Fotografia Europea 2026

The next edition of Fotografia Europea is titled Ghosts Of The Moment and invites visitors to seek out the unseen and the invisible, opening up new paths for the imagination.

Overview

Ghosts are a fitting metaphor for how we are living right now. We live in an era of haunting that is crowded with unresolved pasts: colonial histories, erased communities, ecological breakdown, personal and collective trauma, and so on.

Ghosts Of The Moment is an invitation to seek out the unseen and the invisible, pay attention to the whispers of what has been and what could be, revealing the silent stories that inform and guide our present while simultaneously opening up new paths for the imagination.

Reggio Emilia will once again look at contemporary changes through the eyes of leading photographers and emerging talents with the 21st edition of Fotografia Europea.

The Chiostri di San Pietro host ten exhibitions curated by Tim Clark and Luce Lebart, tracing the “ghosts” of our present. Displayed artists include Felipe Romero Beltrán, Mohamed Hassan, Salvatore Vitale, Marine Lanier, Ola Rindal, Giulia Vanelli, Tania Franco Klein, Frédéric D. Oberland, Simona Ghizzoni, along with Keep The Fire Burning, a photobook exhibition curated by Francesco Colombelli, in collaboration with Centro diurno per l’adolescenza “AÏDA”.

Palazzo da Mosto presents Ghostland, curated by Arianna Catania, exploring a hypermediated reality shaped by screens, alongside the projects by artists Emilia Martin and Federica Mambrini selected through the Festival’s Open Call. Curated by Walter Guadagnini and taking place at Palazzo Scaruffi, 200x200. Due secoli di fotografia e società reflects on photography’s role in shaping collective imagination since 1826. Additionally, Chiesa dei Santi Carlo features Elena Bellantoni’s Ghostwriter, a multidisciplinary project revisiting history from the female perspective, understood as an “unexpected body”.

The educational programme Speciale Diciottoventicinque is also back, this year guided by Sugar Paper, engaging young participants in producing a publication tied to this year’s theme. At Palazzo dei Musei, a renewed perspective on Luigi Ghirri reveals the influence of music on his visual language, while the 13th edition of Giovane Fotografia Italiana presents Voci, highlighting emerging talents Susanna De Vido, Karim El Maktafi, Alice Jankovic, Cinzia Laliscia, Anie Maki, Eva Rivas Bao, and Federica Torrenti. Plus, Spazio Gerra pays tribute to Francesco Guccini, and the Collezione Maramotti hosts Ndayé Kouagou’s first Italian solo exhibition, Heaven’s Truth.

The artistic direction is composed of Arianna Catania (Director of the Gibellina Photoroad Festival), Tim Clark (Editor & curator 1000 Words), Walter Guadagnini (Curator and Photography Historian), and Luce Lebart (Photography Historian, Exhibition Curator and Researcher).