15.-30.9.202

“BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY”

11th Maribor Photography Festival

The open call is held under the patronage of

the Photographic Association of Slovenia (FZS)

Reference number: 9/2026

INTRODUCTION / CONCEPT

As a conceptual starting point for this year’s edition of the festival, we return to one of the most significant and, at the same time, most radical chapters in Slovenian photography – the photographic movement known as the Maribor Circle.

In the early 1970s, the Maribor Circle introduced a decisive break in the dominant understanding of photography. At a time when aesthetically pleasing, technically perfected images were highly valued, the authors of this movement shifted their focus elsewhere – towards the margins, the fractures, and that which society pushed aside. Their photography did not seek harmony, but truth; it did not glorify an idealized reality, but revealed its rawness.

Instead of perfection, imperfection came to the forefront. Instead of distance – immediacy. Photography became a space of ethical and existential confrontation. The margins of society, underprivileged and marginalized groups, degraded urban and industrial environments, and everyday life without embellishment became central subjects. The aesthetics of the “unbeautiful” was not provocation for its own sake, but an expression of the time and its consciousness.

Fifty years later, social, aesthetic, and technological conditions have significantly changed. Yet the fundamental questions remain – perhaps even more urgently than before. It is precisely for this reason that this open call seeks to establish a dialogue between past and present.

Black photography is not merely a formal decision, but a conscious reduction. It is a concentration of vision. It is a space where light reveals fracture, structure, and gesture.

The open call “Black Photography” is both a tribute to the Maribor Circle as a historical rupture and an acknowledgment of its enduring authorial stance.

OPEN CALL BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY FFM26-2