The Photoworks Festival is set to make a significant return to Brighton in 2026, marking its first live iteration since the onset of the global pandemic. Running from October 2 to November 1, the festival will occupy eleven venues across Brighton & Hove, transforming the city into a hub of visual inquiry centered on the theme “Un/Stable: Lands, Anxieties, Dreams.”
Directed by Louise Fedotov-Clements, the festival aims to address the urgent intersections of identity, memory, community, and the environment. By utilizing photography as a lens for social and ecological critique, the event seeks to interrogate what it means to exist in an era of profound uncertainty while actively imagining restorative, hopeful futures.
The environmental focus of the festival is a cornerstone of this year’s programming. Featured artists, ranging from emerging practitioners to established figures, will present works that delve into the delicate balance of ecosystems. Topics include the intricacies of forest restoration, the interconnectedness of human and non-human worlds, and the role of photography in documenting ecological and social renewal.
“The festival is an amazing melting pot for people to encounter a whole range of ways of working with image-making,” Fedotov-Clements explains. “We want to help people be discerning in the quality of the images they consume. It’s about how we understand images, and we have always been quite experimental in terms of what photographs are and what they can be.”
In an age characterized by rapid technological advancement and the proliferation of AI-generated imagery, the festival assumes a mantle of visual literacy. Fedotov-Clements notes that the current landscape is fraught with “misdirection,” a challenge that photography has historically navigated but which is now heightened by digital tools. The festival encourages attendees to think critically about the relationships between people, landscapes, and technology, emphasizing that technologies—including those used to capture our environment—are never culturally neutral.
This philosophical inquiry is further supported by the festival’s annual publication, Cosmophotologies, edited by Diane Smyth. The publication draws inspiration from philosopher Yuk Hui’s concept of “cosmotechnics,” positing that our technological tools embody specific values and ways of knowing. The essays and artworks within the publication invite viewers to consider photography as a “cosmological practice,” one that explores the complex layering of time, history, and ecology.
The festival’s structure—comprising roughly 20 events, including conferences, workshops, film screenings, and portfolio reviews—is designed to move beyond passive observation. By encouraging participants to read, make, and do, the organizers hope to foster a sense of agency. “It’s about understanding our role as ancestors of the future and it’s also about understanding the ethics of the images we create,” Fedotov-Clements adds.
As urban spaces become increasingly saturated with surveillance and mass-documentation, the Photoworks Festival 2026 challenges the public to reclaim their relationship with the image. By placing environmental and social themes at the forefront, the festival asks difficult questions about how we document a planet in flux and whether our images can serve as catalysts for genuine resilience. Through its diverse exhibitions, the festival positions itself not merely as an art showcase, but as a necessary forum for navigating the anxieties and aspirations of the modern age.
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