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From 27,846 submissions across 144 countries, the jury of the Global Peace Photo Award selected the work "The Cut" by Italian photographer Silvia Alessi as the Peace Image of the Year 2026. On September 24, 2026, the winners of the international Global Peace Photo Award competition were honored with the Alfred Fried Peace Medal at Vienna City Hall—marking the fourteenth edition of the event.
We present the winners of the Global Peace Photo Award 2026 on gosee.news:
Sesilia Shainidze from Georgia won the Children’s Category with "My Family," while Silvia Alessi from Italy took the Single Image category with "The Cut."
The winners in the Picture Series category are Antonio Denti (Italy) for "Il Mare in Mezzo (The Sea In Between)," Aleksandra Kossowska (Poland) for "The World by Touch," and Mahmoud Abu Hamda (Palestine) for "Wings of Childhood and Peace."
Peace Image of the Year 2026 – The main prize, "Peace Image of the Year 2026" (endowed with 6,000 euros), went to Italian photographer Silvia Alessi for her image "The Cut."
In a single photograph, Italian photographer Silvia Alessi has captured the act of standing up against the oppression of women, a moment of liberation, and the longing to make peace with life. The subjects are women who fled Afghanistan for Pakistan; each one defiantly and confidently holds a hairdryer up in the air. Among many other restrictions, the radical Islamist and ultra-reactionary Taliban—who have ruled Afghanistan since August 2021—have banned beauty salons for women. What was once one of the few professions open to Afghan women is now illegal. Young refugee women are now acquiring skills in Pakistan—practices and learning opportunities that have been wiped out in Afghanistan. They work in classrooms equipped with mirrors, hairdressing tools, and mannequin heads. Each hairdryer serves as a weapon in the fight for self-determination, identity, and visibility—for participation in society and the right to choose a profession. This is how jury member Peter-Matthias Gaede summarized the merit of Silvia Alessi’s work in his laudatory speech.
For the women she photographed, Alessi notes, peace is anything but an abstract concept; they hold a tool of self-empowerment in their hands. Silvia Alessi 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 2026 – Eleven-year-old Sesilia Shainadze from Georgia won the "Children’s Peace Image of the Year 2026" award—which carries a prize of 1,000 euros—for the best peace-themed image in the children and youth category with her photograph titled "My Family."
The winning image depicts a scene in her grandmother’s house, where Sesilia—along with her grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousins, and dog—arranged a tableau entirely of her own devising. She loves the constant activity at her grandmother’s place—the cheerful, colorful atmosphere. Peace, she believes, is not merely the absence of war; it begins where families come together in warmth, love, care, and happiness. For Sesilia, this represents her current vision of a peaceful world. Sesilia lives in the port city of Batumi on the Georgian Black Sea coast, where she attends the fifth grade at the "Masterclass" school—a state educational institution that places a high priority on foreign language acquisition, the teaching of democratic values, and ecological responsibility.
The awards gala took place in the Coat of Arms Hall of Vienna City Hall—filled to capacity—at the invitation of Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig, who was represented by City Councillor and Member of the Vienna State Parliament Alexandra Rezaei.
The two main prizes were presented by Sonja Raus, a member of the Managing Board of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), a long-standing supporter of the Global Peace Photo Award: "Peace is an essential prerequisite for a future worth living. As an international insurance group that connects people across national borders, a peaceful and stable environment is a matter of great importance to us. That is why the Vienna Insurance Group has been committed to the Global Peace Photo Award for many years. We have supported the Children’s Peace Image category since its inception, and we have been the main sponsor of the entire award since 2022."
During the presentation of the 2026 Peace Image award, Sonja Raus was joined by Silvia Lammerhuber—Managing Owner of Edition Lammerhuber and also a long-standing sponsor of the award.
For Lois Lammerhuber—who initiated the Global Peace Photo Award alongside his wife, Silvia Lammerhuber, and has organized it from the very beginning—it was an honor to host this special evening for the fourteenth time and to express his gratitude to all the contributors and guests. In his opening speech, he reminded the audience that "peace is not the absence of war, but rather something I would describe as a 'fulfilled life'."
With all their creative and artistic passion, the photographers craft an ode to respecting the fragility of our world. They evoke the relationship between humanity and nature as a mission for responsible living. Through their talents, their perspectives, and their visions, they depict the social and ecological challenges that we can no longer afford to ignore. They captivate the viewer with photographs that travel straight from the eye to take root in the heart.
