News // 108 News by Edition Lammerhuber
The jury of the Global Peace Photo Awards selected the work "No One Can Take My Soul" by Iranian photographer Mahdi Vaghari as the Peace Photo of the Year 2025 from 24,189 submissions from 132 countries.
On March 30, 2026, the winners of the Global Peace Photo Awards in four categories were honored for the thirteenth time at Vienna City Hall. The keynote address of the evening was given by Terumi Tanaka, Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese peace organization that was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
The winners of the Global Peace Photo Awards 2025
Children's Category
Noa Hagemann from Germany for „Meine Schwester“
Single Image Category
Mahdi Vaghari from Iran for „No one can take my Soul”
Series Category
Fereshteh Eslahi from Iran for „But we were so strong“
Diego Ibarra Sánchez from Spain for „LBN: On the roaring of the bus“
Ami Vitale from the USA for „Kenya’s Black Rhino Revival“
The award gala took place in the packed Coat of Arms Hall of Vienna City Hall, at the invitation of the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, who was represented by City Councillor and Member of the Vienna Provincial Parliament, Omar Al-Rawi.
... The main prize, "Peace Image of the Year 2025," worth 7,000 euros, was awarded to Iranian photographer Mahdi Vaghari for his image "No one can take my Soul."
No veiling, no concealment. No modesty, no sadness. Rather, pride in what a woman is not meant to show, so as not to provoke men. A gust of wind has whipped the magnificent hair of this young Iranian woman into a wild wreath. She is walking along a street in Iran, past a poster depicting a flock of birds flying over a coastal landscape. Freedom on two levels.
An image of great power, which—unlike so many photographs—actually needs no words at all. The fact that it was created in Iran, however, lends it a special significance. The photograph was taken by a man who is not yet well-known in our part of the world: Mahdi Vaghari, born in Iran in 1995, who became interested in photography in 2003 and learned it from his father.
"Authentic emotions," Mahdi says, "are what I want to capture. And I hope to draw attention to everything that can make the world more beautiful. And more peaceful." "No one," he captioned his photograph, as if the woman herself were speaking, "can possess my soul." Excerpt from the laudatory speech by jury member Peter-Matthias Gaede.
Mahdi Vaghari also received an award in the "Best Single Image" category. The prize money of 1,000 euros was provided by the Photographic Society (PHG), the second oldest photographic society in the world.
The Children’s Peace Image of the Year 2025, the best peace image in the children’s and youth category, which comes with a €1,000 prize, was won by 8-year-old Noa Hagemann from Germany with his picture “My Sister.”
It was at a zoo, and Lani, Noa’s five-year-old sister, stood like a little fairytale character among the trees, gently enveloped in wisps of mist. Noa, who had just turned eight, spontaneously took the photo. This is worth mentioning because the boy often positions and directs his sister for a picture. What does peace mean to Noa? “That everyone is happy,” he says, “that no one is fighting and there’s no war in the world.”
The two main prizes were presented by Hartwig Löger, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), which has supported the Global Peace Photo Award as its main sponsor for many years: “Peace is of paramount importance. As individuals and as a company, we depend on a stable and peaceful environment to thrive. Therefore, the Vienna Insurance Group, an international insurance group operating in approximately 30 countries, has supported the Global Peace Photo Award from the very beginning. We have supported the children's peace photo since its inception, and since 2022, we have also been the main sponsor of the entire award.”
Lois Lammerhuber, who, together with his wife Silvia Lammerhuber, initiated and has organized the Global Peace Photo Award since its inception, reminded the audience that “peace is not the absence of war, but rather something I would describe as a ‘life well lived.’ With all their creative and artistic passion, the photographers express an ode to respecting the fragility of our world.”
They celebrate the relationship between humanity and nature as a mission for responsible living. With their talents, their perspective, and their vision, they describe those social and environmental challenges that can no longer let us go. They captivate the viewer with photographs that take root in the heart, encouraging us to stand up against indifference and prevailing populism. An appeal to the world, firmly inscribed at the heart of our award.”
