Lens op de Mens 2023 programme is the best ever

Lens op de Mens – Photo festival Pelt is in its 4th edition this year. And it’s again a great event. From 4 June to 1 October, more than 1,200 photos will be exhibited in the streets and squares of Overpelt-Centre. Besides a selection of some 900 submitted photos, there will be numerous guest exhibitions to admire.

World-renowned Magnum photographer Martin Parr is the absolute top of the guest photographers. His work will be exhibited at CC Palethe. Martin Parr will also give a lecture on his work on 23 September.

The photo festival also has an eye for actuality. ‘They fight for us too’ is a haunting world-class exhibition on the war in Ukraine. This exhibition will be officially opened on 25 June in the welding hall of the old technical school.

With Finn Antti Karppinnen’s exhibition and workshop on Artificial Intelligence, another topical theme is addressed. Festival partner Vizualizator from Belgrade will explore this further internationally during a panel discussion.

Another guest photographer and guest speaker is Dutchman Frank Doorhof. He will teach us all about photographing models with small reportage flashes.

With photos by Norwegian Helge Skodvin, we hope to put a nice smile on your face.

Lens op de Mens chairwoman Carine Van Gerven shows a selection of her beautiful oeuvre of tableaux vivants. You can discover her enchanting photo stories at the St Martin’s Church.

Our Serbian friends from photo festival Vizualizator will also provide a wonderful selection of reportage photography.

Pelt photographer Leon Alders tells us the story of his visit to Kongolo and the murder of the 19 Belgian fathers in 1962.

Photoclub Zonhoven-Centrum is exhibiting photos from their project Vlieg op de Muur (Fly on the Wall) in Pelle Melle, where they use their camera to tell the story of the many nationalities that have found a permanent home in Limburg.

But the guest exhibitions of the laureates of Lens on Man 2021 and of our jury members and the members of RPS are also well worth seeing.

More on this on the guest exhibitions page.

The 4th edition of Lens op de Mens will be held from 4 June – 1 October 2023

During the summer of 2023, vzw Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt organises in cooperation with the town council of Pelt and CC Palethe the fourth edition of the biennial photo festival ‘Lens op de Mens’.

For this edition, we continue along the same path. Professional and amateur photographers from all over the world are invited to present their most beautiful images to the general public.
The main theme of this edition remains, of course, ‘man’ in the broadest sense of the word. The sub-theme for 2023 is ‘humour’.

The photo festival opens on Sunday, 4 June and closes on Sunday, 1 October 2023. We look beyond our national borders again through an international cooperation with RPS – the Royal Photographic Society, photo festival Vizualizator in Belgrade andand several international guest speakers.

As organisers of Lens op de Mens (Focus on Man), we can look back on a very successful 3rd edition of our festival. Despite the limitations imposed by the coronapandemic, we estimate that over 20,000 visitors descended on Pelt during the summer of 2021. We are very pleased with this success, which was only possible thanks to the many submissions from photographers worldwide and the cooperation of many volunteers. Our heartfelt thanks for this.

Meanwhile, the programming of ‘Lens on Man 2023’ has been finalised. More on our programme page.

Sub-theme 2023 ‘Humour’

For more than three years, an epidemic caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus has had an impact on public life. Last year also brought the horror of the war in Ukraine frighteningly close.

Fortunately, just about all imposed restrictions will be behind us at the start of edition 2023 and we assume that there is no finer remedy against all the negativity than a generous smile.​ Therefore, in 2023, we will give a special award for the photo that can once again put a smile on our faces after all the years of lockdowns and pandemics.

The main theme of Lens on Man will of course remain ‘Man’ as in previous editions. The sub-theme ‘Humour’ is certainly not a compulsory theme.