Rotlicht Festival Open Call 2025: Life After Extinction?

Can species survive? More importantly, can renewal take place? And if so, how?

The 2025 edition of the Rotlicht Festival for Analog Photography explores the (im)possibility of life after extinction.

Whether through the downfall of the planet due to climate change, death caused by ongoing armed conflicts, or personal tragedies – awareness of life’s finiteness is growing. Instead of presenting dramatic images of disasters and chaos, which have become all too familiar through the media and social networks, the Rotlicht Festival invites artists to submit projects that explore how we can reconnect with ourselves, with one another, and with all living beings on this planet after the world as we know it has perished.

Regardless of how much or how little hope “life after extinction” holds for you – future scenarios always take place in the present, whether in *Mad Max* or *Matrix* – we welcome photographic projects that:

1. Express the potential for renewal and the possibility of truly feeling alive again – rather than merely surviving – by visually exploring questions such as: Will new ecosystems emerge? How can destroyed spaces be reclaimed? What might the world look like post-Anthropocene, once humanity has disappeared?

2. Are, in whole or in part, analog – with at least one analog step in the artist’s working process. Please describe your analog techniques in the submitted portfolio.

3. Are available for exhibition during the Rotlicht Festival from November 21 to 30, 2025.

Deadline: July 31, 2025

⤇ APPLY HERE