http://www.exposurephotofestival.com/

Exposure Photography Festival, Calgary, AB (2026)

09/21/2026

Edmonton, Exposure wants to meet you! 👋

We’re teaming up with Nice Photo Club for an evening of community connection! Meet fellow photographers, share what you’re working on, and get your questions answered about the 2027 Festival. No prep required, but we encourage you to bring prints and links to share your work. Bring a laptop if you’d like real-time help with your Open Call submission from the Exposure Photography Festival team!

📍 ArtsHub Ortona, Edmonton
🗓️ Wednesday, Sept 30, 7–9 PM
Free

Light refreshments courtesy of The Camera Store. Thanks to Jordon Hon 韓寶軒 and Kyler Zeleny for organizing with us! (And to Jordon Hon 韓寶軒 for the featured image! 📸)

Home turf edition!

Drop by TRUCK Contemporary Art to ask questions, meet the Exposure team, connect with fellow photographers, and get support with your 2027 Festival submission.

📍 TRUCK Contemporary Art, Calgary
🗓️ Sunday, Sept 27, 1–4 PM
Free

Refreshments courtesy of The Camera Store. Thank you to TRUCK Contemporary Art for hosting!

Featured image by Calgary Alberta Wedding Photographer 📸

Bow Valley photographers — Exposure wants to meet you! 🏔️

Drop by artsPlace Canmore for an Open House: a chance to ask questions, connect with fellow photographers, and get support with your 2027 Festival plans — whether you’re submitting to the North West Showcase or International Open Call, or thinking about an exhibition or event. No prep required, just come say hi.

📍 artsPlace, Canmore
🗓️ Saturday, Sept 26, 1–4 PM
Free

Non-alcoholic drinks courtesy of The Camera Store. Thank you to Lee Nordbye for helping bring this one together (and for the featured image)!

09/18/2026

Just over three weeks left to submit to the North West Showcase and International Open Call! Send us a cohesive body of work, along with a project statement and bio, to be considered for exhibition at the 2027 Exposure Photography Festival!

The North West Showcase places a spotlight on emerging photographic talent across Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Please note that our definition of “emerging” does not rely on age, formal education, or traditional career milestones. We want to recognize the wide variety of ways that artists come to and grow within their practice, and encourage submissions from anyone at the early stages of publicly presenting or publishing their creative work. If you’re looking for new ways to build connections with audiences, peers, or a wider photographic community, show us what you’ve got!

The International Open Call brings a global range of perspectives to Calgary each February. Photographers at any career stage, anywhere in the world are welcome to apply. Entry is free for artists from low-income countries. (See the full list on our website!)

Submission deadline: October 5, 2026. Details at exposurephotofestival.com

Thanks to Calgary Arts Development, and our partners Calgary Print Shop and TRUCK Contemporary Art for making these exhibitions possible!

Featured photo by Calgary Alberta Wedding Photographer 📸

09/04/2026

Monika Szewczyk, Audain Chief Curator The Polygon Gallery, is joining us as a juror for Exposure’s 2027 North West Showcase!

Born in Szczecin, Poland, Szewczyk [p**n. shef-chick] moved at a formative age to the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations also known as Vancouver, Canada. Her lifelong interest in art-
and/as history-making has evolved in close collaboration with artists, poets, activists, and archivists whose methods vary, but who all tend to reimagine structures and reinvent traditions as they negotiate belonging to more than one place, people and culture. After gaining early experience at
The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery she was Head of Publications at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam (now Kunstinstituut Melly) (2008-2011); the inaugural Visual
Arts Programme Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2012-2014); one of the curators for documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens (where she was based), and director of de Appel, Amsterdam (2019-2022). Throughout she continued to lecture, advise and lead seminars at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, the University of Chicago and as the 2022/2023 Quis Research Fellow at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule and Goethe Universität in Frankfurt. She has written for and edited numerous monographs, readers, artist books and journals, including e-flux journal online, Mousse and Afterall.

Monika will be one of five jurors evaluating submissions to the North West Showcase. Joining her will be representatives from Exposure, TRUCK Contemporary Art, and our local community. We’re excited to share more about our expanded jury process in the days to come!

08/21/2026

A 35mm throwback to July 4th – the day of our community cyanotype workshop at Calgary’s Historic Firehall No. 1! Led by artists cy yang - smith and Leia Guo, members of the public were invited to create cyanotypes to embody a personal wish. Those wishes have been assembled into a public exhibition, on display now River Hall | Free YYC Events ☀️! If you’re in Calgary this weekend, check out this FREE, all ages, drop-in friendly community hub!

📍 Lot 6 - 311 8 St SW

Thanks again to City of Calgary for funding this project. And to the incredible team of volunteers and collaborators that made it possible.

The Camera Store
Made by Marcus Ice Cream
Neat. Film Lab
Public Eye
Calgary Print Shop
Paul Jackson Fine Art Services
Jolie Bird
Bridgette Kristine

Photos by Festival Manager, Emma Palm.

