10th Anniversary Edition of the World Biennial of Student Photography
NEWS
10th Anniversary Edition of the World Biennial of Student Photography
CONTEST
Since its beginnings in 2004, the World Biennial of Student Photography has grown into a significant platform for the exchange of ideas and cross-cultural dialogue. Today, it is recognized as the first event in the region to promote the achievements of national and international students in the field of photography. Through a public competition and a group exhibition, it brings together student work in one place and provides an overview of the pedagogical practices of diverse art institutions around the world.
In the past few months, Serbia has experienced a series of events triggered by the collapse of the railway station canopy roof in Novi Sad on 1st November 2024, which resulted in the deaths of 16 people and left one person with life-changing injuries. This tragedy led to student protests across the country and student blockades of all five state universities—in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Niš and Novi Pazar—with common demands: justice for the victims and government accountability for the tragedy. In support to students’ demands, a large number of citizens have joined the street protests which have spread nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of people have been voicing their concerns about long-standing systematic issues, including corruption, lack of institutional autonomy and media freedom.
Due to the specific socio – political circumstances in our country, the organizational board of the World Biennial of Student Photography has decided to offer a broader framework for this year’s competition. In addition to the usual open theme, we are also encouraging students to submit work on a set theme.
HOW TO APPLY
PLEASE, CAREFULLY READ ENTRY GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING WORKS.
INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.
Apply through the online entry form and submit all required entry materials:
The results of the competition will be published on the Student World Biennial website shortly after the deadline.
The photographs will be judged by an international JURY (Coming soon).
The Biennial opening and awards ceremony will be held in Novi Sad on December 20th, 2025, at the Gallery of Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. For any additional information, contact us at email address akademijaumetnostinovisad@gmail.com
3rd PLACE: Sara Kecman, Bojana, 2021.
JURY
IRINA DUMITRAŞKU MĂGUREAN
Romania
Irina Dumitrașcu Măgurean (born in Cluj-Napoca) is an artist working in the field of photography and an Associate Professor at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. She holds a PhD in Visual Arts and runs Camera, an artist-run space dedicated to promoting emerging and experimental Romanian artists working with light-sensitive imagery. In 2022, she founded the magazine Grupaj, which focuses on the photography scene in Romania—a project supported by the Camera Association.
During her studies, Irina received grants to study at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Budapest) and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (Prague). She has presented at both solo and group exhibitions, including: Everything to Form under the Sun (Doris Ghetta Gallery, 2022), A Matter of Light (Muzeul de Artă Cluj-Napoca, 2021), Blur (curated by Maria Rus-Bojan, Muzeul Brukenthal, Sibiu, 2020), Image Library (New Now art space, Frankfurt, 2018) and group shows such as: Gute Bekannte (Patrick Heide Contemporary, London, 2018), Jeune Création Européenne (The Belfry, Montrouge, 2017), and Almost Object (Vajda Museum, Szentendre, 2016).
IVANA BREZOVAC
Serbia
Ivana Brezovac was born in 1971 in Novi Sad. She holds a Master’s degree in Photography from the Academy of Film and Television (FAMU) in Prague. From 2001 to 2015, she worked as an editor in the magazine for the culture of photography—ReFoto (Belgrade).
She is currently a Full Professor of Photography at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad. In addition to teaching, she regularly organizes exhibitions, workshops, and art-education projects in collaboration with academic and other institutions.
Her photographic work is dedicated to subjective research through the fields of documentary photography and staging. She is particularly interested in the spatial installations of artistic works. She has held 14 solo exhibitions and participated in a dozen group shows, both in Serbia and internationally. In 2023, as part of an artist residency, she photographed the state circus in Budapest, where the journey through the magical world of the circus begins and is still going on.
ROB HORNSTRA
The Netherlands
Rob Hornstra (born in 1975) is a Dutch photographer who works on long-term documentary projects, both in the Netherlands and abroad. His work appears internationally in books, newspapers, magazines, and exhibitions, and is part of collections such as Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Huis Marseille Amsterdam, Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris, Musée de la Photographie Charleroi, and Fondazione MAST in Bologna.