Werner Blach, Executive Director of UNICEF Austria, emphasized in his speech: “The conflicts around the globe may differ in their causes and course, but they share a common, devastating reality: It is always the children who pay the highest price. Children who bear no guilt whatsoever! They must be protected and desperately need peace! Children have rights—not sometime in the future, not perhaps—but always.”
The other Alfred Fried Peace Medals 2025, each accompanied by a prize of €1,000, were awarded to:
Ami Vitale, USA: “Kenya’s Black Rhino Revival” – They have inhabited the African continent for 17 million years, but poaching has decimated their population by a dramatic 96 percent. Their downfall: A powder made from the two large, long horns on their skulls is still believed in parts of Asia to have fever-reducing, detoxifying, and even cancer-curing properties. For this award-winning report, the American photographer Ami Vitale documented the complex relocation of 21 endangered black rhinoceroses to the Loisaba Reserve in northern Kenya.
Ami Vitale, born in 1971, studied before deciding to become a photojournalist. Her reports have been published in GEO and National Geographic, among others. Vitale has won several of the world's most prestigious awards; the significance of her work is now compared to that of women like Jane Goodall or Christiane Amanpour.
Fereshteh Eslahi, Iran: “But we were so strong” – In May 2025, the mullah regime's attempt to tighten the headscarf requirement for women in the country failed. Then, in October, came the news that 80,000 newly recruited “morality police” were to enforce compliance with the Islamic dress code more rigorously in the capital, Tehran, alone.
And yet: Until the start of the Israeli-US attack on Iran, the women's uprising continued. But it was one that expressed itself peacefully. It was solely about accepting that femininity should not be seen as a provocation and need not be hidden in public – but is nothing other than a self-evident human right. This demand is nonetheless courageous. The dancer on the roof, her leap with outstretched arms, expresses a hope for liberation from all kinds of dictates. This scene was captured by Iranian photographer Fereshteh Eslahi, who studies the everyday lives of Iranian women through her camera.
Eslahi holds a master's degree from the University of Tehran. Since 2014, she has worked for Iranian photo agencies, and since 2017, she has been a member of an Iranian press photographers' association. In 2021, Eslahi received a World Press Photo Award.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez, Spain: “LBN: On the Roaring of the Bus” – At the end of World War II, the term DP, or Displaced Persons, encompassed all those who found themselves outside their homeland. Displaced Persons have existed in many countries around the world ever since, including Lebanon, currently due to the reciprocal attacks by Hezbollah on Israel and Israeli counterattacks. In October 2024, there were approximately 94,000 people living in southern Lebanon, including about 30,000 children.
To offer girls and boys at least a brief respite from the maelstrom of fear and terror, photographer Houssam Khatab organized a colorful bus, the "Art Peace Bus," driven by Syrian refugees. The bus takes children from the city of Tyre to an old theater palace, where they are entertained with various performances and workshops. "Many of the children have lost everything," says actor and theater director Kassem Istambouli. "We are trying to break the cycle of war and offer children art as a window to greater resilience."
Spanish photographer Diego Ibarra Sánchez, born in 1982 and living and working in Lebanon, rode on the Peace Bus to photograph children in moments of joyful celebration. As a photographer and documentary filmmaker, Sánchez says he wants to achieve more than simply photograph events. Above all, he wants to stimulate reflection on the state of our world. He has depicted this world in places like Latin America, African countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Lebanon. His work has been featured in the New York Times.
Born in 1982, Spanish photographer Diego Ibarra Sánchez, who lives and works in Lebanon, rode along on the Peace Bus to photograph children in moments of pure joy. As a photographer and documentary filmmaker, Sánchez says he wants to achieve more than simply document events. Above all, he wants to stimulate reflection on the state of our world. He has captured this world in Latin America, African countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Lebanon, among other places. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Der Spiegel, and the NZZ, and is featured in numerous exhibitions.
The texts used here are excerpts from the laudatory speeches by Peter-Matthias Gaede.
The keynote address of the evening was given by Terumi Tanaka, Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo. The Japanese peace organization was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. Nihon Hidankyo was founded by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and advocates for international nuclear disarmament.
