The artists nominated by

Copenhagen Photo Festival
in
2025
Projects nominations
Mathias Eis
Mathias Eis (b. 1995) is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, who specializes in long-term real-life projects that explore people’s ways of living through portraiture, reportage and landscape photography. He graduated with an BA in Photojournalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in 2023. He also attended the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he studied Fine Art Photography from 2018-2019. He is particularly interested in communities and subcultures that provide a unique insight into a life that few have access to. He works as a freelancer focusing on longer projects combined with commissioned assignments for various international and national media.
Artist
Sofie Flinth

Sofie Flinth (b. 1996) is a Copenhagen-based visual artist with a BA in Art & Design from Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Working primarily with portrait and staged photography, her works touch upon themes of nostalgia, vanity and manipulation. By combining storytelling with everyday life, Flinth creates semi-docu scenarios featuring herself and the women close to her. Her projects explore the imaginary, asking to what extent images portray reality. In 2020, Flinth’s graduation work When the Sun Sets was part of two group exhibitions in Amsterdam; one at Galerie Ron Mandos and another at Foam Fotografiemuseum. In 2022, she was named as one of the Fresh Eyes Talents with her ongoing series, A Million Dollar View

sofieflinth 

sofieflinth.com

Artist
Frederik Danielsen
Frederik Danielsen (b.1995) is a Danish documentary photographer. Studying photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, Danielsen worked as an intern at Dagbladet Information and studied abroad at Valand Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. In 2018, his first book – Drenge – was published by Disko Bay.‍
Frida Jersø
Frida Lisa Carstensen Jersø (b. 1997) holds a BFA in Photography from HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design in Gothenburg, Sweden, and previously studied at Copenhagen Film and Photography School. Her photographic practice encompasses both classical photography, including analog and digital techniques, as well as medical imaging. She incorporates radiological scans of her body, creating two- and three-dimensional works that bridge medical processes and personal narrative. Jersø's artistic focus lies within the realms of Sick Photography and Therapeutic Photography. Her work explores the physical and emotional dimensions of the disabled and chronically ill body, challenging societal perceptions and ableist norms. She has exhibited at venues such as Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, participated in the Artist’s Autumn Exhibition, and contributed to group exhibitions across Scandinavia. Currently, she is preparing a solo exhibition at the Finnish Museum of Photography. In 2023, she received an award in the Portræt NU! competition. Her work has been featured in Danish media outlets such as DR.DK and Politiken. Jersø is also collaborating with Disko Bay Books on a photobook publication, further cementing her role as an upcoming voice in contemporary photography.
Artist
Krummi
Krummi is an Icelandic photographer, born in 1990 in Reykjavik, where he  lives and works. In January 2021 he graduated from Ljósmyndaskólinn.

By adhering to the seemingly simple and straightforward medium most of us engage with every day Krummi is able to push himself forward and engage with his environment. He rattles on, maneuvering through the obstacle course of his everyday life with his unconventional walking pattern - a clumsy flaneur.

Krummi was a teenager when he became disabled. Through his relationship with the photographic medium he has come to see that whether he is able, less able, more able or disable, he is always, in some way, able.

Krummi has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, most recently in a curated group exhibition at Reykjavik Museum of Photography.

Artist
Giulia Mangione

Giulia Mangione (b.1987) is an Oslo-based visual artist who works with photography, film and writing. She earned a first MA in Comparative Literary Studies from Goldsmiths University of London, and a second MFA in Fine Arts from the Art Academy in Bergen. She also studied Advanced Visual Storytelling at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark. Her first book Halfway Mountain, published by Journal in 2018, was selected for the Prix du Livre at Les Rencontres d'Arles and nominated for the MACK First Book Award. Mangione’s work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, New York; Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne; Fotoforum, Bolzano; Fotogalleriet, Oslo; and Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen. She is currently part of the 6th round of the Norwegian Journal of Photography.

Instagram: @giulia_mangione

Website: www.giuliamangione.com

Artist
Jonas Yang Tislevoll

Jonas Yang Tislevoll (b. 1993) was born as Jin Sub Yang in the city of Daegu. At 4-months old, he was given a new name by his adoptive parents in Fitjar, a small farming town in Western Norway. After studying photography in Oslo from 2019 to 2021, Yang Tislevoli moved back to South-Korea in the hope of finding his biological mother. This laid the foundation for the series, Take care of yourself son, your mom loves you. The project explores themes of identity, belonging, social issues, women's rights and adoption in South Korea. Yang Tislevoli does not see himself as a photographer, but as an individual who uses the medium of photography to tell stories that deserve to see the light of day.

