Café-Crème asbl Luxembourg is a member of EMoP asbl, a network of European capitals and their photography institutions.
The European Month of Photography (EMoP) was initiated in 2004 by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, and its director Jean-Luc Monterosso, as a joint venture among European capitals hosting photography festivals. Its aim was to foster collaboration in curatorial practices in photography and to develop common projects—particularly exhibitions—and to facilitate the exchange of information about local photographers and artists working in the field.
The founding members were: The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; The Cultural Department of the City of Berlin (Museumspädagogischer Dienst Berlin, led by Thomas Friedrich); The Department for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna (directed by Bernhard Denscher).
They were later joined by: The Central European House of Photography, Bratislava; The Museum of Photography, Moscow; The association Zone Attive, working for the City of Rome; Café-Crème asbl, representing Luxembourg.
Moscow and Rome left the network in 2010. In 2012, Photon Association, Ljubljana, and the Association of Hungarian Photographers, Budapest, joined, followed by Athens in 2014.
In January 2018, Kunsthaus Vienna replaced MUSA as the organizer of the Vienna photo festival. In January 2023, management of the festival was handed over to Foto Wien, with Felix Hoffmann as its new director.
Between 2006 and 2019, seven joint exhibitions were organized on the aesthetic and technical challenges faced by contemporary photographers and artists — each accompanied by a common catalogue.
Due to changes in political and cultural leadership in some cities, the structure of the network evolved. Representatives from Budapest, Bratislava, Ljubljana, and Athens left the network in 2017. In 2021, Lisbon joined, and in Paris, the “Circulations” festival replaced the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. In 2022, the Brussels festival, organized by the art space Hangar, also joined the network.
Since then, three thematic catalogues have been produced:
Rethinking Nature (2021), Rethinking Identity (2023) and Rethinking Photography (2025), within the framework of the Arendt European Month of Photography Award, which is presented to an emerging artist.
The award jury is composed of representatives from Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Paris, and Vienna.