Christoph Jünger, Executive Director of UNICEF Austria, emphasized in his speech: "Children and young people often experience the impact of conflicts, crises, and social tensions most directly. It is therefore all the more important to give them the space to make their view of the world visible. The entries for the 'Children's Peace Image of the Year' impressively demonstrate how young people understand, experience, and shape peace. Their images remind us that peace is not merely the absence of war, but also encompasses security, social cohesion, respect, and the opportunity to develop freely. UNICEF Austria is proud to support this powerful statement for the voices of young people as a partner."
The other 2026 Alfred Fried Peace Medals, each accompanied by a cash prize of €1,000, were awarded to:
Antonio Denti (Italy) for "Il Mare in Mezzo (The Sea In Between)" – Making peace with the sea, which holds traumatic memories for many of them. This is the goal of an initiative near Rome designed to help female migrants from Africa and their Italy-born children overcome their fear of the water. For them, the Mediterranean was a life-threatening element when they had to cross it in flimsy vessels—a kind of second desert following their journey through the arid landscapes of North Africa. And, all too often, a deadly barrier between their homeland and their dreamed-of destination in Europe.
For Denti, born in 1972 in Catania, Sicily, this represents a modern-day odyssey—one he witnessed firsthand during the perilous sea crossing. Yet it is an epic without a poet; it is raw reality. Denti initially studied anthropology at the University of London—engaging with the science of human coexistence—before he began observing this life through the lens of a camera. Or rather, participating in it directly. He has worked for the Reuters agency in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and Gaza.
Aleksandra Kossowska (Poland) for "The World by Touch" – Growing up in a world that is invisible from the very start. Comprehending the world through touch, sounds, textures, and smells—with no light anywhere. Even Polish photographer Aleksandra Kossowska could not capture blindness in images. The star-like clouds she added to her black-and-white photographs of blind or severely visually impaired children at a school in Sebeta, Ethiopia—southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa—represent her attempt at a translation. They visualize an aura—perhaps flashes of insight that can occur without sight. Perhaps feelings. Perhaps an interaction between the inner and outer worlds. Or perhaps something difficult for sighted people to put into words.
The photographer views her work, in part, as an "invitation" for us to empathize—rather than look away. She says: "The world touches us when we touch it." To make the nature of her work tangible for the children, she perforated the photographs by hand with tiny dots and delicate lines. It was a small, gentle gesture—an offer to make peace with their disability, and perhaps, in time, with life itself.
Based in Warsaw, the 48-year-old photographer—who studied both archaeology and photography—is a co-founder of Poleczki.art, a center that combines a gallery, library, studio, and teaching spaces dedicated to contemporary photography.
Mahmoud Abu Hamda from Palestine for "Wings of Childhood and Peace" – At first glance, it may seem surprising to honor images of childhood in Gaza with a peace prize. After all, in recent years, there are few other places where children have suffered so terribly—enduring bombs, destruction, displacement, hunger, fear, injuries, and the loss of parents, siblings, and friends.
And yet—even here, amidst landscapes of rubble—one can see children laughing; a boy playing the violin; boys and girls swinging, romping, and sitting happily together; playing and asserting their lives in even the darkest of places. Palestinian photographer Mahmoud Abu Hamda shows in his moving images that childhood here has not completely vanished, nor been entirely extinguished. It simply has to assert itself under immense pressure—requiring bravery, and surely the ability to forget and suppress painful memories.
Mahmoud Abu Hamda titled this series of images "Wings of Childhood and Peace." Wings that—at least outwardly—are neither burnt nor broken, but capable of carrying one away, even out of war, and toward a place where human dignity remains inviolable.
Hamda, 36, trained in multimedia at the University College of Applied Sciences and later held a teaching position in photography at the University of Gaza. However, he subsequently experienced displacement and hardship within his own family and was himself injured during an Israeli Air Force bombing of a high-rise building. He photographed hunger while going hungry himself.
Magnum, a leading international photography agency, has already honored Hamda with a major publication. His work has been exhibited in cities such as Amsterdam, and in 2023, he received one of the prestigious Lucia Awards.
The prize money for the three award-winning photo series was made possible through the support of the Vienna Professional Photography Guild, represented by Eva Kelety—Guild Master of the Vienna Professional Photography Guild and Federal Guild Master of Professional Photography in Austria.