In addition to being a photographer, he has served for over five years as co-head of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Photography programs at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK). He is also the driving force behind the live talk show FOTODOK Book Talks at TivoliVredenburg.
ŠPELA PIPAN
Slovenia
Špela Pipan is a curator and project manager at Photon Gallery (Ljubljana and Vienna), specialising in modern and contemporary photography. She holds a Master’s degree in Culture, Criticism and Curation from Central Saint Martins, London (2016), and has been active in the field of photography ever since.
She has curated numerous exhibitions and conducted research on the history of photography in Slovenia. In her curatorial practice, she frequently collaborates with young and emerging photographers from Slovenia and abroad, supporting them in developing their projects and presenting them in exhibition form. At Photon Gallery, she has also co-organised an educational program dedicated to introducing young photographers to the international art market. Beyond her curatorial work for the gallery, she has contributed texts to several photo monographs, worked independently as a curator, and produced exhibitions.
VJERAN HRPKA
Croatia
In addition to his cinematography, Hrpka is active in art photography, with a particular focus on researching alternative photographic processes.
This has been the central theme of his work both as an artist and as a professor at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, where he has taught since 2011, and has held a position of associate professor since 2021. He lectures on photographic media, shooting techniques, alternative processes and experimental photography. He has mentored numerous student projects in Croatia and abroad.
Hrpka has received several awards at group photography exhibitions and film festivals, the most notable being the annual Nikola Tanhofer Award for Best Cinematography for the film Iza lica zrcala (A Two-Way Mirror).
FINALISTS 2023
Winners of the 9th World Biennial of student photography
1st PLACE
Mouneb Taim, Syria
OMÜ / Ondokuz Mayis Üniversitesi Bacheler – Turkey
Project Name: Living with War, 2017-2022
Description: Life in war has a different meaning – everything that is normal disappears. The daily routine is certainly not normal, even if it seems normal to people who live in the respective places. Bombs fall, people die and buildings are destroyed every day. The reality of war cannot be denied, and yet there are people who are persistently trying to confront the bitterness of this terrible war: with their determination, their hope, their desire to live. This project illustrates the efforts of the civilian population to make the war in the occupied territories of Eastern Ghouta of Syria forgotten after the place was besieged for more than nine years by the armed forces of the Syrian government. The occupation ended when the Syrian regime, with the support of Russian forces, forcibly resettled residents after months of bombing the area. Thousands were killed and the area was completely destroyed.
2nd PLACE
Litvishko Daria, Russia
Docdocdoc – School of modern photography, Russia
Project Name: Black Sea, 2022.
Description:
I was born in 1983, my brother in 1984. I was born in Moscow, my brother in Simferopol. Our mothers are sisters. When I first went to the Black Sea, I wasn’t even a year old yet. As my mom tells the story, we flew on a plane with a baby potty. Since then, almost every year until I was 17, I spent my summers in Crimea by the Black Sea. We stayed at my aunt and uncle’s one-room apartment in the small town of Primorsky. It was not my idea of the perfect summer, but my mom loved the sea and her sister. My brother used to draw beautiful ships. I remember my brothers arguing. The apartment bursted with clamor. My brother would drag me across the floor by my hands, leaving bloody bruises on my back. I also remember that when I was very little, I accidentally shut the door on my aunt’s foot, and she screamed in horror, and I got scared and begged for some calendula ointment. My brother passed away in 2012. He made that decision himself. It happened in the apartment near the Black Sea. I collect items washed ashore by the sea. I create stories about them. I think my brother could be the one who left them behind. In 2022 I left Russia.
3rd PLACE
Jahid Apu, Bangladesh
Alliance Française de Dhaka, Bangladesh
Project Name: The Unchained Bird, 2023.
