.

In 2019 the National Portrait Gallery in London held a major exhibition of Parr’s work titled Only Human.

martinparr.com

Martin Parr is part of the winners' jury.

Born in Belgium in 1977, trained as a journalist, Cédric Gerbehaye has chosen photography as a way of recounting the world. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked in Israel and Palestine and was awarded two distinctions in the Prix Photographie Ouverte from Charleroi Photography Museum. A year later, his work 'Gaza: summer rains' received special acclaim in the Bayeux-Calvados Award for war correspondents. In 2007, he started going regularly to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bringing back an important body of work. 'Congo in Limbo' was published in a book (Le Bec en L’Air, 2010), showed in many exhibitions and has earned him seven international distinctions, including a World Press Photo Award and the Olivier Rebbot Award from the Overseas Press Club of America. Shortly after, he decided to work on South Sudan and his series 'Land of Cush' (Le Bec en L’Air, 2013) was awarded the Prix SCAM Roger Pic in 2012.

Art/photo historian Sofie Crabbé is active as a curator, author and has been a visiting professor at LUCA School of Arts and at KASK & Conservatory. She provides text material commissioned by artists, museums, publishers and galleries. She also writes art criticism and essays for art magazines such as HART and Metropolis M. She is regularly in demand as a speaker, juror, guest curator, guide and reviewer.

Sofie is part of the finalists jury.

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sofiecrabbe.com

Linda Zhengová is a Czech photographer and writer currently based in Amsterdam. She uses the medium of photography to challenge the existing boundaries and taboos surrounding the themes of representation, sexuality, and trauma. Her works are an intersection of academic and visual research. At the moment, she is editorially contributing to GUP Magazine, FRESH EYES, Extra Extra and Discarded Magazine, platforms showcasing the developments of contemporary photography. She is the author of The Ambiguity of Visual Representations of Trauma (2020), Catharsis (2021) and Katabasis (2023). She is also the curator of XXX a publication of Discarded Magazine showcasing the vision of contemporary erotic photography.

Linda Zhengová is part of the finalists jury.

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lindazhengova.com

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Els Opsomer lives and works in Brussels and Rufisque, Senegal. As visual artist she examines if artistic resistance can counter the tense visual culture that engulf us. Heroeuvre departs from a photographic investigation, an attitude strongly expressed in her films as well. Her artwork stems from a constantly expanding archive of urban images [archive building]. It is a critical and visual interpretation of our globalized reality. Her work offers alternative views& soothing images to contemplate a world, where the personal integrity is constantly exposed and challenged.

Els Opsomer coordinates the master photography of Luca School of Arts, Campus Sint-LukasBrussel. She is finalizing a PhD, titled - Isee, I see what you don't see - About the visible invisible in times of 'global' terror, with supervisor Prof. dr Hilde Van Gelder atKULeuven.    

Her work was exhibited at the 12th Istanbul Biennial, Brussels Biennial 1, 7th Kwangju Biennial and 5th Werkleitz Biennial. She was artist in residence at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam. Solo shows include 'Loop videoart‚ Barcelona, (E),'Shadows and Snow', Erna Hecey Gallery, Brussels (B) - '_imovie [1-2-3]_‚ MACsGrand Hornu (B), 'Time Suspended', Kunsthall, Bergen (N) Witte de With,Rotterdam (NL), Netwerk Aalst.

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Olivier Guyaux is a widely known figure in the Belgian photographic field, working around the digitisation and promotion of photographic heritage. He has collaborated with the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, the Royal Museumsof Fine Arts, and the University of Liège

Beyond digitisation, he is known for his innovative curation and collection of19th-century amateur photography. In 2020, he launched “TinyGallery”, a space blending analogue photography archives with immersive technology, offering a unique historical perspective. Since it’s creation, this project has brought together 20 photographers from 13 different countries.

Olivier’s influence extends across Europe with exhibitions spanning Paris, Luxembourg toSweden, each showcasing his ability to merge technology with cultural historical narratives. He is also skilled in the curation of amateur analogue photography exhibitions, breathing life into historical images through his creative approaches and nurturing the next generation of artists and historians.