@jonastislevoll

www.jonastislevoll.no

Artist
Lars Dyrendom
Lars Dyrendom's artistic practice evolves around photographic archives and collections. A returning theme is how humans as groups behave and act in relation to our surrounding and environment. How we stage and interact with different spaces as well as objects and how we give them emotional, political and ideological meanings in and through photography.

The photographs in an archive or collection often have no beginning or end, but they exist in layers. When moving in-between these layers, norms and structures emerge but also veins of emotion and sudden affects. These aspects co-play and turn “seeing” and ideas of how to see into a complex framework.

"I work project-oriented, and I often use somewhat divergent visual expressions in my work. The common thread is the type of material that usually work with and how I approach it."

Artist
Tine Bek

Tine Bek (born in 1988) is a Danish visual artist who works with video, photography and sculpture. She studied History before graduating from Fatamorgana – The Danish School of art Photography and Glasgow School of Art, where she holds a Master degree in Fine Art Photography.


Bek has exhibited in Denmark, UK, Norway, Lithuania, Germany and USA among others, and has participated in various international residencies including; Palazzo Monti, Numeroventi, Casa Balandra to name a few.


Bek is represented in Madrid by Dust and Soul and in New York by Picture Room. In 2022 her first book; The Vulgarity of Being Three-Dimensional was published with Disko Bay. The book has been awarded with the Hasselblad Foundation's Photo Book
Grant 2021.


Bek lived in Glasgow from 2013-18 where she co founded the gallery 16 Nicholson street alongside a series of self published books highlighting the works of emerging artists internationally. Hereby shaping a conceptual hybrid, transgressing conversations about identity and universality, existentialism and particularism. Today Bek is based in Copenhagen.

Artist
Oscar Scott Carl

My name is Oscar Scott Carl, i’m 26 years old. I finished my bachelor programme in photojournalism in April 2021 at DMJX in Aarhus, Denmark. Photography is for me an exploration of the question why? Through photography I try to understand and comprehend. I believe that my pictures are visual footsteps in my search for understanding of the constant transitions in life. I document transitions to comprehend. I often find myself capturing quiet intimate moments in both human relations and on my own. I do not necessarily feel the need to shout, but I do believe in photography as an important part of understanding the world around us.

Artist
Inuuteq Storch

Inuuteq Storch, born in 1989, Sisimiut, Greenland. Based in Copenhagen and Sisimiut.

I studied at Fatamorgana – The Danish School of Art Photography in 2010 and at the International Center of Photography in New York in 2016. After that, I published the following books: Porcelain Souls, Flesh and Mirrored – Portraits of Good Hope.

My work is based on identity searching, which means the subject is usually around being from Greenland.

I work with my photography and archives.

Artist
Essi Maaria Orpana
Essi Maaria Orpana is a visual artist currently based in Helsinki, Finland. At the moment Orpana works with photography and video but has recently started adopting also more installation-driven approach to her artistic work. Her themes deal with body and presence interrelated to space, identity and passing of time. Characteristic to Orpana's work is to perform for or with a camera. Her approach to artistic work is personal, often with an uncanny twist.

Orpana holds a BA from visual arts from Turku University of Applied Science Art Academy and is currently finishing her MA studies in photography at Aalto University, School of Arts. Orpana has also studied fine arts at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain.

Lately her works have been exhibited in a solo show in Turku Kunstahalle, Turku, Finland (2020), curated group show in Latvian Museum of photography, Riga, Latvia (2019) and in Gallery Lapinlahti in Helsinki, Finland (2018), solo exhibition in Ostrabothnian Photography Centre, Lapua, Finland (2017) and her photographs have been published in a book called A book of lies : väritettyjä totuuksia, (valokuvauksen opiskelijat ry, Aalto Books & Musta taide. Helsinki, 2013).