Here's an excerpt for you on gosee.news: "We founded Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Victims' Organizations, in August 1956. As survivors of the inhumane effects of the atomic bombings—damage unprecedented in history—we started this movement.
I am one of the survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It was August 9, 1945. Suddenly, I heard the drone of a bomber and was immediately enveloped in a blinding white light. The deaths I witnessed then could hardly be described as human. By the end of 1945, the death toll in Hiroshima was estimated at around 140,000 and in Nagasaki at 70,000.
It is the heartfelt desire of the Hibakusha that, instead of relying on the theory of nuclear deterrence, which focuses on the possession and the The use of nuclear weapons presupposes that the possession of even a single nuclear weapon must not be permitted. I therefore appeal to all people in the world to discuss together what we must do to abolish nuclear weapons and to demand measures from governments to achieve this goal.”
Paper cranes as a symbol of peace and disarmament – The evening also commemorated the fate of Sadako Sasaki, another victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. She died in 1955 at the age of twelve, the best athlete in her school class, from the long-term effects of the atomic bombing, from leukemia.
According to a Japanese legend, Sadako folded more than 1,000 paper cranes in the hope of survival after the onset of her illness. Since then, paper cranes have been considered a symbol of peace and disarmament worldwide.
Sadako's story continues to inspire millions of people worldwide, including the teachers and students of the Seitenstetten-Biberbach secondary school. At the initiative of Josef Penzendorfer, a peace activist and head of Sadako projects, they folded and sold so many origami cranes in 2009 that they could invite Sadako's brother, Masahiro, to Austria. His visit led to the decision to distribute the last five cranes folded by Sadako to the five continents of our planet. The "European Crane" made its way from Seitenstetten-Biberbach to the Peace Library in Stadtschlaining.
Twenty students from the Seitenstetten-Biberbach secondary school participated in the award ceremony. In the weeks leading up to it, they folded 250 cranes from original origami paper. These were distributed to the attendees at the end of the ceremony and released into the night sky as a symbol of hope for peace.
About the Global Peace Photo Award 2025 – 24,189 images from 132 countries were submitted to the Global Peace Photo Award 2025. Most submissions came from Iran, India, Germany, Russia, and the USA. The submissions were judged by a distinguished international jury. See: globalpeacephotoaward.org/jury
The Global Peace Photo Award is presented in cooperation with Edition Lammerhuber, the Photographic Society (PHG), UNESCO, the Austrian Parliament, the Association of Parliamentary Editors, the International Press Institute (IPI), the World Press Photo Foundation, POY LATAM, LensCulture, APA – Austria Press Agency, the German Society for Photography (DGPh), UNICEF Austria, and Vienna Insurance Group.
GoSee : globalpeacephotoaward.org
15.04.2026
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The La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival 2025, which captivated around 336,000 visitors with its 30 photographic narratives under the theme "Australia & The New World," making it the largest festival of its kind in Europe, has just been awarded the title of Best Open-Air Photography Event in the World for 2025.
"It is gratifying and humbles us to receive so much recognition. For something that is very close to our hearts and that touches, interests, and inspires people: photography and the stories it tells, all packaged in a festival that transforms a city into a city of images for four months, freely accessible to everyone," said Silvia and Lois Lammerhuber, founders of the festival.
"It is heartwarming and humbling to experience such appreciation. “Following the success of the first Creative and Visual Arts Awards last year, we are delighted to celebrate even more of the industry’s best this year. All of our winners are redefining the creative industry in their own unique ways, and we can only imagine what the future holds for them!” said Kaven Cooper, Award Coordinator of LUXlife. “This prestigious award recognizes outstanding achievements across a wide range of disciplines within the global arts scene. From fine and performing arts to photography and videography, product design, digital art, and creative technology, the diversity of this award is surpassed only by the excellence of its recipients.”
Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo 2025 - For the eighth time, around 1,500 large-format photographs by the world’s best photographers captivated visitors in the parks, gardens, and on the facades of the city of Baden from June to October. Stretching for approximately 7 kilometers, the festival featured a series of exhibitions, each captivating visitors with its overarching theme of humanity, nature, and the environment, showcasing both the beauty and vulnerability of our planet Earth.
