Rotterdam Photo 2026: Echoes of Silence – War in the Artist's Soul

• Rotterdam Photo

• Deadline: January 5th, 2026

• Theme: Echoes of Silence, War in the Artist's Soul

• Prize: Exhibition in Rotterdam Photo Fest

• Entry Fees: Yes

• REGISTRATION: CLICK HERE

How does war seep into an artist’s being when they have never stood on the battlefield, yet carry its emotional residue? How does violence resonate in the minds of those who survived, escaped, or only heard its distant thunder?

“Echoes of Silence” investigates how conflict and collective trauma surface in the work of photographers who use their cameras not to document events, but to reflect their inner turbulence.

In a world saturated with images of conflict, Rotterdam Photo 2026 proposes another view: an inward-looking, subjective, and visually layered interpretation of war. Instead of reportage or direct depictions of brutality, this edition presents autonomous photography grounded in personal resonance, psychological processing, or symbolic interpretation.

Here, war is not a location but a condition—an internal landscape shaped by memory, ancestry, and the subconscious. The lens does not capture explosions; it captures their aftershocks in silence, emptiness, repetition, fragmentation, and estrangement. In doing so, the festival broadens the visual discourse on conflict by foregrounding the intimate, poetic, and metaphorical.

The visual approaches vary widely—from distorted analog imagery to lyrical portraiture, from abstract terrains to symbolic still lifes—but all share a focus on the inner reverberations of war. This edition offers a counterbalance to sensational narratives, creating space for reflection, symbolism, and empathy, and welcoming both established and emerging photographers whose work is conceptual, personal, and deeply felt.