Artist
Susanne Fagerlund

Susanne Fagerlund (b. 1969) graduated with an MFA in Fine Arts from Gothenburg’s Valand Academy in 2021. She is currently following a post-master course at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden. As a lens-based artist, Fagerlund explores the extended complexities and boundaries of the medium. Her installations oscillate between photography, video and digital technologies – with the subject of human and nonhuman relationships an underlying current throughout. Since 2021, Fagerlund’s works have featured in several group and solo exhibitions in Sweden. In collaboration with Hasselblad Center, a forthcoming venture will mark the 100th anniversary of Gothenburg's Natural History Museum; using AI to process the museum’s photographic archive, the project establishes a speculative future where images of new plants and species are formed. 

Instagram: susannefagerlund

Website: susannefagerlund.com

Artist
Io Sivertsen
Io Sivertsen is a photographer and filmmaker working between Norway and the Netherlands.

In her work she explores the boundary between truth and fiction. Using reality as a starting point, her image-making anchors the subject matter in her own personal perspective. Depicted themes include technology, internet culture, sexuality and identity. Alongside her practice she has initiated and developed short-films, exhibitions and a film festival. She is the co-founder of the independent film festival Cinema Underexposed - a The Hague based platform aimed for new voices and perspectives.

After graduating from The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, she is now attending the master program at the Norwegian Film Academy in Oslo. In 2020 she attended the Canon Student Development Programme at Visa Pour l’Image. Her work has been shown at Eye filmmuseum and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. San Mei Gallery in London, Grimstad short film festival in Norway, gallery CK13 in Serbia and cultural platform Page Not found in The Hague, among others. She has been published in Morgenbladet, Aftenposten and Zweikommasieben magazine.

Artist
Iben Gad

Iben Gad (b. 1997) is a Danish documentary photographer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work deals with identity and personal stories and, in her work, she is experimenting with different formats such as archive material, photography, graphic elements and text.

In 2021 she graduated from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. She did an internship at the Danish daily Kristeligt Dagblad, studied abroad at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Bangladesh and participated in the Canon Student Development Programme at Visa Pour l’Image. Currently she is working as a freelance photographer.

