Dutch politician Alexander Pechtold and the photographers and artists Koen Hauser, Erik Kessels and Jimmy Nelson are now official supporters of the Festival.
- Koen Hauser is a dutch photographer and artist, who this years holds the honorary title of ‘National Photographer of the Netherlands’ (Fotograaf des Vaderlands). Hauser studied Social Psychology at Leiden University and after that he went to the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam to study Photography. Apart from being an artist, he does commissionary work for magazines like LINDA en Volkskrant Magazine.
- Also Alexander Pechtold was at Leiden University and studied Art History and Archaeology. In 1994 he was elected in the Leiden City Council and after 3 years he became municipal executive councillor for Environmental issues, Education, Traffic, Sports and Culture.
- Erik Kessels is creative director of the Amsterdam-based communication agency KesselsKramer. He is a photography collector, published several photography books and worked as a curator for exhibitions. On a regular basis he joins juries of photo contests. In 2013 he was a jury member of Photoville festival in New York. Kessels published many articles in magazines and newspapers.
- Jimmy Nelson is an English photographer who has traveled around the world for the past 45 years to document 35 tribes in remote areas.
Hauser, Pechtold, Kessels en Nelson are accompanied by several other members in the Committee of Recommendation of the International Photo Festival Leiden.