"Every company and every individual honored here represents the best of this industry on a global scale, and their passion for their craft and for promoting the arts in general sets them apart," stated LUXlife in their laudatory speech.
Journalist Gianmarco Maravigia, who reports for the Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, and Newsweek, summarized: "The festival in Baden was one of the most inspiring photographic experiences I have ever had. It will definitely become a regular annual event for me."
And Ben Lorenz of Imaging Media House in Berlin says about the festival: “Some days remind us why we love photography so much – and my visit to the Baden Photo Festival 2025 was exactly one of those days. Hosts Silvia and Lois have created a festival that, with their big hearts, will definitely become a regular annual event.”
Creative and Visual Arts Awards - Few fields are as diverse and influential as the creative and visual arts, which encompass a multitude of emotions, narratives, and forms of expression, thus perfectly reflecting our diverse, multicultural society. The power of these stories to effect change on a personal, local, national, or international level knows no bounds, and the connections they create bring everyone closer together, reflecting our commonalities and differences and helping us to grow and look toward a better future for all.
The creative and visual arts industry is one of the most dynamic and diverse sectors of the global economy. By 2025, the global creative economy is projected to exceed US$3 trillion, with visual arts, music, product and fashion design, and audiovisual media playing a central role. Independent artists, multidisciplinary creators, and cross-genre studios continue to push boundaries, offering new experiences that blend craftsmanship, culture, and cutting-edge technology.
Learn more about the La Gacilly-Baden Festival, the LUXlife Creative and Visual Arts Awards, and LUXlife Magazine via the links provided here.
GoSee : lux-life.digital/lux_awards + lux-life.digital/issues + festival.lagacilly-baden.photo
06.04.2026
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“This book is a visual love letter to a natural history museum,” says Dona Jalufka, who, in unexpected and impressive photographic compositions, offers a glimpse “behind the scenes” of Austria’s most visited museum.
The result is an ode to nature and to the place that preserves it: the Natural History Museum in Vienna, whose collections are dedicated to scientific research as much as to the public. As a historical site with its own unique building and exhibition architecture, the museum engages in a richly contrasting dialogue with the objects on display.
“The prerequisite for knowledge is curiosity.” Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The Natural History Museum Vienna showcases many scientific fields, from mineralogy, geology, and paleontology to botany, zoology, anthropology, and human prehistory. However, the public sees only a fraction of the collections. A vivid analogy is that of an iceberg, of which only a small portion is visible above the waterline. Only a few percent of the approximately 30 million objects in the collection are on display, and only one-fifth of the space is dedicated to public exhibition halls. Behind the scenes of such a large institution are areas that the public rarely knows about: vast storage rooms (four basement levels), preparation rooms, laboratories, offices, and archives.
"Research creates new knowledge." Neil Armstrong
With her background in the natural sciences, the work of the American artist Dona Jalufka photographically explores this Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), the diversity of nature, and its history for the public. The photographs presented in the book show public areas as well as the larger, inaccessible section. A glimpse "behind the scenes" reveals unexpected and impressive compositions to the viewer.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the passing on of the flame." This quote—attributed to Sir Thomas More and Gustav Mahler, among others—can also be understood in relation to preservation in art and culture. In this sense, months of photographing in the heart of a museum gave me insight into the tradition of conservation. Dona Jalufka
Dona Jalufka was born in Houston, Texas, USA, where she studied fine arts, photography, and graphic design and worked as a graphic designer for NASA and other space research institutions. In 1990, she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she continued her studies at the University of Applied Arts and worked as a graphic designer at the University of Vienna. Jalufka's work focuses on painting, mixed media, and photography. With a background in the natural sciences, she has explored scientific topics through the lens of her art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Austria, Germany, and Italy.
BOOK LAUNCH - April 25, 2026, 2:00 p.m. Austrian Film Museum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 Vienna
Preserved - A Natural History . Dona Jalufka . 29.7 × 21 cm . 184 pages, 92 illustrations German, English. Hardcover. ISBN 978-3-903462-10-6. EUR 49.90. March 2026
GoBuy : edition.lammerhuber.at//preserved-eine-naturgeschichte
17.03.2026
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