A photography show with 'Photokina' is coming back to Cologne starting next year, but I really don't think it's going to be like the mind-boggling international melting pot that I remember from years gone by.
Photokina brings back fond memories for me and the whole of the photography industry that is both old enough to remember it and wasn't too intoxicated at the many VIP events. Indeed, it was at the show (or a nearby beer hall) that I first met some of the team I now work with here at DCW.
The original Photokina was enormous, and took place every other year for seventy years until COVID struck. Starting 2027, it will apparently be back, but actually as an extension to another German camera show.
Koelnmesse, the old Photokina's venue in Cologne, and Ringfoto, the camera retail group, have agreed a deal bring Imaging World from its existing home in Nuremberg to the vast Koelnmesse exhibition centre for 24-26 September 2027 with the name "Imaging World inspired by Photokina."
So does that mean there is going to be a Photokina again – and why would that matter so much anyway?
Well, not exactly.
Imaging World – the main part of that event name – is not a new event.
Imaging World has taken place twice before; this year in the Nürenberg Messe (the TIPA awards ceremony was part of that event). Many have seen it as an attempt to revive the gap left by the legendary Photokina show, which many of us in the trade can't help but miss.
Nuremberg, though, is in southeast of Germany, 210 miles from Cologne in the northwest. The show was aimed at consumers, and not just photographers but videographers, content creators, filmmakers and streamers.
Photokina, though, was the hub of the industry for decades, a trade show with international trade buyers, distributors and professional photographers the core demographic.
It was the largest photography fair in the world for 70 years, and toward the end more consumers did arrive, as the DSLR boom took off. Photokina occupied most of the Cologne venue (or Köln/Koeln as the Germans spell it, hence Koelnmesse), which is the fourth largest in the world, with around 1,250 exhibitors in its heyday, and 812 in 2018 – the last before the permanent cancellation in 2020.
The nostalgia that I experience for Photokina has never left, and clearly bringing the name back is a play to bring back more international industry members to the event alongside the well-served – but less inclined to travel – consumers.
Without Photokina, The Photography & Video Show – which is held in London and Birmingham on alternate years – became the biggest in Europe focused on imaging, while Paris Photo is the largest leaning into art and publishing. The Photography Show, with around 250 exhibitors, is over twice the size of the last Imaging World, which had around 100 exhibitors.
In other words, whatever the venue, Imaging World has its work cut out to emulate the photokina I remember. The industry does not do all its business face to face any more, but people who actually use the equipment like to get hands-on and meet creators.
The Photography Show attracts most visitors from the UK. Unlike trade shows with long-distance international travel, many attend for only one day. A regional exhibition with educational events.
That means I also find myself wondering what happens to the audience Imaging World has already built up when it moves across Germany. Will they travel with it? This is clearly a gamble for the organizers.
"Messe" roughly translates as trade fair or exhibition, and most of Germany's partially autonomous regions have a large, competitive exhibition centre (including four of the ten largest in the world).
The unwritten story here could well be one of regional competition, but it certainly won't mean 200,000 square meters of joyful industry chaos is coming back.
Size isn't everything, though – the name 'Photokina' will mean a lot to many people. Just how many remains to be seen.