Keynote by Cornelius Obonya – The evening’s keynote address was delivered by Cornelius Obonya, actor, director, and Honorary Representative of UNICEF Austria: “Where do we begin? How about we acknowledge the fact that we—and our children—are facing a reality where a government on our continent, or right on its doorstep, has once again ordered an invasion of another country. And that there are people who have obeyed that order and are taking part. And that, once again, there are individual perpetrators through whom the ‘banality of evil’ is rearing its head.
I am reminded here of a brief surveillance camera clip from a Ukrainian business. It shows two Russian soldiers shooting two civilian employees of the company without warning. Shooting them in the back, mind you. People say we should negotiate with the aggressor. But what if he refuses? A peaceful order can only endure as long as everyone—and I mean *everyone*—abides by it.
Oh, and let us please tell our children that, in this country, one does not vote for parties that seek to submit to the aggressor. These people have only one image in their minds: that of the national leader riding through a river, bare-chested and with a rifle slung over his shoulder. They confuse power with strength, and peaceful deliberation with the elimination of human beings.
It is our duty to share every single truth with our children. They are capable of facing it. But only if we learn to face it ourselves—once again. My congratulations to everyone on this award. May the message contained within—and conveyed by—your images lead to better news emerging from the war zones of this planet.”
About the Global Peace Photo Award 2026 – A total of 27,846 entries from 144 countries were submitted for the Global Peace Photo Award 2026. The highest numbers of submissions came from India, the USA, China, Italy, Germany, France, Nigeria, Russia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The entries were judged by a distinguished international jury. See: https://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 Journalists, the International Press Institute (IPI), the World Press Photo Foundation, POY LATAM, APA – Austria Press Agency, the German Photographic Association (DGPh), UNICEF Austria, and the Vienna Insurance Group.
05.10.2026
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Bridges between Tradition and Modern Technology – On August 12, 2026, the catalogue of works aka catalogue raisonné of media artist Dagmar Varady was presented in the Cabinet Room of the State Chancellery and the Ministry of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt in Magdeburg, in the presence of the artist and publisher Lois Lammerhuber. For the first time, it comprehensively documents her artistic output from 31 years of creative work, spanning 1993 to 2024, encompassing a total of 433 works.
The presentation took place within the framework of the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation's catalogue raisonné program, which promotes the scholarly research and long-term visibility of significant artistic oeuvres.
A catalogue raisonné is far more than mere documentation: it creates the scholarly foundation for engaging with an artist's work, preserves cultural heritage, and ensures that an artist's life's work remains accessible to future generations.
Dagmar Varady's works are based on the collection of images, image fragments, and image quotations from diverse sources, media, and contexts. This collection forms a structure within which the artist, through interaction and transfer, opens up and shifts ascribed meanings in a multi-layered way, just as she intersects digital media and traditional art practices. Like in a laboratory, disparate pictorial elements find common ground, poetic affinities emerge, and fluid, mutable pictorial states are created that defy definition, even extending into fictional spaces.
In an essay by Cornelia Blume, art historian and long-time curator at the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle (Saale), the artist's conceptual approach is explored in greater depth, alongside the scholarly analysis.
Dagmar Varady was born in Erfurt in 1961 and lives and works in Halle (Saale) and Leipzig. After studying at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, she has taught at various German art academies since 1989. She received international scholarships and in 2002 the HAP Grieshaber Prize from VG Bild-Kunst Bonn. Her works are held in public and private collections, including the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle (Saale), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum in London, and Die Neue Sammlung in Munich. In 2025, Varady received the Art Prize of the City of Halle.
Catalogue raisonné 1993 – 2024 Dagmar Varady . Cornelia Blume . Format: 27× 27 cm . Seiten: 228 , Abbildungen: 433 . Deutsch . Hardcover . ISBN 978-3-903462-25-0
€ 59,00
GoSee : edition.lammerhuber.at//catalogue-raisonne-1993-2024
25.08.2026
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Large-format projections of photographs from this year's exhibitions were accompanied by a medley of famous songs by the Beatles and Queen. Exclusively arranged for this occasion and performed live by the Baden Stage Orchestra, image and sound merged into a unified performance, a visual concert that paid tribute to this year's focus country, the United Kingdom:
SO BRITISH! is the theme of the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival 2026, which takes place for the ninth time from June 12 to October 11 in Baden near Vienna. With around 340,000 visitors, it is Europe's largest open-air photography festival. Along a 7-kilometer stretch through the parks, gardens, and the old town, some 1,500 large-format images by the world's best photographers transform the city of Baden into a total work of art combining photography and garden design.
SO BRITISH! – Great Britain and Europe share a thousand-year history full of misunderstandings and hostilities, admiration and respect. This might be due to the British tendency to do things differently. They don't just drive on the left; they also have their own currency, and 51.89 percent voted for Brexit a long time ago. They play darts, believe in ghosts, and still have a monarchy.
And they have this touch of eccentricity. Ever since Oscar Wilde walked a lobster on a leash along the banks of the Thames, we've known that in this land of strict upbringing, extravagance is still cultivated as an art form. Many British photographers share this style. They are so British because they understand how to capture the spirit of their time with a great sense of clarity.
"Our festival has always strived to honor the great masters of photography, and Sir Don McCullin, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, is a legend. Throughout his career, he didn't just photograph the misery of the marginalized, he denounced it; he didn't just photograph war, he condemned its absurdity; he didn't just photograph the English countryside, no, he showed its fragility." Lois Lammerhuber, Co-Initiator of the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival 2026.
If mischief were the prerogative of the British, then Martin Parr would be their photographic herald. For over fifty years, this tireless chronicler of English society cast his razor-sharp gaze upon his compatriots. And he approached his assignments for the world of fashion no differently: his stylistic devices lend the images a certain exaggeration. Fashion is not merely presented, but simultaneously questioned: What does style mean in a world of mass consumption? How do trends influence our behavior and our perception of beauty?
Tony Ray-Jones, this ironic observer who gave humor its rightful place without ever resorting to unnecessary cruelty, is in no way inferior. Peter Dench has chosen to scrutinize the contradictions of a society considered deeply steeped in tradition. Josh Edgoose roams the streets of London in search of the unexpected. “Swinging London” reminds us that iconic pop music was born on the banks of the Thames. Terry O’Neill wasn’t just a witness to this exhilarating revolution; he was the photographic confidant of England’s “enfants terribles,” from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to David Bowie and Elton John.
Did you know that the United Kingdom and France share the distinction of being the inventors of photography? Although Nicéphore Niépce from Chalon-sur-Saône was the first to capture an image on a metal plate, it was an English botanist who first further developed this technique as early as 1843. Anna Atkins was a pioneer in the field of cyanotype, using it to create herbaria of captivating beauty. Gina Soden explores stately homes and old villas left behind by their owners, abandoned factories, and derelict hospitals where nature has reclaimed its territory. Cig Harvey experiments with color, our sensory experiences, and bodies merging with nature. Finally, Mary Turner casts a tender gaze on the marginalized populations of post-industrial England.
Christian Skrein reminds us of the Beatles' visit to Obertauern, where they had traveled to film the video for "Help!"—and were greeted by the local population with banners: Beatles Go Home! ... Baden-based filmmaker Richard Ladkani creates a photographic memorial to Jane Goodall from the intimate perspective of a now abruptly severed friendship: "Just me, Jane!"
Star photographer Esther Haase visited Andreas Kronthaler to explore with him the legacy of his longtime companion and wife, Vivien Westwood. Mike Taylor's work "The Beautiful Game" shows us football from the perspective of feverish fans in British pubs—without including a single football player in the picture.
Queen guitar virtuoso Sir Brian May is not only an iconic rock musician, but above all a passionate stereoscopic photographer and the world's largest collector of this art. Following the world premiere of his work "The Moon Landing in 3D" at the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden in 2019, the festival will present an absolute rarity from its collection: "Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell," created shortly after the invention of photography.
This 3D cult classic offers a unique satirical perspective on the concept of hell in the 1860s, transforming it into a nightmarish underworld in the most beautiful way possible! These remarkable scenes were modeled in clay by two leading French sculptors, Pierre Hennetier and Louis Habert, and then photographed with a stereo camera—a truly special photographic treat in the context of the 200th anniversary of photography.
Equally spectacular and dedicated to the bicentenary of photography, the festival will present a retrospective of the unique work of photographic icon and Magnum founder Robert Capa, marking the festival's first collaboration with the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center Budapest.
