As image production becomes increasingly accelerated, automated, and commercially involved, the question of what it means to be a photographer today feels more urgent than ever. This tension lies at the center of the 2026 edition of the Intersection Photo Festival, taking place in the Lower Silesia region of Poland and unfolding under the theme Image of Desires (Obraz Pragnień) from 28 to 31 May.
Expanding from its earlier form as Photo Summit Days, the festival presents photography as a field that converges artistic expression, commercial production, and documentary practice. Across exhibitions, debates, workshops, and lectures, this year’s program examines boundaries between creativity and utility, authorship and collaboration, authenticity and automation, foregrounding frictions and possibilities that shape image-making today.
The Unsure Nature of Photography
In the words of the festival’s curator, Jacek Kołodziejski, “A photographer’s creativity does not exist in a vacuum; it intertwines with craft and function, and the line between the two is blurred. Therefore, it is difficult to clearly define a photographer: are they an artist exploring personal themes, or a craftsman serving only a practical function? Between these two extremes stretches a vast gradient of application and creativity.” The festival explores this very gradient in this year’s program.
The nucleus of Intersection Photo Festival is at Concordia Design Wrocław, where the majority of events will take place, though the program extends across multiple institutions and exhibition spaces throughout Lower Silesia. This dispersed structure reflects the festival’s ambition to position photography within a wider cultural ecosystem rather than just one framework.
“A photographer’s creativity does not exist in a vacuum; it intertwines with craft and function, and the line between the two is blurred. Therefore, it is difficult to clearly define a photographer: are they an artist exploring personal themes, or a craftsman serving only a practical function? Between these two extremes stretches a vast gradient of application and creativity.”
— Jacek Kołodziejski
The program opens on 28 May with a lecture by Dr. Hab. Prof. Michał Jakubowicz at Centrum Witelona in Legnica on Ryszard Horowitz’s work, reflecting on photography’s relationship to perception and the constructed nature of reality. The talk accompanies Ryszard Horowitz‘s exhibition Photocompositions (Fotokompozycje), curated by Mirosław Lewandowski at the same location.
The festival’s exhibition program moves between established figures, emerging artists, and collective practices, and the majority of the presentations take place on 29 May. Works by photographers, including Szymon Rogiński, Tomek Sikora, Agnieszka Sejuda, and Naoya Yoshikawa, are presented alongside projects developed by students from SWPS University in Warsaw and Osaka University of Arts. It creates an opportunity for a dialogue between generations, geographies, and artistic approaches.
One of the festival’s more interactive projects is Tomek Sikora’s Homeless Gallery, where participants are invited to print their own photographs on subjects and in formats of their choice, and exhibit them alongside others in the Kamienica Room at Concordia Design. This temporary dissolving of the distinction between audience and artists will culminate in a competition with results announced in the evening.
Creativity and Technology
Alongside lectures and exhibitions, the program proposes discussions on the topics of authorship, professionalization, and the conditions of contemporary creative labor. Portfolio consultations taking place on 30 May, led by photographers, curators, and academics, will offer participants an opportunity to gain unique insight into their work and guidance for their future career.
For those who crave hands-on learning, expert photographer Filip Blank will lead an automotive photography workshop, centered in part around capturing the Mercedes-AMG CLE 53. The workshop’s aim is to present automotive photography not simply as a craft or an aesthetic, but as a medium shaping people’s desires and aspirations.
An especially interesting event on 30 May is a debate between renowned physicist and photographer Andrzej Dragan and technology enthusiast, photographer, and director Paweł Fabjański. They will discuss and reflect on creativity in the age of artificial intelligence, the challenges that artists face in modern times, and how art and science might coexist. The meeting will be interpreted into Polish Sign Language.
Ultimately, Intersection Photo Festival creates a space for reflection on the conditions of image-making today. Rather than resolving the embedded tensions, the festival foregrounds them as an inherent part of the practice and enables debate over different approaches to photography.
The last day of the festival on 31 May continues with workshops, whose topics span creative productivity, the relationship between photography and text, or narration-building. The program includes Kobas Laksa’s lecture, Fake Hunger, in which he critically analyses the relationship between creativity, technology, and power in the age of AI. Two debates will take place as well. The one hosting Marta Kaczmarek and Kamil Kotarba, and led by Jacek Kołodziejski, the festival curator, will discuss maintaining authenticity and creative freedom in the world of brands and campaigns, while the one closing the event will be led by Wrocław Photography Lodge and focus on foregrounding collaboration as an important mode of artistic production.
Ultimately, Intersection Photo Festival creates a space for reflection on the conditions of image-making today. Rather than resolving the embedded tensions, the festival foregrounds them as an inherent part of the practice and enables debate over different approaches to photography.
Most events require reservations in advance due to limited capacity.
