A Guide to November 2025 Photography Festivals & Exhibitions

Paris Photo, Polycopies, Offprint Paris, Freezer International Photography Festival, You Only Look Once by Lisa Barnard at C/O Berlin, OFF Bratislava, and Indian Photo Festival are among the photography events to visit next month.

Paris Photo 2025

Paris, France / 13 November - 16 November

Paris Photo is a major international art fair bringing together 179 galleries and 43 publishers from 33 countries, featuring a robust cultural program focused on market players and contemporary discourse. The 2025 edition at the Grand Palais is headlined by The Last Photo, a selection of works from the collection of Estrellita B. Brodsky, one of the most influential collectors in the field of Latin American art. Curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy and Marie Perennès, the exhibition features a selection of more than 60 works dating from the 1940s to the present. Additionally, the Cnap presents a selection of five artists emblematic of its policy of enriching the national collections. Faire Familles - Making Families features Carolle Bénitah, Donna Gottschalk, Nhu Xuan Hua, Yveline Loiseur, and Vasantha Yogananthan, five photographers whose works have recently entered the collection.

The wide program also features the Book Talks, organized with Printed Matter to celebrate photobooks through roundtables and short sessions on new publications, alongside the Elles × Paris Photo path, curated by Devrim Bayar, which promotes women artists. The fair also hosts a Conversations series, which includes a talk with Sophie Ristelhueber, reading performances by Carmen Winant and Martine Gutierrez, a film screening, and a panel on AI in art. A central event is the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards, with the ceremony taking place on Friday 14 November.

Plus, the event provides a dedicated space for artists and the public to meet through an extensive book signing program. More than 400 photographers, authors, and artists participate in the Book Sector, making it a place for exchange, discovery, and engagement with the photobook.

Learn more on their website.

Polycopies 2025

Paris, France / 12 November - 16 November

Coinciding with Paris-Photo, Polycopies transforms the Concorde-Atlantique boat into a large ephemeral gathering fully dedicated to photobooks. The event, a meeting place for many amateurs, collectors, authors, and publishers who like to share and confront their ideas on photography practices, the event will host events, round tables, signings, professional meetings, and portfolio reviews for five days.

Among the attending publishers, bookstores and artists are Jojo Books (India), Look Publishing (USA), Multipress (Norway), Sun/Sun (France), Tosca Press (Italy), Moksop and Ist Publishing (Ukraine), Saetta (france), La Chancleta Voladora (USA), Raya Editorial (Colombia), Aka Tawla (Southwest Asian and North African), Disko Bay (Danemark), Erik Kessels (Netherlands), Cesura Publish (Italy), Book and Sons (Japan), KWY Ediciones (Peru), Max Pinckers (Belgium), The Eriskay Connection (Netherlands), RUST Publishing (Poland), Zoetrope Athens (Greece), Zone (Turkey/Italy), Setanta Books (United Kingdom), and more.

Discover this year's contributors on Polycopies' website.

Offprint Paris 2025

Paris, France / 13 November - 16 November

This year, for the first time, Offprint Paris is taking place at Césure, a community space focused on sharing knowledge, located at the former Censier campus of Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. Every day, resident organizations come together with students and the public through cultural programming and everyday gatherings to explore new ways of learning from one another. Among the attending publishers are Ciao Press, Chose Commune, Atelier EXB, Edition Patrick Frey, Humboldt Books, Ecal/ Ecole Cantonale D'art de Lausanne, Fw:Books, LUMA Arles, RVB Books, S U N, MACK, Roma Publications, Mörel, Poursuite, Spector Books, sun/sun éditions, and more. This new edition will also present a new program of talks and meetings throughout the weekend.

Check out the full list of publishers on their website.

Freezer International Photography Festival '25

La Plata, Argentina / 7 November - 8 November

The second edition of Freezer International Photography Festival, themed The Impossible, will gather artists, researchers, and the public to expand contemporary photography. Centered at the UNLP Art Center, the event features exhibitions such as El Aleph by Juan Manuel Lara and Sheung Yiu, curated by Luciana Demichelis, as well as the main The Impossible competition show, alongside a publishing fair, portfolio reviews with Nicolás Janowski, and workshops on topics including cyanotype and archive conservation. Plus, the Publishing Fair, coordinated by Ayelén Ruiz de Infante, and held during both days at the Art Center, will bring together publications by artists, independent publishers, and photography collectives, consolidating its position as a meeting point for creators and the public.

The program of open talks also includes a screening of a documentary on Peruvian photographer Julia Chambi López, discussions on Latin American photobooks with Martín Bollati, and a presentation by former presidential photographer María Eugenia Cerutti, concluding with a closing party merging live music and visual projections.

You Only Look Once by Lisa Barnard at C/O Berlin

Berlin, Germany / 27 September - 28 January

In her first major project in four years, You Only Look Once, British artist Lisa Barnard investigates the complex relationship between human and machine perception and its dependency on ecological resources, focusing on California's Salton Sea. Using a fragmented narrative built from photographs, immersive video, archival interventions, and AI-generated analyses, the project examines the site's layered history—from WWII military testing to its current role in lithium extraction—highlighting its ecological depletion and the "technological solutionism" now driving it. Barnard contrasts AI object detection, ubiquitous in autonomous vehicles, with natural systems like bat echolocation to explore the profound differences between machine "recognition" and genuine consciousness. Curated by Katharina Täschner, the exhibition delves into the fraught intersections of technology, ecology, and perception, with Barnard's work ultimately commenting on the entanglements of machine "autonomy" and interconnected global crises, questioning how new technologies can be developed sensitively, rather than just efficiently, in a world facing climate collapse.

