MARIBOR PHOTOBOOK

AWARD 2025

WE ARE INVITING YOU TO TAKE PART IN THE FIFTH EDITION OF THE MARIBOR PHOTOBOOK AWARD. THE BOOKS WILL BE ON DISPLAY AT UGM – THE MARIBOR ART GALLERY.

READY FOR THE FIFTH EDITION

We would kindly like to invite you to the fifth edition of the Maribor photobook award organized by The Angry Bat and Društvo za evropsko zavest. The award will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected photobooks from the call. The books will be on display in UGM – The Art Gallery Maribor.

Open Call: Maribor Photobook Award 2025

The Maribor Photobook Award returns in 2025 to celebrate excellence and innovation in contemporary photobook publishing. We invite publishers, photographers, artists, designers from around the world to submit their published or self-published books, created in the past two years. Eligible are books published after the 1st of January 2023.

This award is not intended for dummies or unpublished projects – only completed and published photobooks are eligible. Zines are welcome and encouraged.

This year’s edition welcomes submissions on any theme – the award remains open to diverse photographic voices, concepts, and approaches.

However, we are also placing a special focus on the subtheme: “Protest”.

We are particularly interested in books that engage with the many forms of social resistance and activism that shape our world today. From silent acts of defiance to collective uprisings, from struggles for human rights to movements for equality and justice – photography has played a crucial role in documenting, interpreting, and amplifying these moments.

Books that meaningfully address this subtheme will receive additional consideration during the jury process.

All participating books will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Photography
Coherence of the concept
Production quality
Topic relevance

Prizes

Main Prize: €3,000
Best “Protest” Photobook: €500 (also considered for the main prize)
Best Photobook from Southeast Europe: €500 (supporting and strengthening photobook production in a region where resources for publishing are often limited. Eligible countries for the SE Europe award: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia)

We look forward to discovering new perspectives, visual languages, and editorial experiments. The prizes go to the applicants!

APPLICATION FORM

To apply please fill out one APPLICATION FORM per book entered.

AND

send one physical copy of the book to:

Photo book award Maribor, Matej Sitar, Marčičeva 9, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia, EU

The deadline for the web application and to receive the books is the 30th of September 2025 (postmarked).

Any incomplete application, or received after the deadline, will not be taken into consideration.

Any customs fees not paid in advance will invalidate the receipt of the physical form and therefore the application.

The Maribor photobook award 2025 is organized by The Angry Bat and Društvo za evropsko zavest and is supported by Mestna občina Maribor, UGM Maribor, Fani&Rozi, Vila Krista Maribor.

We are listed with:

THE JURY

The international jury is composed of 4 members. All members have a lot of experience in the field of photography and photobooks and each one is a specialist in his own field of work.

They will take care of the selection process for the Maribor photobook award 2025. The head of the jury is still Tanja Lazetić (SLO). The other judges will be Grzegorz Kosmala (POL), Aneta Kowalczyk (POL) and Birgit Sattlecker (AUT).

Tanja Lažetić

Tanja Lažetić is an artist based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, working across photography, video, performance, and ceramics. Her hybrid works often explore representations of women in society. She has exhibited widely across Europe and has received several awards, including the Jakopič Recognition. Over the past decade, she has published more than twenty artist books, now held in the collections of MoMA and Tate.

Birgit Sattlecker

Birgit Sattlecker is a Salzburg-based curator and publisher, and a long-time board member of the FOTOHOF collective. Since 1999, she has focused on photobooks, coordinating FOTOHOF’s presence at international book fairs and festivals. She also runs the FOTOHOF library, curates exhibitions, organises talks and regularly hosts book-related events.

Aneta Kowalczyk

Aneta Kowalczyk and Grzegorz Kosmala, based in Warsaw, Poland, and Vienna, Austria, are the founders and driving forces behind BLOW UP PRESS, an independent publishing house specialising in photobooks and lens-based art books. Guided by the motto “When the story matters,” they create thought-provoking publications that have garnered international acclaim.