Maira Dudareva - (Latvia, Riga) - the head of the Latvian Museum of Photography has a long running experience in photography. She worked as head of photo archive of the main Latvian daily newspaper “Diena” (1999 – 2008), head of “Diena” photo department (1998 – 1999) and as photoreporter for several Latvian newspapers (1992 – 1998). She did her MA research on digital photography indexation at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia, where she is currently enrolled in the doctoral program. She is a curator,lecturer in Latvia Culture College and portfolio reviewer at Kaunas PhotoStar festival in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 in Bratislava Photo Month 2012, in ISSP 2012, 2013, 2014, Riga Photo Month 2014, and Lodz Fotofestiwal ,Photolux Festival 2015, Backlight festival (2017) , Bialystok Interphoto Festival( 2017).
Krzysztof Candrowicz (Poland, Lodz, Germany, Hamburg) – curator, art director, researcher and educator. Co-founder and director of the International Festival of Photography in Lodz and Foundation of Visual Education. Since January 2014, he works as artistic director of the Triennial of Photography in Hamburg. Krzysztof is also working as a guest curator and visiting lecturer in numerous organizations, museums, schools and festivals in Europe and worldwide. He was a member of the Jury of various art projects; e.g. Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award (Arles, France), The Hasselblad Foundation Award, Deutsche Börse European Photography Prize, (London, UK), Historical Book Award and the Author Book Award (Arles, France), Syngenta Photography Award (Basel, Switzerland), Prix Pictet – The global award in photography and sustainability (London, UK), Robert Capa Award (Hungary)
Aneta Kowalczyk | based in Warsaw (Poland) | self-thought graphic designer and photo-editor | runs her own design studio (since 2010) | artistic director of the BLOW UP PRESS publishing house (since 2012) |
designer of all its publications: doc! photo magazine, contra doc! and books: DEBUTS series, 9 Gates of No Return by Agata Grzybowska, Death Landscapes by Hubert Humka, Deceitful Reverence by Igor Pisuk and Deglet Nour by Tytus Grodzicki | awarded with the third prize in the Magazine Visual Editor of the Year category in the 75th edition of the Pictures of the Year International competition | Italian food, good wine, and cats lover.
Grzegorz Kosmala | based in Warsaw (Poland) | founder and head of BLOW UP PRESS, a boutique style publishing house focusing on contemporary photography | editor-in-chief of doc! photo magazine, a quarterly mook presenting documentary photography projects | also originator of DEBUTS, an annual contest for emerging photographers resulting with a book and exhibition | juror in international photo contests | graduate of the Media Management (BA) and International Relations and Diplomacy (MA) at the Nowy Sącz School of Business (Poland).
Olivier Spillebout (France, Lille)
Born in Tourcoing Olivier Spillebout decided in 1997 to transform an old abandoned factory in Lille in the popular district of Fives into a museum space dedicated to photography. In this way it creates the Maison de la Photographie in which for 21 years he has focused on supporting the creation the production the promotion and the dissemination of artists and beyond the borders of regional creation. At the same time in 2000 he initiated the Transphotographiques Festival where he directed the program every year focused on young European photography and exchanges with international galleries and festivals. Over the years the participation of the greatest photographers such as Ronis, Klein, Lindbergh, Lagerfeld, Roversi, etc. confirms the international reputation of his achievements in the projects of Olivier Spillebout.