08/19/2026

We are thrilled to introduce Shana Lopes as one of the jurors for the 2027 International Open Call!

Shana Lopes, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she earned her doctorate in art history from Rutgers University, specializing in the history of photography. Over the past sixteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has recently curated or co-curated exhibitions, including Around Group f.64, Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, Sea Change, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, 2024 SECA Art Award, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, and Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules. Her writing has appeared in History of Photography, Art Journal, Aperture, and 1000 Words.

Photographers from anywhere in the world, at any stage of career are encouraged to submit to the International Open Call by October 5th, 2026.

Selected artists receive:
💰 A $456 artist fee
🖼️ Support from our team and print partner Calgary Print Shop to prepare your work
📍 Exhibition , February 2027
🌐 Features on the Exposure website, our Instagram, and official press

Visit the link in our bio for more information!

08/11/2026

The 2027 International Open Call is officially open!

Photographers and visual artists working with the medium, anywhere in the world, at any stage of career are eligible — whether incorporating, celebrating, or challenging the photographic form. This exhibition brings a global range of perspectives to Calgary each February.

Selected artists receive:
💰 A $456 artist fee
🖼️ Support from our team and print partner Calgary Print Shop to prepare your work
📍 Exhibition TRUCK Contemporary Art, February 2027
🌐 Features on the Exposure website, our Instagram, and official press

Juror announcements coming soon!

Free entry is available for artists based in low-income countries, and 10 additional fee waivers will be provided to artists facing economic hardship (offered on a first-come first-served basis).

⏰ Submissions close 11:59 PM MDT, October 5, 2026.

Link in bio to submit.

Featured image by Elaheh Abdolahabadi

08/11/2026

The 2027 North West Showcase is officially open!

This exhibition is a platform for emerging artists building their practice, open to photographers based in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, or the Northwest Territories.

Selected artists receive:

💰 A $456 artist fee
🖼️ Support from our team and print partner Calgary Print Shop to prepare your work
📍 Exhibition , February 2027
🌐 Features on the Exposure website, our Instagram, and official press

This year we’re also expanding our jury to include more voices from the local photography community — announcements coming soon!

Fee waivers are available for artists facing economic hardship (10 spots, first-come first-served).

⏰ Submissions close 11:59 PM MDT, October 5, 2026.

Link in bio to submit.

Featured image by sarah neumann.

07/28/2026

📣 EXHIBITION, JULY 27-AUGUST 7
📍Historic Firehall No. 1
🌀A Ritual of Wishing: Community Cyanotype Project

On Saturday, July 4, 2026, we held a free art-making workshop at Calgary’s Historic Firehall No. 1. Led by artists cy yang - smith and Leia Guo, members of the public were invited to create cyanotypes to embody a personal wish. Through the alchemy of sunlight and water, their wishes are revealed and offered to the community as a collective tapestry of longing and hope.

Thanks to City of Calgary for funding this project! And to the incredible team of volunteers and collaborators that made it possible.

The Camera Store
Made by Marcus Ice Cream
Neat. Film Lab
Public Eye
Calgary Print Shop
Paul Jackson Fine Art Services
Jolie Bird

07/17/2026

Here’s a look back at “A Ritual of Wishing: Community Cyanotype Project” held Saturday, July 4th at Calgary’s Historic Firehall No. 1! Over 100 of you joined us under a blue sky to turn your wishes into photographic prints using sunlight and water, guided by artists , .guo, and an INCREDIBLE team of volunteers. Stay tuned, as we work to transform these beautiful pieces into a collective art installation, set to be exhibited at the Firehall from July 27 to August 7!

Tremendous thanks to all who helped bring this vision to life: the artists, volunteers, participants, and our friends , , , and . This project was generously funded by .

06/29/2026

A Ritual of Wishing: Community Cyanotype Project ✨

This summer, we're turning the Historic Firehall courtyard into an open-air photography studio!

On Saturday, July 4, join artists Cy Yang-Smith and Leia Guo for a free community cyanotype workshop. Guided by a reflective prompt, participants will arrange stencils and natural materials to create their own unique sunprints using sunlight and water.

Each cyanotype created during the workshop will become part of a large collaborative installation that will be exhibited at Historic Firehall No. 1 later this summer.

No experience is required. Drop in for five minutes or stay for an hour—everyone is welcome.

☀️ Free
📍 Historic Firehall No. 1
📅 Saturday, July 4
⏰ Drop in between 10 AM–4 PM

🍦 Rumour has it that Made by Marcus will be dropping by with some free scoops!

Fun for all ages! Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Thanks to the for funding this project, and to our generous community partners for their support:

Exposure Photography Festival

09/21/2026

09/18/2026

09/04/2026

08/21/2026

08/19/2026

08/11/2026

08/11/2026

07/28/2026

07/17/2026

06/29/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organization

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request