Events

KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival returns to Kyoto for its 14th edition from April 18 to May 17, 2026, transforming Japan’s cultural capital into a city-wide stage for contemporary photography. Presented across a network of historic buildings, temples, machiya townhouses, and modern architectural landmarks, the festival is shaped through close collaboration between artists, curators, scenographers, and local craftspeople, resulting in deeply site-responsive exhibitions.

The 2026 edition unfolds under the theme ‘EDGE,’ bringing together 13 photographers and artists from 8 countries to explore experimental image-making and the social, historical, technological, and environmental thresholds that define our time. Building on the festival’s growing global reach, KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026 places particular emphasis on contemporary African photography, featuring three artists from South Africa. Through its ambitious curatorial vision and immersive public programme, the festival positions the ‘Edge as both a site of tension and a space of possibility, where new ways of seeing and imagining the world emerge.