Since 2004, the small Breton village of La Gacilly has transformed itself every summer into an open-air photography garden. For several editions now, this same program has traveled across Europe to resettle, the following year, in Baden bei Wien. There, the festival spreads roughly 1,500 large-format prints across 7 kilometers, split between a “garden route” and a “city route,” free and open to all, from June 12 to October 11, 2026, running from the forecourt of the Römertherme to the Doblhoffpark.

For festival director Lois Lammerhuber, this traveling format is never a simple copy-paste. “Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo promotes harmonious coexistence, a peaceful and open attitude towards others, and a mindful way of life,” he says. “By highlighting both pressing environmental issues and the beauty of our world, the festival embodies humanity’s longing for peace.”

The throughline remains the one launched last year in Brittany: the British gaze on its own era. “The 2026 festival focuses on the United Kingdom, a land of contrasts and eccentricity where tradition and modernity exist side by side in a fertile symbiosis,” Lammerhuber notes. “The British artists provide us with a unique perspective on their society, a mix of subtle irony, bold aesthetics, and clear critique.” An ambition already summed up, at the time of the Brittany opening, by Cyril Drouhet, the exhibitions’ curator and director of photography at Le Figaro: “What matters to us is embracing every kind of photographic writing. We mix vintage photography, documentary, photojournalism, and art. Everyone can find an emotion, a sensibility here.”

GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85. © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

At Baden as in La Gacilly, Martin Parr best embodies this spirit. His exhibition “Fashion Faux Parr,” on view at Brusattiplatz, spans several decades of cheeky, brilliant images of British holidaymakers, supermarkets, and weddings. Don McCullin, exhibited a few steps away, knows him well: “Martin came to my house two or three times this year, and I got to know him better. When he started out in the 1980s, his work in color was like throwing a stone into a pond, as we say in England.” He adds: “I can read Martin’s photographs without the color, because I know the English very well, just like he does.”

The exhibition devoted to Don McCullin, “Das Leben, der Tod und was bleibt” (Life, Death and Everything in Between), installed at the entrance to Gutenbrunner Park, is the standout of the trail. The British photographer, now 90, presents a walk through the 20th century seen at eye level, often at the level of the wounded, from London’s deprived neighborhoods to the war fronts of Vietnam, Lebanon, and Biafra. “Just look at what’s happening in Gaza to understand that, as photographers, we have unfortunately done nothing to stop war,” he tells. “We’ve been through all these wars. We’ve produced and seen all these incredible images, but they haven’t stopped the war.”

Early shift, West Hartlepool steel works, County Durham, Great Britain, 1963 © Don McCullin / Contact Press Images

That disenchantment is no pose. Asked what he would tell young photographers setting out to cover conflict today, McCullin is unequivocal: “If they have any sense, they should stay away from the battlefield. The very nature of war has changed because of drones.” He speaks, too, with rare candor, about the weight of his own legend: “I’m almost at the end of my life, and even of my time in photography. I’ve had a wonderful life, but deep down, I feel I don’t really deserve it, because I’m still alive.” Knighted by the Queen of England, he waves off the honor: “It hasn’t changed my life at all. I’m still faithful to all the rules of apprenticeship, I’m still a student of photography.” During the exhibition walkthrough, McCullin took 45 minutes to recount, with rare verve, the story behind many of the photographs on the walls, drawing the particular attention of everyone present.

The British theme also plays out through Tony Ray-Jones, a pioneer of English social photography who strongly influenced Martin Parr, whose images (Römertherme) blend sadness and humor in the face of English eccentricity on holiday. Alongside him, Terry O’Neill (Römertherme, “Legenden der Rockmusik,” Rock Legends) is known for his intimate portraits of stars such as the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, who, as legend has it, did not remember the sitting, having been too “out of it.” Mary Turner’s work (Gutenbrunner Park, “Englische Peripherie,” England on the Margins) offers a contemporary portrait of the United Kingdom, documenting with precision the consequences of Brexit and austerity. Anna Atkins, a historical figure installed on Brusattiplatz with her “Cyanotypes,” remains celebrated as the first female scientific photographer, dating back to the 19th century.

