What happens when photography stops simply reflecting reality and starts inventing it?
“Imagine” invited artists to look beyond the visible and consider the role of imagination in shaping how we understand the world. The theme opened a space between what is real and what might be — where photography could become a tool for dreaming, questioning, transforming, and creating entirely new stories.
From surreal landscapes and constructed realities to reimagined portraits and poetic visions of everyday life, the works presented at Rotterdam Photo 2024 demonstrated how imagination can challenge fixed perspectives.
At a time marked by uncertainty and rapid change, the festival positioned imagination not as an escape from reality, but as a way of reconsidering it — and of envisioning what could come next.
