November's Best Photo Festivals

Photo Vogue Festival (Italy), Paris Photo (France), and LagosPhoto (Nigeria) are among the highlights on the photography calendar this November. Read all about them in our curated festivals guide.

Photo Vogue Festival (Italy), Paris Photo (France), and LagosPhoto (Nigeria) are among the highlights on the photography calendar this November. Read all about them in our curated festivals guide.

Photo Vogue Festival / Milan, Italy / 16 - 19 November

From 16 to 19 November, Photo Vogue Festival will open in Milan, transforming the city into a stage for contemporary photography with exhibitions and artistic initiatives to be hosted by cultural institutions, photography schools, and specialised independent galleries. The festival seeks to establish itself as a point of reference for all photography, and art and fashion enthusiasts alike, by giving both professionals and amateurs the chance to come into contact with renowned photographers, leading curators, and the most prestigious agencies.

Headed by Vogue Italia Senior Photo Editor, Alessia Glaviano, this year’s highlights include a monographic showcase on master fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, to be held within the illustrious Palazzo Reale; an exhibition exploring the way through which - despite attracting criticism and controversies - Vogue Italia addresses current social issues through fashion photography; and a group show titled PhotoVogue/Visions, which offers a kaleidoscope of different authorial visions reflecting the very nature of Photo Vogue. Alexandra Von Fuerst, Cécile Smetana Baudier, Daniel Jack Lyons, Harris Mizrahi, Justine Tjallinks, Kyle Weeks, Nadine Ijewere, Romina Ressia, Rosa Polin, Supranav Dash, and Zhongjia Sun are among the featured photographers.

In the supporting events, all of the PHM 2017 Women Photographers Grant awarded projects will feature in a special projection, Base Milano will be the scene of free talks about photography in all its forms and genres, and on Saturday 18 November, a group of selected photographers will have the opportunity to meet key industry figures for a series of portfolio reviews. The experts this year include Alessia Glaviano, Azu Nwagbogu, Claudio Composti, Diego Orlando, Enrica Viganò, Francesca Seravalle, Giulia Zorzi, Laura De Marco, Maddalena Scarzella, Marcella Manni, Maria Teresa Salvati, Renata Ferri, Selva Barni and PHmuseum director, Giuseppe Oliverio. To find out more, visit vogue.it/photo-vogue-festival.

Paris Photo / Paris, France / 9 - 12 November

Paris Photo, the leading international fair dedicated to photography, is set once again to take over the Grand Palais in the French capital, presenting 190 exhibitors from 29 countries. This year’s edition - the fair’s 21st - will be characterised by an ambitious and original program showcasing the best of the photographic medium in all of its diversity.

The main section, featuring 151 galleries from around the world, will together offer visitors a complete panorama of the best of photography from the 19th century to the present day, with 29 solo shows and 12 duo shows featuring Vanessa BeecroftMarcelo BrodskyPaul GrahamRinko KawauchiDana LixenbergEdgar MartinsSusan MeiselasBoris MikhailovArnold OdermattShigeru Onishi, and Sigmar Polke. Complementing the galleries’ presentations will be 31 specialist photography publishers and booksellers exhibiting rare editions and the latest publications.

In the fringe events, the PRISMES sector will present 14 original creations including series by Henry Chalfant, Jungjin Lee and Tim Rautert; a performance by Peter Miller; special projects by Gilles Caron and Karlheinz Weinberger; and installations by Greg Crawford, Aurélie Petrel and Juergen Teller among others. A newly launched film/video sector offering three daily screenings of featured artists’ films completes the program. Go to parisphoto.com for further information.

LagosPhoto Festival / Lagos, Nigeria / 24 November - 15 December

Launched back in 2010, LagosPhoto unites local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across the African continent. Themed Regimes of Truth, under the curatorship of renowned fashion designer Duro Olowu, the festival this year explores the pursuit for, and presentation of, truth in contemporary society, gleaning inspiration from the writings of some of the 19th and 20th centuries' most influential literary realists and intellectuals.

“The writings of Flaubert, Orwell, Foucault, Achebe and Huxley all possessed foresight about contemporary society’s concurrent quandary, whereby access to information on one hand and substantive facts on the other hand, are masked by a constructed rhetoric” writes Olowu in his curator’s statement. “Regimes of Truth thus ruminates on the tension and confluence between veracity and artifice in society today.”

