IPFL 2014 at a glance

For a month, the International Photo Festival Leiden has been the stage of a wunderful, freely accessible open air exhibition. About 20.000 people visited the Festival this year.

From a total of 271 submissions, counting more than 800 photos, the expert jury made a selection. 80 photos by 20 talented photographers, were chosen for the Festival. You can have another look at them in this video or in our Festival Guide.

The construction of the open air exhibition was in the hands of our ‘chiefs’ Hans Gillis and Pierre Luiten, who, with the help of many enthousiastic volunteers, transformed Leiden to an open air exhibition that no one could ignore.

Saturday October 11th at 4 PM, the winner of the Festival was announced. The jury, chaired by Wim van Sinderen, was unanimous in it’s view. The winner of the International Photo Festival Leiden 2014 is Renate Beense with her series ‘Just Dad’.

That same morning, at the Pieterskerkplein, the first satellite exhibition of Photoville (Brooklyn, New York) was opened by His Excellency Timothy Broas, U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands. This exhibition of emerging American photographers took place in Photoville style, in shipping containers. The US Embassy made this video of the opening.

The unique collaboration with Photoville is a result of the new international character of the Festival. In exchange for an exhibition on the Pieterskerkplein, our selection of photographers was on show in New York from 18-28 September. Next to Photoville, the work of our photographers is also shown at urban screens in Stockholm, Umeå and several Dutch cities.

Apart from the open air exhibition, each of the photographers had a solo exhibition in a gallery, shop or restaurant, where they could show a wider selection of their work. These exhibitions constituted the photo route Shop the Photo through the historical city of Leiden.

On Sunday October 12th, a smal permanent exhibition of the Leiden student photographer Israël David Kiek (1811-1899) was opened in Grand Café Van der Werff by mr. Flip Bool, art historian and former photography teacher at at the art academy of AKV|St. Joost, Avans Hogeschool (Breda).

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The beating heart of the Festival was a large Urban Screen (15x4m!) at the Leiden Stadhuisplein. This showed a continuous programme with photos of:

  • The 20 ‘New Photographers’ of the IPFL 2014
  • 20 ’emerging’ photographers of Photoville (Brooklyn, New York)
  • 20 fotografen of photo festival Head On (Sydney, Australië)

Additionally, the results of the Educational project and ‘Faces of Leiden’ were shown each in a weekend.

The public could post photos on Instagram with the hashtag #IFLeiden, that were also shown on the large screen. This was very popular among the visitors and bypassers of t he festival.

The weekend programme of the ‘Urban Screen’ at the Stadhuisplein made sure that the public, young as well as old, enjoyed a phantastic range of cultural activities!

  • Gigs by Band Talent Leiden: The IPFL offered young, talented bands a musical stage during the photo festival.
  • Signing sessions and presentations by known photographers in Leiden book shops.
  • Auction of three beautiful photo’s (hand made silver gelatin prints) by war photographer Teun Voeten. The revenu was donated to the Willem-Alexander Children’s Foundation (WAKF LUMC).
  • The ‘Faces of Leiden‘ project; a large group of photographers roamed about town to portrait the citizens of Leiden. The photos were immediately shown on the Urban Screen.
  • ‘Photo Corso’, a photo exhibition on bicycles moving through town, organised by the Leiden Amateur Photography Club LAFV, during the Film & Photography Shopping Weekend.
  • Educational project: At 5 secondary schools a workshop about “Art and the Freedom of Speech” was taught. The resulting photo stills were also shown during the Child Right Week 17-21 November in Leiden.

Foto: Shanka Abeeyesekere

We received many positive comments in the press and on social media.

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“Doorgaans denk je bij fotografie niet direct aan Leiden. Beetje bij beetje wordt hier verandering in aangebracht dankzij de organisatoren van het Internationaal Fotofestival.” [Normally you don’t think of Leiden when thinking of photography. This is changed bit by bit thanks to the IFL organisation.] New Dawn, 26-10-2014.

“Tot en met 8 november is in Leiden International Photo Festival @IFLeiden Er is veel mooi fotowerk te zien en nog nooit zo dichtbij!” [Until November 8th the IFL takes place in Leiden. Lots of beautiful photography and just around the corner!] Twitter @JacquelineFoto, 15-10-2014.

Without our sponsors and donors , the IPFL could not have taken place. We are very thankful for their contributions to the second edition of the International Photography Festival Leiden.
On behalf of the board and volunteers we would like to see you back in 2015!

The team of International Photo Festival Leiden 2014.