Cape Town Photo Festival – Cape Town Photo Festival

Days until the next Festival

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Open Call 2026 - Submissions are Now Live!

Photographers from around the world are invited to submit work for the 2026 edition of the festival.
The festival dates are 2–26 September 2026 and the theme is TRUTH.

In a time increasingly shaped by image saturation, digital manipulation, and artificial intelligence, photography’s long-standing relationship with truth has become both unstable and urgent. We invite submissions that reflect on how truth is constructed, mediated, challenged,

and reimagined – and particularly interested in work that engages with the theme through the following lenses:

Personal TRUTH
Real, raw, and subjective experiences

Social TRUTH
Marginalised narratives, overlooked histories, and contested realities

Technical TRUTH
The camera versus AI, and the shifting authority of the photographic image

Festival Exhibitions (2025)

Attached to the Soil

Peter Glendinning (Michigan, USA). Portraits of young South Africans and their thoughts on the significance of Nelson Mandela’s metaphor made at his inauguration in 1995 where he likened South Africans to different types of trees which were all attached to the same soil

Simon's Town Museum

Frail and Flowering

Margaret Courtney-Clarke is an award-winning Namibian photographer and photojournalist. Her work explores the resilience of communities enduring the rapidly shifting landscapes of Namibia. Curated by Virginia MacKenny. Margaret Courtney-Clarke will be present Artvark Gallery. Kalk Bay EXTENDED TO MID OCTOBER

Artvark Gallery. Kalk Bay

Roger Ballen's Johannesburg

"As a photographer and artist, my work goes beyond conventional photography; it seeks to explore the depths of the human psyche" Central Library EXTENDED TO MID OCTOBER

Central Library

Future Heritage

Mohau Modisakeng (South Africa), Jun Ahn, (South Korea), Goo Gijeong (South Korea) & Boris Eldagsen (Germany) Curated by Suok-Won Yoon (South Korea). Aspire Art ©Boris Eldagsen

Aspire Art

About the Cape Town Photo Festival

The inaugural edition of this festival, held between 3 – 27 September 2025 was a great success. THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this success: our sponsors, photographers, speakers and the audience. Cape Town also affirmed its place as a hub for photographic dialogue and exchange.

2 – 26 September 2026 – TRUTH as the theme.

Photographs have long been trusted as evidence in courts and newsrooms. Yet today, images are easily manipulated, re-contextualised, and weaponised. Under the theme TRUTH, the festival aims to examine photography’s role in shaping belief, memory, and power. It is not a search for certainty, but more about how TRUTHS are produced, challenged, and resisted.