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Olivier GRASSER is a French art historian who has been director of Contretype / Centred'art pour l'image et la photographie contemporaine in Brussels since 2022. Familiar with the challenges of creation and the need to support artistic projects as closely as possible, he has developed his experience in the fields of contemporary art, performance and contemporary dance, as well as photography.Since 1998, he has held management positions in various institutions in France and Belgium, where he has been particularly interested in the issues of audiences and the reception of art.

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Pauline Caplet (FR) is a photographic artist and curator, based in Brussels since 2012 she founded L'Enfant Sauvage in 2020, an exhibition and creative space dedicated to contemporary photography.

Highlighting the work of emerging and established photographic artists, Pauline Caplet contributes to supporting and promoting photographic artists, and thus introducing new talent to the public.

She is regularly asked to organise workshops and juries.

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Gallery FIFTY ONE specializes in fine art photography and works on paper. Since its founding in 2000, the gallery has been focusing on 20th- and 21st-Century photography (vintage, classic, fashion, African and contemporary). In 2011, the gallery started an ongoing dialogue between photography and works on paper.

In 2014 a new gallery space opened its doors: FIFTY ONE TOO.

In 2018, the gallery launched ’28 Vignon Street’; a new online art platform that responds to the online evolution on the art market.

In 2020, Gallery FIFTY ONE already celebrated its 20th anniversary, a period in which the gallery was able to build up a strong (inter)national reputation and audience.

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Sandra Hernández is a Mexican-Canadian photographerand a Fujifilm ambassador (X-Photographer) based in Mexico. With a prolific career inarchitecture before pursuing photography, Sandra focuses on urban life, such ashuman’s relationship to the environment and the narratives that arise betweenthem. Her passion for these themes has fueled accomplishments such ascreating the first book focusing on street photography in Mexico’s history, Antología de fotografía de calle mexicana. She’s also founder of Urban Observers: aplatform dedicated to spreading and promoting Latin American streetphotography. She’s a member of Women Street Photographers, WomenPhotograph, pro member of The Raw Society and last year she’s been selected for the class of 2023 of TheEddie Adams Workshop. 

Sandra’s work, both photographs and text, has beenpublished and featured locally and internationally in outlets such as Forbes,La Vanguardia, Cuartoscuro, France’s TV78, Eyeshot Magazine, and Revue Épic.She’s also participated in various solo and group exhibitions on fourcontinents and has received awards and honorable mentions in global photographycompetitions. Since 2017, Sandra has been the official photographer forMexico’s legendary Carrera Panamericana rally.

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Photographer Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen, known for the award-winning The Sochi Project, are working on a large-scale period document of Europe in the exciting 2020s. A war, a pandemic and rising nationalism are reviving ghosts of the past. The political dream of a united and peaceful Europe seems increasingly fragile. The Europeans 2020-2030 captures Europe in numerous publications and presentations. Local, European and global themes alternate in an ever-expanding universe of hundreds of Europeans portrayed in words and images.

In his presentation during the Brussels Street Photography Festival, Rob Hornstra delves deeper into one of the final chapters of The Europeans: The Black Country. The Black Country, in the British Midlands, has a grand and proud history. But today, Black Country has been pushed to the margins of world history. Among stores of migrants from around the world, empty buildings and theaters stand like black holes in decaying teeth. When everyone moves away, migrants see opportunities for new beginnings. Hornstra not only discusses the content during his lecture, but also gives a sneak peek into their methods and vision regarding the presentation of visual stories.

Rafał Milach is avisual artist, photographer and educator. His work focuseson the tension between society and power structures. Author of protest books and critical publications on state control and protest strategies. Rafal Milach is a professor at the Krzysztof Kieślowski FilmSchool of Silesian University in Katowice, Poland. He has received scholarshipsfrom the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, US StateDepartment and European Cultural Foundation. Finalist of the DeutscheBörse Photography Foundation Prize and Polityka Passports Awards. Rafalhas been awarded the Dr. Erich Salomon Awardand World Press Photo prize. Co-founder ofthe Archive of Public Protests and Sputnik Photos collectives.His works have been widely exhibited worldwide, and can be found inthe public institutional collections worldwide. In 2018Rafał joined Magnum Photos.

