Rotterdam Photo 2024
1–4 February 2024 | Willemsplein, Rotterdam

Rotterdam Photo 2024, taking place alongside Rotterdam Art Week, turned its attention from what photography records to what it can imagine. Under the theme Imagine, the festival explored photography as a space for invention, fantasy, and alternative ways of seeing, inviting artists to step beyond the boundaries of the familiar and create new realities.

The edition brought together more than 40 international photographers, with works spanning surrealism, portraiture, landscape, and imaginative interpretations of everyday life. The programme also opened up to practices beyond photography, reflecting Rotterdam Photo’s interest in the evolving possibilities of contemporary image-making.

Set within a street-wise photography village of repurposed shipping containers at Willemsplein, the festival combined exhibitions with Artist Talks, workshops, music, digital installations, and other public programming, creating an energetic meeting point for photographers, artists, and audiences.

Imagine

What happens when photography stops simply reflecting reality and starts inventing it?

“Imagine” invited artists to look beyond the visible and consider the role of imagination in shaping how we understand the world. The theme opened a space between what is real and what might be — where photography could become a tool for dreaming, questioning, transforming, and creating entirely new stories.
From surreal landscapes and constructed realities to reimagined portraits and poetic visions of everyday life, the works presented at Rotterdam Photo 2024 demonstrated how imagination can challenge fixed perspectives.

At a time marked by uncertainty and rapid change, the festival positioned imagination not as an escape from reality, but as a way of reconsidering it — and of envisioning what could come next.