In Baden, England Travels — Blind Journal

Since 2004, the small Breton village of La Gacilly has reworked itself each summer season into an open-air pictures backyard. For a number of editions now, this similar program has traveled throughout Europe to resettle, the next yr, in Baden bei Wien. There, the pageant spreads roughly 1,500 large-format prints throughout 7 kilometers, break up between a “garden route” and a “city route,” free and open to all, from June 12 to October 11, 2026, working from the forecourt of the Römertherme to the Doblhoffpark.

For pageant director Lois Lammerhuber, this touring format isn’t a easy copy-paste. “Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo promotes harmonious coexistence, a peaceful and open attitude towards others, and a mindful way of life,” he says. “By highlighting both pressing environmental issues and the beauty of our world, the festival embodies humanity’s longing for peace.”

The throughline stays the one launched final yr in Brittany: the British gaze by itself period. “The 2026 festival focuses on the United Kingdom, a land of contrasts and eccentricity where tradition and modernity exist side by side in a fertile symbiosis,” Lammerhuber notes. “The British artists provide us with a unique perspective on their society, a mix of subtle irony, bold aesthetics, and clear critique.” An ambition already summed up, on the time of the Brittany opening, by Cyril Drouhet, the exhibitions’ curator and director of pictures at Le Figaro: “What matters to us is embracing every kind of photographic writing. We mix vintage photography, documentary, photojournalism, and art. Everyone can find an emotion, a sensibility here.”

At Baden as in La Gacilly, Martin Parr greatest embodies this spirit. His exhibition “Fashion Faux Parr,” on view at Brusattiplatz, spans a number of a long time of cheeky, sensible photos of British holidaymakers, supermarkets, and weddings. Don McCullin, exhibited just a few steps away, is aware of him nicely: “Martin came to my house two or three times this year, and I got to know him better. When he started out in the 1980s, his work in color was like throwing a stone into a pond, as we say in England.” He provides: “I can read Martin’s photographs without the color, because I know the English very well, just like he does.”

The exhibition dedicated to Don McCullin, “Das Leben, der Tod und was bleibt” (Life, Death and Everything in Between), put in on the entrance to Gutenbrunner Park, is the standout of the path. The British photographer, now 90, presents a stroll by the 20^th century seen at eye stage, typically on the stage of the wounded, from London’s disadvantaged neighborhoods to the warfare fronts of Vietnam, Lebanon, and Biafra. “Just look at what’s happening in Gaza to understand that, as photographers, we have unfortunately done nothing to stop war,” he tells. “We’ve been through all these wars. We’ve produced and seen all these incredible images, but they haven’t stopped the war.”

That disenchantment is not any pose. Asked what he would inform younger photographers getting down to cowl battle right now, McCullin is unequivocal: “If they have any sense, they should stay away from the battlefield. The very nature of war has changed because of drones.” He speaks, too, with uncommon candor, concerning the weight of his personal legend: “I’m almost at the end of my life, and even of my time in photography. I’ve had a wonderful life, but deep down, I feel I don’t really deserve it, because I’m still alive.” Knighted by the Queen of England, he waves off the respect: “It hasn’t changed my life at all. I’m still faithful to all the rules of apprenticeship, I’m still a student of photography.” During the exhibition walkthrough, McCullin took 45 minutes to recount, with uncommon verve, the story behind most of the images on the partitions, drawing the actual consideration of everybody current.

The British theme additionally performs out by Tony Ray-Jones, a pioneer of English social pictures who strongly influenced Martin Parr, whose photos (Römertherme) mix disappointment and humor within the face of English eccentricity on vacation. Alongside him, Terry O’Neill (Römertherme, “Legenden der Rockmusik,” Rock Legends) is thought for his intimate portraits of stars such because the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, who, as legend has it, didn’t keep in mind the sitting, having been too “out of it.” Mary Turner’s work (Gutenbrunner Park, “Englische Peripherie,” England on the Margins) affords a up to date portrait of the United Kingdom, documenting with precision the results of Brexit and austerity. Anna Atkins, a historic determine put in on Brusattiplatz together with her “Cyanotypes,” stays celebrated as the primary feminine scientific photographer, courting again to the 19^th century.