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Andrew is an American living inMaryland, just outside Washington, D.C. His photography focuses on street,documentary, and social landscape work. He joined the Washington, D.C. StreetPhotography Collective this year and is working on a number of series includingone about the visual interconnections of people’s lives in public.

 While Andrew loves to travel, hedoesn’t need to go anywhere in particular to make photographs. One of his mostwell known series features commuters he encountered on his way to and from workin Washington. Andrew first heard about street photography during a visit toChicago where he had a chance encounter with the exhibition “Bystander: AHistory of Street Photography.” A workshop with Joel Meyerowitz subsequentlyhelped him begin a way of seeing and appreciation for beauty in the ordinarythat changed his life. In addition to working subsequently for Meyerowitz as aworkshop assistant, Andrew has also studied with photographers Mary Ellen Mark,Sam Abell, and Len Jenshel.

 Andrew’s photographs havebeen exhibited in group shows and festivals throughout the United States andEurope and are in a number of public collections. So far this year, he is afinalist at BSPF, the Dublin Street Photography Festival, and the RoyalPhotographic Society's 165th International Photography Exhibition. His work hasbeen published in a number of magazines (Leica World and Photonews (Hamburg)and books including Street Photography Now by Howarth and McLaren (Thames &Hudson 2010).

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Agnes Burger was born in Lodz/Poland in 1978. The family emigrated toWest Germany in 1987. She studied Psychology and History of Art at the UCSB inSanta Barbara/California and then returned to Berlin to study Acting. As anactress she works both in front and behind the camera also as an voice actressand editor in the dubbing studios in Germany.She developed her passion for photography very early on and often works as aset photographer on movie sets to do the„behind the scenes" documentary. Her dedication to streetphotography beganin 2019. Travelling to many cities around the world she collects impressions,montents and grotesque scenes from diffrent cultures, always with the aspect ofhumanity and emotional empathy."I love these quiet moments that are only very short. I'm always lookingfor lost people in lost time“.She is one of the curators of the Team @street_macadam and is doing the Englishlives interviewing renowned photographers since 2023. Also one of thecurators of the Brotherhood page @street_me_up.

While photography has been a part of Giedo’s life since the age of 11,he only discovered street photography in 2017. He immediately got hooked.

Since then, Giedo has been awarded for his photography all over theworld, with nominations and prizes at many major street photography festivals.His work has been published in many countries and he held exhibitions inmuseums and public venues in his home country and abroad.

Today Giedo is an avid workshop leader and recently he started aworkshop collective @shootwithalocal.
Together with local photographers, he organizes wonderful workshops with alocal vibe in many European cities and sometimes outside Europe.

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For @Streetsbybert, also called Bert De Busschere, street photography is a way oflife. He discovered the love for roaming the streets in 2017, right after he graduated as a journalist. Since then his camera is always by his side.

He became a finalist at several street photography festivals around the world witha high rate of different pictures. In 2023, Bert won the first prize at the Fujifilm Moment Street Photo Awards in Poland. 

Today, he is trying to experiment with different styles to create his dream world.Sometimes flash, sometimes reflections, sometimes both at the same time. Hispersonality demands variation. In any case, street photography functions for him as pure mindfulness and freedom.

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Brussels is considered the de facto capital of the European Union. But Brussels is also the capital of Belgium and, as such, the unofficial capital of surrealism. This has not escaped the notice of Cato Beljaars. With an eye for peculiarities and a well-functioning camera, she roams the streets of the not very clean society of Brussels, recording absurdity, humour, creativity and joyful chaos.

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ForWillem, the street and the social life in the houses surrounding that streethave been his field of work and people his object of photographic study forforty-five years. Willem has been a street photographer for over four decades,long before that term became commonplace. 

Whetherwith his two-eyed Rolleiflex or his Fujifilm X-T5, he captures the humancondition in square black and white like few others. This has already resultedin four fantastic photo books: the out-of-print Beautiful People and Timeless,Behind the Great Wall, and the most recent Zuiderburen. In addition, Willemalso wrote a didactic English-language E-book "On Street Photography. Hisbook '101 Tips for Street Photography' he co-wrote with Piet Van den Eynde.

Willem Wernsen is a member of the Dutch professional association for photographers DuPho/ GKF and gives lectures, webinars and workshops in theNetherlands and Belgium.