International Tirana Photo Festival 2025 –

8th Edition / 8th Edition Mesdhe / Mediterranean

The Tirana Photo Festival is coming to its 8th edition and, as tradition dictates, invites all photographers to participate in its competitions, workshops, meetings, and events during the festival week, which this year will be held in Tirana in June. The curatorial theme of this edition is “Mediterranean”, a theme that requires photographers, whether Albanian or foreign, amateurs, professionals, or enthusiasts of this medium, to bring their artistic inclinations to the three categories of the Festival: Photo Singles, Photo Stories, and Short Video.

The Mediterranean is not just a geographical space, but it is an idea, a way of life, a state of mind, and a timeless narrative. This sea has always been more than water, sand, and sun; it is a philosophical path where civilizations have met, clashed, and built common legacies in a mosaic of cultures, where every wave carries memories of antiquity. Every shore reflects the hopes of the future. As a natural border and a bridge between peoples, the Mediterranean has been the cradle of ideas, exchanges, and contradictions.

Much more than just a political map, the Mediterranean is a space of interweaving myths, stories, and identities that defy borders defined by borders. Cultural stratifications have undoubtedly created a clear visual pattern, but also differences that entice artists to narrate the trace of the Mediterranean in every aspect of life. Furthermore, today the Mediterranean is a reflection of global tensions and hopes: an area where migration, wars, and climate change intersect with a rich history of tolerance, coexistence, and art, where the emblem of these clashes is Albania itself, our very own lands. For photographers, the Mediterranean is a metaphor for the constant movement of people, ideas, and stories that seek to be preserved and retold.

Tirana Photo Festival 2025, with the theme “Mediterranean,” invites artists to investigate and capture this complexity. The deadline for the applications is 10th June.

Through ideas, photographs, and videos, we want to transform this edition of TPF into an aesthetic and philosophical journey, where each image reveals an aspect of this multidimensional world. A world where light and shadow, water and earth, collision and harmony coexist eternally as in a permanent symphony.

Workshops

Photography workshops will take place during the festival.

One of them will be held on photography as a project by Ben Blushi and Roland Tasho at the COD Center on June 25 at 11:00

The second workshop, titled “Social Photography by Ej Album,” will be held on June 23 at 11:00 am at COD.

A Photo Tour with Albert Cmeta will be held from June 28 in the outskirts of Tirana, in the Ndroqi Castle.

EVENT

The festival will take place from June 18 to 30 June.

The photo exhibition will be for two weeks after the Puppet Theater.

The award ceremony will take place on June 24 at 7:00 p.m. following the Puppet Theater performance.