Artist
Emma Sarpaniemi
Emma Sarpaniemi is an artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Sarpaniemi graduated with BA inPhotography from The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK) in 2019. In her practice,Sarpaniemi explores the concept of femininity through humorous and performative self-portraits. Self-portraiture is a playground for Sarpaniemi where her aim is to shake up conventional notions of femininity.Sarpaniemi’s work has been exhibited in Finland and internationally including LesRencontres d’Arles festival, European Month of Photography Luxembourg festival, The FinnishMuseum of Photography, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, amongothers. Her work is in the public collections of The Finnish Museum of Photography, The FinnishState Art Deposit Collection, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Turku Art Museum, Museum Folkwang, ,Wihuri Foundation Collection, Heino Art Foundation, Miettinen Collection, and private collectionsin Finland, The Netherlands and Switzerland.
Artist
Barbara Marstrand
Barbara Marstrand (b. 1994) is a self-taught photographer based in Copenhagen with a background in sociology. She explores social life through aesthetics to create rich visual narratives that make us reflect upon our ways of being in the world today. Focusing on the interaction between people and materiality, she examines the boundaries of what is considered worthy of seeing, portraying, and relating to. Marstrand's work is characterized by thorough research, drawing inspiration from sociology, philosophy and history of art, as well as visual artworks and popular culture. She brings a reflexive approach to photography, combining realism and fiction within a conceptual tradition of still life.In 2023 she published her first photo book ‘Still Life of Teenagers’ with Danish publisher Disko Bay. The book explores the lives of Danish youth through photographs of their bedrooms.
Andreas
Andreas Hopfgarten (b. 1987) is a German visual artist and photographer based in Reykjavik, Iceland. His research-based practice explores the intersection of personal and collective histories. Through intuitive storytelling, his work incorporates film, sculpture, and installation techniques, creating multi-layered narratives. Hopfgarten’s projects often reflect on memory, identity, and the cultural forces that shape them. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg; Prof. Simon Denny) in 2023 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the same institution in 2020 (Prof. Simon Denny). His academic background also includes a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Design from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) and a diploma in photography from the Photo+Media Forum Kiel. His work has been exhibited internationally in notable venues and festivals, including the Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, NRW Forum in Düsseldorf, Goethe-Institut Nicosia in Cyprus, the Voies OFF Festival in Arles, and the Einar Jónsson Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland. Hopfgarten has been recognized with several awards, such as the Claussen-Simon Foundation Fellowship (2019/2020) and the gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie (2016/2017).
Artist
Jenni Toivonen
Jenni Toivonen (b.1993) is a Finnish visual artist and interdisciplinary practitioner, primarily working in the extended field of fine art photography. Her artistic work revolves around the interconnectedness of life, ecology, impermanence and the passage of time, which she often explores through the materiality of the human body and the earth. She sees the body as a vessel for a primal creative force and deeper existential understanding. Her practice is motivated by the entanglements of personal and environmental storylines. Besides moving between various media such as photographs, film, text, sound, performance and installation, Toivonen is interested in incorporating diverse approaches to broaden her take on artistic narratives. Through performative and ritualistic methods the artist seeks reciprocity and expanding the ways of knowing and coexisting with her surroundings.Toivonen's works have been exhibited in several solo exhibitions in Finland and in curated group exhibitions in countries such as France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Iceland. She holds an MA in Photography from Aalto University and has studied audiovisual communication in UNQ Buenos Aires.
Marcus Gustafsson
Marcus Gustafsson (b. 1990) is a Stockholm-based photographer and artist whose practice is autobiographical, exploring memory and its various realities. In 2013, Marcus obtained a bachelor's degree in photojournalism from Mid Sweden University. The recurring theme in Marcus's work is his autobiographical style, with human relationships serving as the common denominator. Marcus works primarily with analog techniques, occasionally manipulating photographs or complementing them with other applications such as drawing and writing. With exhibitions in Stockholm, Helsinki, Athens, and Pelt, Belgium, Marcus released his first zine, Down Here Together, with Fail Books in 2021. In the fall of 2023, Marcus completed a one-year workshop at Atelier Smedsby with photographers JH Engström and Margot Wallard in Paris, where the project Filling in the Gaps was conceived.
Maria Hansen
Maria Høy Hansen, b. 1995, is a Danish photojournalist with a BA from the Danish School of Media & Journalism. Through in-depth photography, her self-chosen work mainly focuses on systemic stories about human rights issues and ideology. Working with sensitive topics Maria’s work always starts with considerations of the lives of people in front of her and her role in portraying them.
Artist
Luna Scales

Luna Scales (b. 1992) graduated as a visual artist from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2020. Several of Scales’ works have been exhibited in a number of group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and in 2019 she had a solo exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden.

Her artistic practice reflects a consistent interest in and references to the iconography of western art history, which comes to expression through photographs and videos of the female body in particular, patterns of movement and directions of the gaze. Scales often portrays herself, playing in her works with the public’s ideas of physical functional abilities. In so doing she questions these very notions, and in this connection also simultaneously presents a critique of the gaze at and notions about the body.

She lives and works in Copenhagen.

Mikkel Hørlyck

Mikkel Hørlyck (b. 1990) is an independent photojournalist and visual artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Once a student at Fatamorgana The Danish School of Art Photography, he holds a BA in Photojournalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Hørlyck’s career began as a photojournalist intern at Politiken, a Danish daily broadsheet. His work has since been recognised by a series of prizes – including Danish Picture Of The Year, Vilnius Photo Circle and World Report Award. In 2019, Hørlyck was named Discovery Of The Year at The Lucie Awards in New York.

Mikkel Hørlyck's Interview

Artist
Nanna Navntoft
Nanna Navntoft is a Danish documentary photographer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work deals with social topics and mental health, which she mainly explores through intimate portraiture.

After graduating with a BA in geography and communications, she started studying photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX). She has worked at the Danish daily, Dagbladet Politiken and studied abroad at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK). In January 2020 she graduated and is now working freelance and on personal projects.

Nanna is a Canon ambassador and member of Women Photograph. In 2020 she was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass held by World Press Photo, and for The 6x6 Global Talent Program in 2019. In 2017 she attended the Canon Student Development Programme at Visa Pour l’Image. Her work has been published in NPR, PHmuseum, Politiken, Information among others and she has won several prizes at CPOY, Danish Picture of The Year and others.