Another delicate gaze comes from Cig Harvey, a Briton exiled in Maine, whose extremely coloured photos (Gutenbrunner Park, “Sinnliche Erfahrungen,” Sensory Experiences) provide a visible meditation on the fantastic thing about the world. “Color is a way of connecting to the world. I actively search for beauty in nature, it makes me a better friend, a better writer, a better inhabitant of this planet,” she says. Then to the road, with the spontaneous method of Londoner Josh Edgoose (“Swinging London”), and to childhood reminiscence with Robert Doisneau (“Nahe genug,” retitled “Close Enough” in English), which conjures up reminiscences of seaside holidays.

The pageant just isn’t restricted to Britain, nevertheless. “The second narrative of the festival’s program invites us to reconsider our relationship with the nature of the literally ‘Blue Planet,’ given the increasing fragility of our ecosystems,” Lammerhuber writes. This environmental thread, already current final yr at La Gacilly, takes on new scope in Baden. Marine biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta (“Dem Himmel so fern,” Far from the Sky) explores the ocean depths: “We say nature is fragile, but we forget how much more fragile we are. These animals go through the ages, climate shocks, extremes, and keep reproducing. It’s a lesson in resilience.”

Axelle de Russé (“Polare Anziehung,” Polar Attractions), hung alongside the historic Parkmauer, paperwork the polar areas in infrared with out falling into the clichés of local weather change: “I wanted to show these territories without falling into the usual clichés of global warming, no polar bears, but something else. It’s the accounts of the people living there that make it perceptible.” Her exhibition, like many put in within the Doblhoffpark, advantages from a very cautious cling, among the many bushes and alongside the previous partitions. Corey Arnold (“Tiere in der Stadt,” Animals within the City) chronicles the cohabitation between wildlife and American city areas: “What interests me most are the survivors, the animals that have learned to live alongside us.”

Nearby, on that very same historic wall, Frédéric Noy paperwork, in an equally placing presentation, the climate-displaced populations of Africa’s Great Lakes area (“Die verlorene Welt von Udzungwa,” The Lost World of Udzungwa), whereas Françoise Huguier (Platane, “Leidenschaft für Afrika,” Emotive Africa) revisits her Malian archives. François Fontaine (“Eden”) closes out this nook of the park with monumental prints unfold throughout the complete facade of the Orangerie, capturing the environment of Japan’s forests and temples. “This project was born out of a need for nature. I had already been to Japan in 2008, but this time I wanted to fully immerse myself in Japanese nature,” he says. “Koyasan and Nikko are extraordinary places. Koyasan is like a pilgrimage to the mountains. Nikko is the majesty of its cedar and pine forests, its magnificent temples. It’s a country that deeply inspires me with its poetry, its sensory connection to the landscape. This variety, this atmosphere, is what I wanted to capture.” Finally, Stéphane Lavoué (“Seeleute,” Sea Workers) closes this chapter with a sequence on Breton sea employees, whereas Gina Soden (“Die Schönheit verwehter Zeit,” Urbex, When Nature Reclaims Its Rights) explores the aesthetics of smash, caught between decay and rebirth.

Baden doesn’t merely import the Brittany path: town provides its personal contact, with extra restraint than stock. Peter Dench extends the satirical vein already opened by Parr and McCullin with “Ein Schelm, wer Böses denkt” (The Ruling Class), a biting take a look at the British institution. Richard Ladkani, for his half, devotes “Just Me, Jane!” to Jane Goodall, a pure extension of the pageant’s second, ecological narrative mentioned above. More unexpectedly, Brian May, the Queen guitarist turned acknowledged specialist in stereoscopy, reveals his “Diableries” on the Kaiserhausgarten, a playful foray into the historical past of reduction imagery that resonates, in its personal method, with the bicentennial nonetheless to return.

Exactly, within the background, the bicentennial of pictures, to be celebrated from September 2026, already looms over this version. “The festival dedicates a few very special themes to the 200th anniversary of photography, that unique art form that revolutionized our understanding of the world,” Lammerhuber declares, closing his introduction on a resolutely political be aware: “It is our deepest conviction that it is our duty to continuously seek humanistic and sustainable approaches to our relationship with nature and to living together.” In Baden as in La Gacilly, emotion stays huge open to the sky.

The Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo is on view from June 12 to October 11, 2026 in Baden bei Wien, Austria. Free admission.