Image: FUTURES Annual Event 2021, Photography by Maarten Nauw
PhotoIreland secures its partnership with the FUTURES Photography Platform until 2028!
It is with great pleasure that we share the news that the FUTURES foundation has been selected by the European Commission as a beneficiary of the Platform programme for the period 2025-2028 to the grant of €2.8 million. This means PhotoIreland will be able to continue serving Irish artists through the platform and the diversity of international partnerships for over a decade, having been a founding FUTURES member bringing Irish talent to Europe and international practices and ideas to Ireland since 2017
Over the next four years, FUTURES will expand its activities across Europe and beyond, including traveling exhibitions, symposia, and festivals. The platform will welcome new members including Odesa Photo Days, Foto Arsenal Wien, and Tbilisi Photo Festival, among others. A key focus will be the implementation of the educational programme, alongside the launch of a research-driven residency exchange between Amsterdam, Riga, and Budapest, designed to foster artistic collaboration. Furthermore, FUTURES is committed to integrating strategies that address environmental challenges, promote sustainable practices, and improve artists’ working conditions and mental health.
PhotoIreland has, as the Irish representative of FUTURES, nominated 35 Irish artists to date who had the opportunity to participate in international trips, networking events, exhibitions, portfolio reviews, and mentoring sessions with the platform’s international colleagues. Being invited as a member was a clear sign of recognition of our work and ambition, and it has given us the opportunity to work in cooperation with many respected organisations, accessing and supporting exciting contemporary practices by artists and curators, while allowing us to promote Irish artists in the European arena.
The open call for Irish artists to join the FUTURES 2025 cohort will open soon!
About the FUTURES Photography Platform
Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, FUTURES Photography Platform is a platform focused on amplifying emerging talents in photography in Europe. Since 2017, the aim of FUTURES Photography Platform is to pool the resources and talent programmes of leading photography institutions across Europe in order to increase the capacity, mobility and visibility of its selected artists. The FUTURES Photography Platform has grown since 2018 a collaborative network of 20 prominent institutions operating in the field of photography around Europe. These are: CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia (IT), Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie (FR), Copenhagen Photo Festival (DK), Triennial of Photography Hamburg (DE), Der Greif (DE), FOMU (BE), FOTODOK (NL), Fotofestiwal Lodz (PL), Fotogalleriet (NO), Fotograf Magazine (CZ), Organ Vida (HR), ISSP (LV), PhotoIreland (IE), Photo Romania Festival (RO), Bienal Fotografia do Porto (PT), Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center (HU), Void (GR), Photoforum Pasquart (CH), Photo Elysée (CH), and Centre de la photographie Genève (CH) and our research member, Eurokleis s.r.l. (IT)
In addition to the many local events and opportunities organised by the FUTURES members, an annual event brings together all artists and arts professionals from the platform. The format and events programmed change every year and in the past have included our presence at Unseen Amsterdam, involving a showcase of all the Futures artists, a special exhibition of a smaller selection of Futures artists, portfolio reviews, special Futures magazine publication, in addition to events like artists and members talks, networking opportunities etc. Beyond this work, the platform artists are promoted online, in publications, and have a profile page on the FUTURES website, where their work is featured: futures-photography.com/artists