Rivers, streams and lakes are fundamental waterways for survival and physical and spiritual connection with the world. Water also represents the desire and possibility of purification, practiced in countless ancestral rituals.

Unfortunately, the waters have suffered great upheavals and extreme weather events warn of the urgency of regenerating our relationship with the environment.

The great flood of May 2024 spilled water and land down the plateau. The marks tattooed the walls of cities with red streaks. The stunned population found the waterline and, on the edge between floating and sinking, saw the fragile balance between forces and densities.

We need to take care of our vision and clear the waterline from our eyes. Reflect on the water we occupy, dam, pollute and make scarce. The forests we destroy, blocking the natural processes of rainfall circulation. The waterline has risen and we need humans to emerge who are willing to abandon the centrality of a being who places himself on a throne as king of nature.

Waterline is the theme of FestFoto 2025. Welcome!

As far as we can see, there are only trees on planet Earth. But the rarity of this event doesn’t seem to be enough to arouse any admiration or empathy in most human beings. Intoxicated by the idea that the entire universe exists to serve us, over the centuries trees have been brutalized as if they were just a resource to be exploited.

The human entrepreneur of progress has broken relations with the world and denied interdependence with other beings, subjugated ancestral knowledge and turned life into a delivery of sadness and overdue bills.

Fortunately, for many peoples, trees are more than just coal for furnaces, ballast for caravels or a hindrance to real estate speculation and agribusiness. In African and Amerindian cosmology, the emergence of plants, animals and all beings happens in relationship, and opens up into a common future. Trees are a sensitive system that communicates, delights, protects and helps the world to stay alive.

Many photographic works are dedicated to dialoguing with this ancestral and natural knowledge and breaking through the monumental ignorance that legitimizes attacks on forests and their defenders. Photography is an invitation to reflect and pay attention to real or fabricated roots, trunks and leaves; rivers, lakes and seas that are real or mirror our civilization. It is not in the focus that sharpness lies, but in the experience of life on the planet.

It is with this idea, concept and practice that we invite you to register for the 2025 Call.

International Photography Festival, from September 27th to October 31st.

FestFoto 2025 Call for Entries is now open – get your portfolio ready!