Description:
Bauls are a group of itinerant mystic singers who have been wandering from one Bengali village to another for centuries, extolling the „ways of love“. This unique community has a rich cultural heritage that developed over a long period. Their way of life has been formed through the direct and indirect interactions of ritualistic and cultural folk beliefs and ideas. The word Baul literally means „mentally disturbed“, with a connotation of frenzied behavior. The Bauls, „God’s Madmen“ follow no doctrine and preach, no religion. On the contrary, they stand against all forms of social or religious sectarianism. Freedom of spirit is theirs by word. They are known for their unconventional lifestyle and different approach to religion. The true beauties of the Baul lie in their free-spirited nature. They do not believe in rules and regulations pertaining to the orthodox religion. Their way of achieving „moksha“ is different from any other orthodox views; they take a fresh look towards seeking the Supreme Power. In Baul’s philosophy, the human body is given the highest value. According to them, the human body is the microcosm of the universe. They considered the human body as a temple where the Lord resides. The human body is composed of Pancha-bhuta (air, water, sky, earth, and fire) and the dwelling place of God. So in Baul’s sadhana, the human body deserved the ultimate reality where one can unite with the Supreme Being through their human body.These days, their generation is under threat, and their appearance is dimming. As time passes, these free-spirited and culturally rich communities may lost over the abyss of time.
Honorable Mentions
Julián Cabral, Argentina
Contemporary Documentary Photography Workshop
directed by Martin Acosta (TDFc)
Project Name: Lito, 2023.
Description: My uncle Carlos “Lito” is 53 years old. Since birth he has suffered from schizophrenia and suffers from a great developmental delay that seriously affects his mental health. In his adolescence, the situation worsened even more, his problems and symptoms came to light and began to alter his daily life. Today, after several decades, reality is already critical, the desire to kill oneself is becoming more and more, the days that one steps on the sidewalk are becoming less and less, the words are not the same as before, the sadness grows and the hope seem to fall apart. His only light in the morning is my mother, my two brothers, and me. We are the only reason why he decides to continue walking the path of madness, for which he swallows a dozen pills a week, deigns to get up, turn on the radio and change the shirt he has been wearing since last month. After 18 years visiting his house, one day he woke me up to tell his life, his mind, what a person with mental health problems lives, feels and thinks.
Ioanna Spentzou, Greece
University of West Attica – Department of Photography and Audiovisual Art, Greece
Project Name: Absentin, 2022.
Description: The photographic series “Absentin” is my proof that I have been a wanderer. It is a journal of wandering, consisting of four self-contained routes / subsections that do not conform to the triptych of “beginning-middle-end.” The resulting narrative is less related to location or time, but rather to a state of mind. Photography becomes a cathartic medium that allows me to reconcile with my constant desire for literal and internal wandering. The trees are bare, the landscape foggy, and a heap of dry leaves divides the path in two. It’s winter. Only a moment of sunlight is enough to reveal to me that I am truly there, and being defeated by space-time, I find myself engaged in a primal dialogue with the landscape. photograph not only my shadow but also the imaginary reflections of myself. The depicted forms are transformed into idols in my mental mirror.
Vladimir Janić, Serbia
Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia
Project Name: Visual Psychoanalysis of Controlled Chaos, 2022-23.
Description: Visual Psychoanalysis of Controlled Chaos has a lot to do with control. My (authors) control can be viewed through a visual construction of an image. That visual construction contains a dose of uncertainty that can be viewed as an openness of a work (photograph). It allows a viewer to have a certain amount of control over the photograph by projecting its own personal material and making it familiar. So I am quite interested in that tolerant space of control being on both sides – photographers work and an active viewer. Through uncertainty I am exploring the tension that mainly highlights concepts of authority, aggression and fear.
Special prize for student from Serbia
Special prize awarded by non-government organization “Vojvodina OK” for the best student project in the national category
Vladimir Janić
Academy of Arts, Novi Sad, Serbia
Project Name: Visual Psyhoanalysis of Contrlloed Chaos, 2022-23, >>>
Discover
CATALOGUE 9th WORLD BIENNIAL OF STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY
2023
GALLERY
Set up the exhibition of the World Biennial of Student Photography 2023
Photo: Mitar Simikić
Opening of the exhibition of the World Biennial of Student Photography 2023
Photo: Milana Milovanov & Mitar Simikić
