Günter Köck was invited to present the development of the Austrian-Canadian collaborative project “HIGH-ARCTIC”—which he initiated in 1997 and which has been running continuously ever since—on a total of 12 large display panels. Earlier this year, the festival was named the world’s best open-air photography event.

As part of the traditional media tour marking the festival’s opening, approximately 130 media representatives spent eight hours walking through the exhibition alongside the artists, who presented their work.

The enormous attention that the research project—led by Günter Köck and his Canadian colleague Derek Muir—is receiving through the festival is, of course, a unique opportunity to bring science to a wider audience.

The festival, running from June 12 to October 11, 2026, in Baden near Vienna, spans 7 kilometers and is divided into a garden route and a city route, beginning at the visitor center on Brusattiplatz in Baden. This year, around 1,500 photographs are on display in public spaces, some of them measuring up to 200 m².

The festival is based on three narrative strands: the first explores the realities of people’s lives—that is, how people live in a specific part of the world—through about ten visual narratives, each set in a different geographic region each year. The second narrative strand is dedicated to the state of Planet Earth, featuring reports from several countries and continents. The third part of the festival showcases works from the Austrian photography scene. Admission is free!

Incidentally, in 2025, the “La Gacilly-Baden Photo 2025” festival was attended by 336,288 people.

Festival website: https://festival-lagacilly-baden.photo/de

„HIGH-ARCTIC“ exhibition catalog: https://festival-lagacilly-baden.photo/.../guenter-koeck