Another rarity is the exhibition "I Love The Beatles" by Michel Bouvet, who, as an admirer of the Beatles, illustrates the most legendary songs of the mythical band from Liverpool in 35 extraordinary paintings. It is a work that is above all the result of an imagination fueled by his passion for music, painting, literature, and travel.
Under the title "Water is Life!", the festival, with the help of UNESCO World Water Chair Helmut Habersack, takes a sobering look at the world's rivers: "We learn about their beauty and their dramas and discover what science can contribute to making their waters refreshing again. Innsbruck-based researcher Günter Köck takes us to the most remote regions of the world, where Arctic char are used as an 'instrument' for environmental monitoring. Even more unexpected exoticism awaits us when the festival accompanies the young woman from Baden, Christin Gerstorfer, into the fascinating, silent, and dark world of freediving."
Silvia Lammerhuber, co-initiator of the festival, explains: "2024 was the hottest year on record. This fact is attributable to the ever-increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The oceans, which cover 70% of the Earth's surface, are a crucial regulator of the Earth's climate." They absorb over 90% of the excess heat in the climate system, leading to increasingly violent hurricanes and storms. Who better to give us a vivid insight into the fragile ecosystem of the Blue Planet than marine biologist Laurent Ballesta, one of the finest underwater photographers of his generation? With Robert Doisneau, whose work extends far beyond Paris and its suburbs, we take a refreshing dip. Stéphane Lavoué set out this winter to meet the people who live from and with the oceans. Indian photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee has been working in the Sundarbans archipelago for years. He shows us the everyday lives of people confronted with climate disasters and rising sea levels."
The tireless traveler, fashion photographer, and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Françoise Huguier, explores the soul of people from Mali to Ethiopia, from Benin to Mozambique in Emotive Africa. In Tanzania, Frédéric Noy's long-term project, Udzungwa, is set, where populations of endemic monkeys live in the heart of a primary forest threatened by urbanization. In an essay that is both documentary and artistic, Axelle de Russé uses infrared photography to examine our two inhabited polar worlds in the north and south. Corey Arnold's report documents how bears, coyotes, and raccoons are venturing into our cities in search of food they can no longer find in their original habitats.
As a fleeting gift to nature and an ode to travel and contemplation, we present the sensual world of François Fontaine, winner of the 2025 Leica Prize for New Environmental Photography, presents his work. His images, taken during peak bloom, resemble prints and depict mottled light, magical reflections, the wind in the trees, and the blossoming of a new season. Finally, Norbert Span will surprise you with his visual journey into the microscopic structures of vitamins, revealing their enchanting inner beauty.
The exhibition "The Dream of Flying" showcases the achievements humans are capable of when driven by ambition and curiosity. Every takeoff, every flight, every landing is a reminder of this. "The Dream of Flying" is a collaborative photographic project by Ana María Arévalo Gosen, Hans-Jürgen Burkard, Heinz Stephan Tesarek, Jérôme Gence, Martina Draper, Nadia Ferroukhi, Ulla Lohmann, and Lois Lammerhuber, commissioned by Vienna Airport to mark its 70th anniversary.
The bilateral photography project "Pop Nature" challenges the schools of Morbihan and Lower Austria are exploring a free, carefree, psychedelic, rhythmic, and vibrant photographic perspective on nature. The focus is on luminous colors, a sparkling, lively, carefree, and positive world.
The exhibition "I love Coffee, I love Tea," featuring photographs by Lower Austrian professional photographers, and the exhibition of CEWE's "Our World is Beautiful," the world's largest photography competition with 656,738 submissions from 153 countries, will round out the festival, as will Christoph Künne's AI-inspired work on the 450-year history of Manfred Schneider's Annamühle bakehouse in Baden.
Under the guiding principle of "Culture of Solidarity," the collaboration with festival partners Garten Tulln—where the CEWE exhibition "Our World is Beautiful" will be shown—and Bratislava's Month of Photography will continue in 2026.
The exhibition catalog "SO BRITISH!" is published by Edition Lammerhuber.
SO BRITISH! . 21 × 28 cm . 304 Seiten, ca. 219 Fotos . Deutsch, Englisch . Softcover . ISBN 978-3-903462-18-2 . 30,00 Euro
GoSee : edition.lammerhuber.at//so-british + AUSSTELLUNGSPLAN + festival-lagacilly-baden.photo
29.06.2026
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