Learn more about the exhibition on C/O Berlin's website.

OFF Bratislava 2025

Bratislava, Slovakia / 7 November - 21 November

The sixteenth edition of the OFF Bratislava festival will take us on a journey into the unknown – a realm of limitless possibilities, where alternate dimensions stretch far beyond our understanding. The title Trip Without a Ticket is borrowed from the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s. This phrase is associated with the Merry Pranksters community that embraced a different kind of wandering – one that didn’t require a passport, a border, or a ticket. The concept became symbolic of the free-spirited, boundary-pushing, and often chaotic exploration of consciousness.

Among the exhibiting artists are Niccolò Rastrelli, Cèsar Dezfuli, Momo Nakagawa, Augustin Rebetez, Aline Savioz, Adam Gara and Dániel Varga-Jancsó, L'uboš Kotlár, Sabrina Komár, Dorota Sadovská, Lee Kern.

Find out more on their website.

Journey To The Center by Cristina De Middel at International Centre For The Image

Dublin, Ireland / 18 October - 23 December

Journey To The Center is a photo series that reframes the Central American migration route through Mexico as a heroic epic, drawing inspiration from Jules Verne's novel. The journey starts at Mexico's southern border (Tapachula) and ends at Felicity, California, the officially named "Center of the World." This destination, an absurd roadside attraction near the border fence, serves as a "dystopic" and disappointing conclusion to the heroic quest. The project combines documentary photography, constructed images, and archival material to provide a multi-layered narrative that challenges the simplistic portrayals of migration in media and official reports.

Indian Photo Festival 2025

Hyderabad, India / 20 November - 4 January

The Indian Photo Festival uses visual storytelling to inspire change and engage audiences with pressing social issues. It showcases works from leading national and international photographers, fosters dialogue through talks and discussions, and actively nurtures emerging talent via mentorships, workshops, and portfolio reviews. The 11th edition aims to bridge art with social awareness with works by photographers such as Glorianna Ximendaz, Marylise Vigneau, Giles Clarke, Taniya Sarkar, Seunggu Kim, Alessandro Celante, Ranita Roy, Nazanin Alipour Jeddi, and Elke Scholiers.

Discover the full program on the festival's website.

Other Joys by Alice Poyzer at Serchia Gallery

Bristol, United Kingdom / 30 October - 30 November

The exhibition delves into discussing the difficulties Alice Poyzer faces as an autistic woman. The process of making these photographs provides her with a safe space to unmask – something that I cannot always access in day to day life. What was once a fear of being deemed different has now become a celebration of self-acceptance and understanding. Throughout the work, there are visual comments on her own autistic traits, such as her need for sensory comfort and how easy it is for her to be overwhelmed.

Not A Lot, Just Forever By Anna Adamo at Mucho Mas!

Turin, Italy / 24 October - 20 December

Curated by Mucho Mas! and Giangavino Pazzola, the exhibition presents Anna Adamo's archive as a dreamlike journey of unexpected associations and multiple narratives. Drawing its title from an Adrianne Lenker song, the show features a free selection of works characterized by a subjective, simple, yet enduring gaze that relentlessly observes the world. Adamo's photography explores an "atlas of emotions," investigating themes of memory, family ties, mourning, and transformation by intertwining the private sphere with the public dimension to examine intimate human dynamics.

Find out more on Mucho Mas's website.

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Also open this month:

Violent Images at Foto Forum / Bolzano, Italy / 4 October - 8 November

Violent images are part of our lives and shape how we perceive the world. They may directly represent violence, or their violent potential may be revealed in connection with their production, dissemination or use. The exhibition explores subtle rather than explicit forms of visual violence and their contexts, aiming to examine their cultural, social, and political impact with works by artists Broomberg & Chanarin, Eva Leitolf, Letizia Nicolini, Sophia Rabbiosi, and Viola Silvi.

Loop 2025 / Barcelona, Spain / 11 November - 22 November

The 23rd edition of Loop Festival in Barcelona, themed Miratges Mirages, reframes the mirage as a positive, desired vision of hope and regeneration, akin to the power of artists' cinema. The festival celebrates the human mind's capacity to desire and project images by presenting a curated selection of contemporary films, videos, and installations across the city's cultural institutions. Through a program of exhibitions, talks, and live acts, the event will explore the relationship between perception, art, and landscapes, engaging with topics such as technology, ecology, and identity to redefine the role of the moving image.

LagosPhoto Festival 2025 / Lagos, Nigeria / 27 October - 23 January

The 15th edition of the annual LagosPhoto Festival in 2025 will challenge artists to liberate narratives by exploring the multifaceted theme of incarceration, which the festival defines broadly to include not only physical imprisonment but also the gilded cages of corruption, the intellectual prison of false mental models, the confinement of national borders, and the oppression of censorship. The event features commissioned works and diverse curations focused on these perspectives, developed in collaboration with emerging curators under the guidance of Nwagbogu, using photography and film to capture powerful artefacts of our time.

Photo Oxford 2025 / Oxford, United Kingdom / 25 October - 16 November

The theme for the fifth edition, Truth, explores what this huge word means within the context of photography. Questions about photography’s relationship with truth are as old as the history of the medium, and they feel particularly relevant now. The festival features over 40 exhibitions and events, free workshops, talks, portfolio reviews, and a wide-ranging outreach program.