UNITED KINGDOM – SEPTEMBER 10: Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972) created most of his images of the British at work and leisure between 1966-1969. He found inspiration in two related sides of life, holidaying at the seaside and old customs and traditions, both of which presented the opportunity for people to interact with each other and their environment. His work commented on the English way of life, with a mixture of sadness and humour, revealing the eccentricity of the English in their leisure time. © Tony Ray-Jones / Science & Society Picture Library

David Bowie © Terry O’Neill / Iconic Images

Another sensitive gaze comes from Cig Harvey, a Briton exiled in Maine, whose highly colored images (Gutenbrunner Park, “Sinnliche Erfahrungen,” Sensory Experiences) offer a visual meditation on the beauty of the world. “Color is a way of connecting to the world. I actively search for beauty in nature, it makes me a better friend, a better writer, a better inhabitant of this planet,” she says. Then to the street, with the spontaneous approach of Londoner Josh Edgoose (“Swinging London”), and to childhood memory with Robert Doisneau (“Nahe genug,” retitled “Close Enough” in English), which conjures up memories of seaside holidays.

The festival is not limited to Britain, however. “The second narrative of the festival’s program invites us to reconsider our relationship with the nature of the literally ‘Blue Planet,’ given the increasing fragility of our ecosystems,” Lammerhuber writes. This environmental thread, already present last year at La Gacilly, takes on new scope in Baden. Marine biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta (“Dem Himmel so fern,” Far from the Sky) explores the ocean depths: “We say nature is fragile, but we forget how much more fragile we are. These animals go through the ages, climate shocks, extremes, and keep reproducing. It’s a lesson in resilience.”

© Laurent Ballesta

Axelle de Russé (“Polare Anziehung,” Polar Attractions), hung along the historic Parkmauer, documents the polar regions in infrared without falling into the clichés of climate change: “I wanted to show these territories without falling into the usual clichés of global warming, no polar bears, but something else. It’s the accounts of the people living there that make it perceptible.” Her exhibition, like many installed in the Doblhoffpark, benefits from a particularly careful hang, among the trees and along the old walls. Corey Arnold (“Tiere in der Stadt,” Animals in the City) chronicles the cohabitation between wildlife and American urban spaces: “What interests me most are the survivors, the animals that have learned to live alongside us.”

Nearby, on that same historic wall, Frédéric Noy documents, in an equally striking presentation, the climate-displaced populations of Africa’s Great Lakes region (“Die verlorene Welt von Udzungwa,” The Lost World of Udzungwa), while Françoise Huguier (Platane, “Leidenschaft für Afrika,” Emotive Africa) revisits her Malian archives. François Fontaine (“Eden”) closes out this corner of the park with monumental prints spread across the entire facade of the Orangerie, capturing the atmosphere of Japan’s forests and temples. “This project was born out of a need for nature. I had already been to Japan in 2008, but this time I wanted to fully immerse myself in Japanese nature,” he says. “Koyasan and Nikko are extraordinary places. Koyasan is like a pilgrimage to the mountains. Nikko is the majesty of its cedar and pine forests, its magnificent temples. It’s a country that deeply inspires me with its poetry, its sensory connection to the landscape. This variety, this atmosphere, is what I wanted to capture.” Finally, Stéphane Lavoué (“Seeleute,” Sea Workers) closes this chapter with a series on Breton sea workers, while Gina Soden (“Die Schönheit verwehter Zeit,” Urbex, When Nature Reclaims Its Rights) explores the aesthetics of ruin, caught between decay and rebirth.

A coyote yips aggressively at a dog being walked in the distance at an off leash dog park in San Francisco, California (USA). This park is surrounded by densely placed residential buildings on all sides and is the unlikely territory for a pack of urban coyotes. Coyotes have become a greater presence in San Francisco, but conflicts with dogs and cats, who occasionally become prey are also increasing. I made this image handheld without a camera trap just before sunrise and no bait was used. © Corey Arnold

Baden does not simply import the Brittany trail: the city adds its own touch, with more restraint than inventory. Peter Dench extends the satirical vein already opened by Parr and McCullin with “Ein Schelm, wer Böses denkt” (The Ruling Class), a biting look at the British establishment. Richard Ladkani, for his part, devotes “Just Me, Jane!” to Jane Goodall, a natural extension of the festival’s second, ecological narrative discussed above. More unexpectedly, Brian May, the Queen guitarist turned recognized specialist in stereoscopy, exhibits his “Diableries” at the Kaiserhausgarten, a playful foray into the history of relief imagery that resonates, in its own way, with the bicentennial still to come.

Exactly, in the background, the bicentennial of photography, to be celebrated from September 2026, already looms over this edition. “The festival dedicates a few very special themes to the 200th anniversary of photography, that unique art form that revolutionized our understanding of the world,” Lammerhuber announces, closing his introduction on a resolutely political note: “It is our deepest conviction that it is our duty to continuously seek humanistic and sustainable approaches to our relationship with nature and to living together.” In Baden as in La Gacilly, emotion remains wide open to the sky.

The Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo is on view from June 12 to October 11, 2026 in Baden bei Wien, Austria. Free admission.

In Baden, England Travels