In Retrospect

FotoDoks was launched in 2008 and is now one of the most important festivals for documentary photography. Each year the programme is extended with additional exhibitions, collaborations, workshops and awards and provides an innovative platform for exchange and discussion.

Fotodoks

The big Fotodoks retrospective

Since its foundation in 2008, Fotodoks has developed year by year, grown and jumped over many hurdles. Exhibition venues have changed, new awards, collaborations, workshops, partner and touring exhibitions have been added. This has been made possible by the many people who have accompanied and supported us over the short or long term, in front of and behind the scenes, with a lot of energy, creativity and heart and soul. This small, big history shows how Fotodoks became what it is - and who all contributed to it!

Fotodoks 2021

a house is a house is a house

The 2021 festival 'A house is a house is a house' opened with an exhibition and a diverse accompanying programme of the current perception of home and makes the social inequality visible which is increasing due to the colonial, patriarchal and capitalist power structures that exist around the world.

Fotodoks 2019

Vis-à-Vis

In 2019, the Festival looked to France and with the theme Vis-à-Vis opened the dialogue with the most long-standing and diverse culture in documentary photography. FOTODOKS presented an exemplary and concentrated selection of photographic positions which shed light on economic, social and socio-political power structures and questions supposed „truths“.

Fotodoks 2017

ME:WE

In dialogue with the partner country USA, Fotodoks 2017 dedicated itself to the relation between "Me" and "We" on a personal, political and media level. The connection between the individual and the collective describes a dynamic movement in both directions. If we find a balance, we all can have enough space to develop. But what if not?

Das Fotodoks-Plakat 2015 (Design: Martin Steiner)

Fotodoks 2015

Past is Now

In 2015 the partner region Ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) was our guest at Fotodoks. Exhibitions and festival programme focused on the current state and the potential of yesterday in today, on shifting boundaries and the promise of Europe.

Fotodoks 2013

Stranger World

In cooperation with the partner region "the North" (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) Fotodoks 2013 asked for the forms of representation of a world that seems to be increasingly disconcerting and thrown out of sync. We focused on the photographic views of otherness, the strange and unfamiliar, on courageous and special people but also on aesthetic and stylistic approaches to topics that deviate from the common visual language.

Fotodoks 2012

Achtung?! – Respect, Control, Change

In its fifth year Fotodoks and the partner country Great Britain discussed the surveillance of places and people, the dividing line between public and private spaces as well as the responsibility of the photographer towards his medium and protagonists.

Fotodoks 2011

Unglaublich – Incredibile. Sensationalism, Document, Reality

2011 was the year of Fotodoks premiers: with Italy we invited our first guest country. The group exhibition was presented at the Münchner Stadtmuseum for the first time and the festival centre with a bookstand by the Hamburg Deichtorhallen moved into the art space MaximiliansForum. Unbelievable and new as well were the first festival catalogue and cooperations with MAGNUM Photos and the documentary film festival DOK.fest.