More than 1000 photos exhibited in the streets of PELT

4th edition of this unique open-air exhibition 4 June-1 October 2023

The way it all began

Over the past years photography has played an increasingly important role within the Palethe Cultural Center in Pelt. With our own house photographers, the monthly photography circuit and several exhibitions on various themes every year, we have already built up a beautiful tradition.

Our source of inspiration

l’Eté des portraits

In 2014 our festival coordinator Carine Van Gerven, as a photographer, visited the international photography festival L’Eté des Portraits in Bourbon-Lancy, a small village in the French Burgundy region. This photo festival, which was first organized in 2004, has since built up a solid international reputation. Every two years, more than 300 photographers show their portrait photos in the medieval streets of the village. Carine was so impressed by this beautiful event that she started dreaming “This must be possible in my home town …”

Meanwhile we already started the preparations for the fourth edition of what became the intenational photo festival Lens op de Mens in the city of Pelt. We are very grateful to L’Eté des Portraits for the inspiration we got from them and for everything we learned from them. We like to see them as a kind of “sister festival”.

More info on https://www.letedesportraits.fr/

Our partners

The vzw beroepsfotografen.be and vzw Studio (both national associations of professional photographers) have a large network at home and abroad. As a partner for amateur photographers in Flanders, BREEDBEELD can’t be missing. The idea of launching an international photography festival in Pelt was enthusiastically received by them and many of their members.

In 2019 we were visited by Janet Haines from the Royal Photographic Society – RPS from the UK. She was very impressed with our photo festival and was very interested in future collaboration. In 2020 she was succeeded by Carol Olerud and Jeroen Dorrestein as our contact persons within their Benelux Chapter. We are delighted that RPS became an important part of our festival since the 2021 edition. The RPS Benelux Chapter 2021 Print Exhibition was shown as one of our guest exhibitions. The weekend of 18-19 September we organised a demo / workshop / lecture together with RPS.

Big thanks also to CVO Cursa, Qrios and photography club Digipelt for the collaboration in all kinds of fields.

‘Lens op de Mens’ unites nature and culture and in the first edition it even has put Pelt on the Belgian and even European map. Lens op de Mens vzw in collaboration with CC Palethe, the beroepsfotografen.be vzw, Studio vzw, BREEDBEELD, LensCulture, the Flemish Government, the municipality of Pelt and many helping hands make Pelt the place to be for anyone who is interested in photography. From 4 June – 1 October 2023 you are kindly invited to visit us. We wish you a warm welcome to our beautiful municipality!

Non-profit organization

On July 14, 2020 Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt was officially recognized as a non-profit organization with enterprise number 0750.633.312.

The board of the organization is composed as follows: