Photo Festivals

We are delighted to invite lens-based artists, 18 and older, to submit their work for Winter Light, an exhibition celebrating the season’s luminous glow in all its forms: the golden rays of a low winter sun, the shimmering reflections on snow and ice, and the soft glow of candles on long, quiet nights. This exhibition will be presented at the Jenks Center in Winchester, MA, from February 1 to April 4, 2025. We seek photographic works that interpret Winter Light, capturing its interplay of brightness and shadow, warmth and chill, hope and reflection. This is an opportunity to showcase light as both a physical phenomenon and a symbol of resilience, creativity, and connection during the winter season. Share your vision of Winter Light and join us in celebrating the beauty that radiates in winter’s stillness. Submission details and deadlines are provided below. Let your work inspire reflection and connection in this special community exhibition. Image: The Sound of Snow #26 by Xuan Hui Ng

Gagosian is proud to present Ghost Images, an exhibition of new works by Tyler Mitchell, opening on February 27 at 541 West 24th Street. This marks Mitchell’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in New York and follows the announcement of his global representation. Exploring themes of Southern gothic and personal memory, Mitchell’s latest images of seaside leisure (all 2024) draw from his Southern upbringing to interrogate the psychological weight of history. His photographs evoke unseen yet deeply felt presences, questioning how imagery can document memory and reflect self-determination in the context of historical narratives. This series was created on Jekyll and Cumberland Islands, Georgia—sites rich with both natural beauty and historical significance—as part of Mitchell’s preparation for Idyllic Space, his 2024 exhibition at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. These barrier islands, now nationally protected, bear traces of the past, from the remnants of a Carnegie family mansion on Cumberland Island to the landing site of one of the last-known slave ships on Jekyll Island in 1858—an event subtly referenced in Gulfs Between, where toy boats drift on the water. Throughout the exhibition, Mitchell experiments with veiling and layering to create compositions suspended between past and present. Works like Old Fear and Old Joys and Buoyancy depict moments of leisure, while in Ghost Image, a boy peers through a translucent net. In Convivial Conversation and The sky is cold but the wing blood hot, figures are transformed by scrims of fabric and kites, filtering light like spectral presences. Expanding his practice, Mitchell prints images onto mirrors and draped fabric, invoking the ephemeral nature of memory and the shifting boundaries between physical and psychological space. His work resonates with the experimental techniques of Clarence John Laughlin, Frederick Sommer, and Francesca Woodman, employing multiple exposures, superimpositions, and fragmented compositions to materialize the ghostly echoes of the past. Mitchell’s ongoing career continues to gain international recognition. His retrospective Wish This Was Real is currently on view at the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki (through February 23), with upcoming stops at Photo Elysée, Lausanne (2025), Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2025–26), and Foto Arsenal Wien, Vienna (2026). Additionally, he is the photographer for the exhibition catalogue of the Costume Institute’s Spring 2025 exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, at The Met, where he will contribute a special 32-page photographic feature celebrating its themes. Image: Ghost Image, 2024 © Tyler Mitchell

Jessica Silverman is pleased to announce “Catherine Wagner: Reel to Real,” the San Francisco-based artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, on view February 27 to April 5, 2025. The exhibition features two bodies of work that restage physical sites of our collective imaginations. These include Wagner’s new series Moving Pictures, exploring the film archive at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), alongside never-before-seen photographs from Architecture of Reassurance, her historic 1995 series capturing Disney theme parks in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris, and Tokyo. These curious and often humorous images confront enchantments promised by the twentieth century’s most iconic visual landscapes. Through Wagner’s lens, “Reel to Real” takes us behind the scenes, lifting the curtain on cinematic smoke and mirrors. Image: Catherine Wagner, Do the Right Thing, 2024,

Fremin Gallery is excited to present "Reminiscence," a captivating new exhibition by renowned artist, musician, and humanitarian Julian Lennon. Running from March 6th to April 6th, 2025, this highly anticipated showcase provides a rare and personal look into Lennon’s visionary artistry. In this latest body of work, Julian Lennon continues his exploration of profound themes such as humanity, nature, and the interconnectedness of all life. Through a striking collection of evocative photographs, Lennon invites viewers to reflect on the world around them, blending his sharp photographic eye with a steadfast commitment to environmental and social advocacy. "Reminiscence" will unveil a series of never-before-seen images, each capturing the delicate beauty of our planet. The collection exemplifies Lennon’s unique ability to intertwine personal experiences with universal messages, creating art that resonates deeply with audiences on both an emotional and intellectual level. “We are incredibly excited to present Julian Lennon’s latest work,” said Emmanuel Fremin, Director of Fremin Gallery. “His artistry goes beyond the visual, offering a powerful narrative about our collective responsibility to protect and honor the world we share.” Image: Rico Suave (1/5), 2018 © Julian Lennon

See how documentary photography transformed during the 1970s. The 1970s was a decade of uncertainty in the United States. Americans witnessed soaring inflation, energy crises, and the Watergate scandal, as well as protests about pressing issues such as the Vietnam War, women’s rights, gay liberation, and the environment. The country’s profound upheaval formed the backdrop for a revolution in documentary photography. Activism and a growing awareness and acceptance of diversity opened the field to underrepresented voices. At the same time, artistic experimentation fueled the reimagining of what documentary photographs could look like. Featuring some 100 works by more than 80 artists, The ʼ70s Lens examines how photographers reinvented documentary practice during this radical shift in American life. Mikki Ferrill and Frank Espada used the camera to create complex portraits of their communities. Tseng Kwong Chi and Susan Hiller demonstrated photography’s role in the development of performance and conceptual art. With pictures of suburban sprawl, artists like Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal challenged popular ideas of nature as pristine. And Michael Jang and Joanne Leonard made interior views that examine the social landscape of domestic spaces. The questions these artists explored—about photography’s ethics, truth, and power—continue to be considered today. Image: Helen Levitt, New York, 1972, dye imbibition print , Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1995.36.99

History Reimagined showcases the work of three artists who use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to challenge our understanding of truth in photography. Through their thought-provoking explorations, the artists confront biases in AI algorithms, reimagine historical narratives, and question the boundaries between reality and fiction. In History Reimagined, photographic artists Todd Dobbs, Laura Rautjoki, and Phillip Toledano explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can shape our perceptions of truth. By harnessing AI, they challenge traditional notions of photographic authenticity, demonstrating how technology can both reflect and alter our understanding of the world. Photography has long been considered a tool for documenting and understanding the world around us. But as these artists show, the rise of AI forces us to reconsider the very nature of truth in image-making. History Reimagined invites us to examine the complex relationship between image-making, bias, and historical memory, and to ask ourselves: How do we define truth in a world where the lines between real and fabricated are increasingly hard to discern? Todd Dobbs’s work engages directly with the inherent biases embedded in AI’s algorithms. By prompting the AI with the phrase “photograph of a typical American,” Dobbs highlights the limitations and stereotypes that persist. Despite running the same prompt countless times, the resulting images are uniformly American, white, and suburban—a visual echo of dominant cultural norms. Dobbs is interested in AI’s ability to generate, interpret, and transform opening doors to imaginative realms that challenge conventional boundaries. In contrast, Laura Rautjoki’s The Image of a Woman subverts historical portrayals of Finnish women, using AI to create alternative depictions. Drawing from her own identity and the historical imagery of Finnish women, Rautjoki’s work reimagines femininity outside of the male-dominated narratives that have shaped much of art history. Using AI, she creates alternative perspectives on the portrayal of Finnish women, allowing them to break free from the viewer’s expectations Phillip Toledano’s Another America explores the fragility of truth in an age where the boundaries between reality and fiction are increasingly blurred. This series imagines an alternative version of New York City in the 1940s and 50s, telling a history that never was, built upon fictional stories penned by New York Times bestselling author John Kenney. In an era where AI-generated imagery can fabricate entire realities, Toledano’s work reflects on how easily visual evidence can be manipulated, offering a stark warning about the power of images to shape our beliefs, our identities, and even our understanding of the past. As a curator, I am particularly interested in how these works provoke conversation at the intersection of art and technology. And as a center for photography, I feel that we must acknowledge and respond to the technological innovations that are transforming the medium. History Reimagined is a conversation about the future of image-making, the impact of technology on our visual culture, and the urgent need to critically engage with the images that shape our world. — Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director & Curator Image: From the series Another America, © Phillip Toledano

Fraenkel Gallery is delighted to present a new exhibition by Sophie Calle, an artist known for transforming personal experiences into evocative visual narratives. For over four decades, Calle has explored themes of intimacy, absence, and human connection, often weaving elements of her public and private life into her art. This exhibition brings together several series that examine legacy and loss, approached with Calle’s signature mix of humor and candor. Making its U.S. debut, Catalogue Raisonné of the Unfinished spotlights projects Calle once envisioned but never realized. Each work pairs text and imagery, offering glimpses into these abandoned ideas alongside reflections on their incompletion. Also featured is Picassos in Lockdown, a series created at the Musée National Picasso in Paris during the pandemic. Calle photographed the museum’s paintings while they were concealed for protection, transforming them into poignant symbols of isolation and hidden beauty. Additionally, the exhibition includes works that reflect on death and remembrance, particularly through Calle’s deeply personal relationship with her parents. These meditative pieces continue her ongoing investigation into the ways we commemorate and process loss. This marks Calle’s fifth exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery since 1994, reaffirming her status as a bold and unflinching storyteller of the human experience. Image: Calle-Joconde (Wrong turn), 2025 © Sophie Calle

Deborah Bell Photographs presents Louis Faurer / Helen Levitt: New York City, 1938-1988, an exhibition showcasing both black-and-white and color photographs by American photographers Louis Faurer and Helen Levitt. Known to have greatly admired one another's work, Levitt and Faurer captured the essence of New York City in ways that reflected their personal observations rather than engaging in direct social commentary. Although both photographers emerged during a time when photography was regarded as a powerful tool for social change, neither approached their craft with the intention of delivering explicit social critique. Instead, Levitt's charming and playful images focus on the innocence and joy of childhood, depicting children's spontaneous antics and their quirky chalk drawings. Faurer's intimate and raw portrayals of night-dwellers in Times Square and his abstract cityscapes reflect his deep fascination with the magnetic pull of mid-century New York City. Both photographers' work was embraced early in their careers by The Museum of Modern Art in New York, with Levitt’s photographs included in MoMA's inaugural exhibition of the Department of Photography in 1940, under the direction of Beaumont Newhall. This was followed by the 1943 exhibition Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children, organized by Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. Faurer’s first appearance at MoMA came in 1948 as part of the group exhibition In and Out of Focus, curated by Edward Steichen, which also featured Levitt’s work. Throughout their careers, both Faurer and Levitt were featured in MoMA exhibitions such as New Standpoints: Photography 1940-1955 in 1978 and The New York School: Photographs 1936-1963 organized by Jane Livingston in 1985 for the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This exhibition highlights their mutual contributions to capturing the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of New York, both through playful moments and introspective glimpses into the city's streets and inhabitants. Images: Left: Eddie, New York, N.Y. 1948 © Louis Faurer | Right: Helen Levitt - New York, 1940. The Albertina Museum, Vienna. Permanent loan of the Austrian Ludwig Foundation for Art and Science

Edwynn Houk Gallery is proud to present New Construction(s), the inaugural exhibition at our new home at 693 Fifth Avenue. Opening on March 15 and running through April 19, this exhibition celebrates artistic reinvention and innovation, echoing the gallery’s own transformation as we embark on an exciting new chapter. Inspired by our relocation and the complete reimagining of our space, New Construction(s) marks a moment of renewal. After nearly 30 years at our previous flagship, this exhibition reflects both the gallery’s evolution and the ongoing artistic development of the creators we represent. Featuring recent works that embrace new materials, techniques, and conceptual directions, the show provides a glimpse into the future of contemporary photography. The title New Construction(s) underscores the creative possibilities that arise during times of change. It also reaffirms our commitment to championing artists who continually redefine their practice, pushing the boundaries of their medium through experimentation and fresh perspectives. The exhibition features works by Valérie Belin, Gregory Crewdson, Lalla Essaydi, Sissi Farassat, Adam Fuss, Sally Mann, Abelardo Morell, Ron Norsworthy, Matthew Pillsbury, Robert Polidori, Stephen Shore, Jessica Wynne, and Lee Shulman & The Anonymous Project. By showcasing both long-established voices within our program and artists newly presented by the gallery, New Construction(s) highlights a dynamic interplay between continuity and transformation. Image: Maria Grazia Chiuri, Essence d'Herbier Dress, Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2017 © Robert Polidori

Twenty years ago, in the South Bay region of San Francisco, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project was established to address the impact of human activity on the diminished marshes of the Bay and the role wetlands play in protecting vulnerable communities from sea level rise. This expansive environmental project is the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast and is dedicated to converting over 15,000 acres of commercial salt ponds at the south end of San Francisco Bay to a mix of tidal marsh, mudflat, and other wetland habitats. Since the 1800s, the ecosystems of the tidal marshes have been replaced by salt ponds, and in her new book, Salt of the Earth: A Visual Odyssey of a Transforming Landscape (Kehrer), California-based photographer Barbara Boissevain documents the efforts being made to return these spaces to their natural state. She thinks of her book, which explores the nexus of art, science and environmental activism, as a “love letter” to the San Francisco Bay where she grew up and raised her two daughters. In Salt of the Earth Boissevain set out to document humanity’s impact on the environment and raise awareness of the need for preservation of pristine spaces. In addition to the salt industry’s impact on the biodiversity in these regions, the natural systems of the wetlands are a barrier to the encroaching sea level and work much better than the man-made levees that existed to trap the salt water and harvest the salt for the salt industry. Boissevain began the project in 2010 with aerial photography taken from a helicopter. After several years of documenting the salt ponds in this way, she began grouping the images in grids based on palette to present another angle of transformation to the landscape. The high salinity environment resulted in color schemes she has called ‘apocalyptic.’ Then in 2020 she began photographing from the ground at the region’s national wildlife refuge created in the 1970s, and at the Ravenswood salt ponds bordering the Meta/Facebook headquarters. On her website, the artist points out, “These images hint at the vast technology sector that protrudes from the horizon looming just on the other side of the ponds. The cracked surface of the earth looks almost like an alien planet juxtaposed next to the opulent, manufactured structures cocooning the social media headquarters. The dystopian nature of these images reflects the dissonance between man and nature that I see threatening our planet and the disproportionate influence these companies have on our future.” Barbara Boissevain is a contemporary visual artist and photographer, based in Palm Springs, California, whose work focuses on the impact of human activity on the environment. Nature’s ability to regenerate and reclaim human altered landscapes is a central theme in her work. Boissevain was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Silicon Valley. She studied painting at Parsons School of Design in New York before immersing herself in photography, earning a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from San Jose State University. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Mémoire De L’Avenir, Paris; the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Galerie Numero Cinq, Arles, France; the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland; and the David Brower Institute in Berkeley, CA. In 2009 Boissevain published her first book, titled Children of the Rainbow, which documented the humanitarian challenges facing Quechua communities in Peru due to climate change. In 2021 her work was featured on NPR’s “The Picture Show” in conjunction with the UN Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. She was also featured on the PBS News show Something Beautiful In 2022. Boissevain’s photographs are in public and private collections, including the Google Corporate Art Collection, Sunnyvale, CA; De Pietri Artphilein Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland; and Galerie Huit, Arles, France.

Filter Photo is pleased to present Context 2025, our eleventh annual survey exhibition of contemporary photography. This year's exhibition was juried by Shana Lopes, PhD, Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA, and features the work of 27 artists. "We make sense of the world through images. At its very best, a photograph doesn’t just show us what’s there—it reveals what we’ve overlooked. It reframes the familiar and gives the ordinary a touch of the uncanny. The photographs in Context 2025 do precisely that. They aren’t grand pronouncements or spectacles. They do not demand attention with force. Instead, they operate at a lower frequency, inviting us in with a quieter kind of resonance—the kind that lingers, reshaping how we experience the everyday. The artists in this exhibition train their lenses on living rooms, cars, kitchens, and porches—those in-between spaces where life accumulates in strange ways. Through their eyes, the absurd and the poetic intermingle, and the most unassuming moments become laced with pathos. Because if we are what we celebrate, we are also what we discard, what we pass by, and what we fail to notice. In a time oversaturated with images, these photographs remind us why we still need to look at the world around us. They reveal that meaning isn’t just found in the monumental but in the way light falls on a hand at the kitchen table, in the jagged, surreal silhouette of a tree trunk, and in the humor of a lone gate leading to nowhere. These photographs on view show us who we are, one quiet, absurd, beautiful frame at a time." —Shana Lopes About the Juror Shana Lopes, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Sea Change, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, and the upcoming 2024 SECA Art Award. Over the past sixteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Featured Artists Mark Almanza, Michelle Arcila, Filippo Barbero, Tracy Chandler**, Eli Craven, Anastasia Davis, Nykelle DeVivo*, Callum Diffey, Claudio Eshun, Jamil Fatti, Jane Flynn, Robin Glass, Luna Hao, Sharon Hart & Izel Vargas, Gabriela Hasbun, Alexander Iglesias, Zachary Kolden, Auston Marek, Andrew McClees, Mariana Mendoza, Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein, Jacob Wachal, Ian White, Rana Young, and Tako Young. *Juror's Choice, ** Honorable Mention Image: Luna Hao

The exhibition Seconds of My Life: Photographs from 1975-2024, by Brooklyn-based photographer Jamel Shabazz, offers a comprehensive look at his work, including iconic photo albums, early images of junior high classmates and photography spanning fashion, street and documentary styles. It highlights Shabazz’s talent for capturing powerful stories of identity, resilience, and community from the streets of New York and beyond. “I embarked on my photographic journey 50 years ago as a curious 15-year-old kid coming out of Brooklyn, using my mother's Kodak Instamatic 126 camera. My primary subjects during that time were my junior high school classmates, who were more than willing to pose for me. Back then, I would take the finished film to the local drugstore for processing, and return about a week later to see the results of my efforts. To my surprise, I made some pretty decent prints that I would then put into small photo albums and share with my friends. From that moment on, I developed a profound love for photography and preserving memories. From 1975 to 2025 I have amassed quite a number of photo albums showing a wide range of images–from my original prints from the 1970's, to some of the very first black and white prints I developed in my makeshift darkroom. There are fashion, street and documentary work featured in all of the albums”. — Jamel Shabazz Exhibition curated by Michael Kamber and Cynthia Rivera