[6.11.2026] ・Awards
_cryptograms receives the EIKON Award at OFF Bratislava
My zine _cryptograms has received the EIKON Award 2026 at OFF Bratislava, the international festival of contemporary photography. The award was given within the festival’s OFF Libris section, which is dedicated to photobooks. The zine was submitted to the festival by Reflektor Books.
_cryptograms looks at the aftermath of the attack in Vienna on 2 November 2020. It reads the city’s streets as documents, full of traces and marks that hold what happened there.
This is the first EIKON Award of the year. It was chosen by a four-member jury from EIKON magazine’s editorial team, from the photobooks presented in OFF Libris.
What comes next
The zine will be featured in EIKON’s spring issue, with an in-depth text on the work. It will also be shown at the photobook exhibition at the EIKON Showroom in Vienna, along with a selection of other OFF Libris books. Since Vienna is where the project was made, it means a lot to see it shown here.
About the festival
OFF Bratislava started in 2010 and focuses on emerging artists in photography and new media. This year’s edition, the 17th, is called White Noise. It looks at what happens when we’re surrounded by so many images and signals that they blur into one constant background. It felt like the right context for a zine about reading signs that are easy to walk past.
Thank you
Thanks to Reflektor Books for bringing _cryptograms to the festival, to EIKON magazine and its jury for the award, and to OFF Bratislava for the platform it gives to photobooks and emerging photographers. Thanks also to everyone who has supported this project along the way.
I’ll share more once the spring issue is out and the showroom dates are confirmed. If you’d like a copy of the zine, get in touch.