New projects will debut alongside established works in the exhibition program, with featured artists including James Barnor, Daniele TamagniJoana Choumali, Kadara Enyeasi, Hassan Hajjaj, Nicola Lo Calzo, Bas Losekoot, Mohau Modisakeng, Zanele Muholi, Marilyn Nance, and Liz Johnson Artur, among others. A series of workshops, presentations, and large-scale performative installations dotted around iconic public spaces in Lagos complete the program of events. Learn more at lagosphotofestival.com.

Photolux Festival / Lucca, Italy / 18 November - 10 December

Held in Lucca, on the Serchio River in Tuscany, Photolux Festival is a crossroads of exchange for both renowned experts and emerging talents, shedding light on cutting edge artistic practices. The 2017 edition sets its focus on the photographers of the Mediterranean and on those who have made the region the subject of their gaze, in the hope that such visions will lead to new influences and a new dialogue surrounding the local cultures.

In the exhibition program, Marie Hudelot uses her own family story of French and Algerian heritage to explore the fertile space between memory and oblivion; Josef Koudelka presents his unprecedented collection of images captured at over two hundred Greek and Roman archeological sites; Paolo Verzone examines ideas of nation and homeland through his portraits of cadets in Europe’s most prestigious military academies; Richard Mosse displays his sublime and deeply troubling portrayal of the current refugee crisis, the largest migration of people since the Second World War, and the World Press Photo travelling exhibition showcases all the winning photographers in this year’s contest including Burhan Ozbilici, Jonathan Bachman, Amber Bracken, Paula Bronstein, Tómas Munita, Daniel Berehulak, Brent Stirton and Michael Vince Kim.

The supporting program this year includes Leica Talks with Massimo Berruti, Simona Ghizzoni and Alessandro Penso; workshops with Franco Fontana, Stuart Franklin, Lars Boering and Magdalena Herrera; and portfolio reviews hosted by industry leaders Caroline Hunter (Photo Editor, The Guardian), Krzysztof Candrowitz (Lodz Photo Festival), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Kaunas Photo Festival), Emilia van Lynden (Artistic Director, Unseen Amsterdam), Dimitri Beck (Polka Magazine / Polka Gallery), and Fred Boucher (Photaumnales festival), among others. Visit photoluxfestival.it to find out more.

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ALSO OPEN THIS MONTH:

DOCfield Barcelona / Barcelona, Spain / 19 October - 30 November

Organised by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, DOCfield Barcelona is committed to exploring the social value of documentary photography and photojournalism. The theme this year revolves around human mobility, posing searching questions that aim to inspire reflection: why do we move? How does the journey transform our character? Is human mobility a condition, a privilege, or a necessity?

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Photoreporter Festival / Saint-Brieuc, France / 7 October - 5 November

Founded by photojournalist Franck Vogel back in 2011, Photoreporter Festival was conceived as a platform to bring awareness to the valuable contribution photoreporters make to our understanding of contemporary society. Curated this year by Eefje Ludwig and Reem Saouma, the eleven stories on display tell us how people and communities face the daily challenges of life.

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Zoom Photo Festival / Saguenay, Canada / 18 October – 12 November

Conceived back in 2010 by photographer Michel Tremblay, Zoom Photo Festival is Canada’s only festival dedicated exclusively to photojournalism. This year’s program features more than 20 official exhibitions and a series of supporting cultural initiatives.

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FIFV Festival Internacional de Fotografía Valparaíso / Valparaíso, Chile / 27 October - 4 November

FIFV is a festival of photographic creation. Every year, participating photographers are invited to create new series of work within the framework of residencies and workshops, the common theme of which is to understand the world of Valparaíso. Guests this year include Walter AstradaSantiago Escobar-Jaramillo, and PHmuseum curator, Nicolas Janowski.

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© Cécile Smetana Baudier
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© Cécile Smetana Baudier

© Dana Lixenberg
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© Dana Lixenberg

© Daniele Tamagni, from the series, Afrometals
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© Daniele Tamagni, from the series, Afrometals

© Paolo Verzone, from the series, Cadets
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© Paolo Verzone, from the series, Cadets

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