On Thursday, April 10, 2025, the jury meeting for the open call for a photography residency in Japan took place. The jury consisted of renowned figures from the photography scene: photographer Martin Kollár, photographer and educator Olja Triaška Stefanović, photographer and theorist Tomáš Pospěch (representing the expert section), and program manager Mária Janušová (representing Creative Institute Trenčín).
An incredible 104 applicants responded to the call, reflecting the high interest from the photography community. After thorough evaluation, the jury nominated three finalists:
• Jana Ilková
• Dominika Jackuliaková
• Tatiana Takáčová
From this trio of finalists, the Japanese partner EU-Japan Fest will select one author to participate in the photography residency. The jury especially appreciated the strong quality of the submitted portfolios, the originality of approaches to photographic creation, and the thoughtful and inspiring residency concepts.
Jana Ilková plans to build on her long-term project “Diary,” a visual journal of everyday moments that, through fragments, form new meaningful entities. Her approach is intuitive and open, responding to stimuli from the environment, which she plans to sensitively record and transform into a distinctive photographic collection during her stay in Japan.
Dominika Jackuliaková, in her project “Maps Without Text,” draws inspiration from Roland Barthes’ essay Empire of Signs, in which the author describes the experience of a foreigner in an unfamiliar city without common landmarks. The author intends to deliberately abandon navigation and explore the city through visual cues, personal observation, and memory. The result will be a personal visual guidebook – a city guide where the map is created by walking and seeing.
Tatiana Takáčová presented the project Soft Gleam, which explores the complex phenomenon of tourism and its impact on the landscape, culture, and authenticity of place perception. It is based on the German concept fernweh – a longing for distant, unknown places – and combines documentary and manipulated photography to depict the landscape as a stage altered by mass tourism. At the same time, the project reflects a personal journey of searching for one’s place in the world and examines the meaning of souvenirs as relics symbolizing the (often illusory) relationship of the tourist to the visited place.
Regardless of which nominee is ultimately selected for the residency, each of them will represent Slovak photographic work with dignity and professionalism, as well as the goals and ideals of the Trenčín 2026 – European Capital of Culture program.
