“Photography has long been trusted as evidence, but today images can be easily manipulated, re-contextualised and weaponised,” says Cape Town Festival Director Heidi Erdmann. “The festival is not a search for certainty, but an exploration of how truths are produced, challenged and resisted, and the role photography plays in that process.”
Since its inaugural edition, the festival has doubled in size, with 40 exhibitions, more than 160 photographers and a month-long programme spanning conversations, demonstrations, film screenings, talks, guided walks and more. New venues this year include the Castle of Good Hope and Company’s Garden.
Festival highlights include:
• Cape Rhythm: Goema, Klopse & Memory in the Company’s Garden – an outdoor exhibition exploring the relationship between photography, Cape Town and its musical and cultural history.
• I Witnessed This, presented at the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation and curated by Pippa Hetherington, bringing together diverse photographic voices from across Africa.
• International perspectives from Réunion Island, introducing Cape Town audiences to photographic narratives from across the Indian Ocean.
• PICHA Stock workshops from Nairobi, offering practical engagement while introducing audiences to an important African platform for photography and visual storytelling.
• The International Student Photography Exhibition, now four times larger than last year and showcasing the next generation of photographic voices across three venues.
• Exhibitions at the Central Library, bringing local and international photography into an accessible public space and beyond the traditional gallery environment.
• New festival venues, including the Castle of Good Hope and Company’s Garden, extending photography into Cape Town’s historic and public spaces.
“We live in a world saturated with images,” says Erdmann. “Rather than simply asking whether photographs can still be trusted, we need to become more attentive viewers – questioning who made an image, how it was made, what it shows, what may be absent and what claims it is making.”
The programme includes exhibitions, conversations, workshops, a masterclass, demonstrations, a film screening and guided photography walks, inviting audiences to engage with photography both inside and beyond the gallery.
“I hope the festival encourages people to slow down, to look a little longer and to be curious about the stories behind the images,” Erdmann says. [Full programme HERE]
WHAT: 2nd Cape Town Photography Festival
WHERE: Various venues across Cape Town
WHEN: 2–26 September 2026 |
INFO: Full programme HERE | Facebook: Cape Town Photography Festival | Instagram: @cape_town_photo_fest
