Lens op de Mens
International Photo Festival Pelt
Edition 2027
Sub-theme 2027
About us
Entries for ‘Lens op de Mens 2027’ open on 16 November 2026
Submission period: 16 November 2026 to 25 January 2027 inclusive.
Two categories: Amateur Photographers and Professional Photographers.
Main theme, as always: People.
Sub-theme for 2027: Tradition.
Until 25 December 2026, the ‘early bird rate’ of 20 euros per photograph applies.
From 26 December 2026, the fee will be 25 euros per photo submitted.
An international jury will select the winning entries from the photos submitted and present the awards.
We are already looking forward to receiving numerous entries of your best photos to make the 2027 edition another huge success.
Lens op de Mens edition 2027 | 6 June – 26 September
As organisers of Lens op de Mens, we can look back on a highly successful fifth edition of our festival, which attracted well over 30,000 visitors to Pelt during the summer of 2025. We are therefore delighted with this success, which was only possible thanks to the numerous entries from photographers worldwide and the support of many volunteers. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks for this.
During the summer of 2027, the non-profit organisation Lens op de Mens – Fotofestival Pelt, in collaboration with Pelt Town Council and CC Palethe, will be organising the sixth edition of the biennial photography festival ‘Lens op de Mens’.
For this edition too, we will continue along the same path. Professional and amateur photographers from all over the world are invited to present their finest images to the general public.
The main theme of every edition remains, of course, ‘people’ in the broadest sense of the word. The sub-theme for 2027 is ‘Tradition’.
The photography festival opens on Sunday 6 June and closes on Sunday 26 September 2027.
Once again, we are looking beyond our national borders through an international collaboration with IPFA, RPS, the Vizualizator photography festival in Belgrade, F/262 in Portugal and several international guest photographers.
More details about the 2027 programme will follow later on this site.
Sub-theme edition 2027: Tradition
For this 6th edition of Lens op de Mens, we are once again highlighting a sub-theme. This year, we are focusing on ‘Tradition’.
That is why, in 2027, we will be presenting a special award for the photograph that most poignantly captures the theme of ‘Tradition’ in our society.
The main theme of Lens op de Mens remains, of course, ‘People’, as in all previous editions. The sub-theme ‘Tradition’ is by no means a compulsory theme.
Tradition
“A tradition is a custom or practice passed down from one generation to the next,” according to Google. In our definition, the emphasis is on a recurring practice or custom – one that is defining within a community – which reinforces (group) identity and says something about how it brings people together.
It is precisely the unifying aspect of cultural customs that we shall be exploring in the 2027 edition: carnival, fireworks, processions and parades, gatherings and annual festivals, but also the return to special places and locations that may hold significance.
With the sub-theme of ‘tradition’, in this 6th edition of Lens op de Mens, we aim not only to highlight grand gestures, but to place the emphasis on small, human gestures that connect us and which take shape through tradition, ritual or custom.
Images offering a glimpse into shaped customs, not constructed from a nostalgic reflex or a ‘things were better in the old days’ mindset, but from the realisation that the past provides us with a deep-rooted foundation on which to shape the present.
Hilde Stevens
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