CONTACT Photography Festival returns May 2026 for the 30th edition of its annual citywide event
CONTACT is a Toronto-based festival dedicated to exhibiting, analyzing, and celebrating photography and lens-based media. The Festival provides numerous opportunities to experience a diverse range of exhibitions in neighbourhoods across greater Toronto, and to take in hundreds of events including openings, lectures, artist talks, book reviews, workshops, and more, forging creative connections and sparking engagements.
The 2026 Core Program features curated Exhibitions and Public Art Installations highlighting projects by Canadian and international artists and photographers, developed both independently and in partnership with numerous local and international arts and cultural organizations. In 2026, lens-based and mixed-media works examine subjects including decolonial practices, community-building, migration, looking backwards and looking forward, activism, mourning and loss, personal and collective memory, politics and poetics, and feature explorations in new media as well as a return to early photographic practices and experimentation.
Complete programming details will be announced in April. The preliminary list of artists featured across the Core Program includes:
Ernesto Cabral de Luna
Delali Cofie
Marlene Creates
Larry Fink
Tim Georgeson
Hassan Hajjaj
April Hickox
Risa Horowitz
Spring Hurlbut
Alvin Luong
Arnaud Maggs
Thandiwe Muriu
Lu Pan
Celia Perrin Sidarous
Dawit L. Petros
Yann Pocreau
Jessica Slipp
Sheida Soleimani
Adam Swica
Ho Tam
Sin Wai Kin
Bo Wang
Ian Willms
CONTACT’s Core Program of Exhibitions and Public Art Installations are developed through collaborations with partners across Toronto and beyond, including:
Aga Khan Museum
Artexte
Artspace Gallery
BAND Gallery
Blouin Division
Capture Photography Festival
Daniel Faria Gallery
Goethe-Institut Toronto
The Image Centre
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Mercer Union
Onsite Gallery
Pattison Outdoor Advertising
Paul Petro Contemporary Art
Patel Brown
Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives
Reel Asian Film Festival
Prefix ICA
Sankofa Square
Stephen Bulger Gallery
Sur Gallery
Towards Gallery
United Contemporary
Above photo: Dawit L. Petros, Colourscape, Coordinate #1, (Harlem, NY), 2009, pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal
CONTACT Photobook Fair
May 2, 11am-5pm
Stephen Bulger Gallery
The Fair returns in 2026, gathering independent publishers and leading contemporary photographers, designers, and artists from around the world to bring their latest releases to Toronto. This unique event fosters opportunities for enthusiasts and artists to discover new projects, exchange ideas on books and photography, and build connections. Participating publishers and vendors will be announced soon.
In addition, invited professionals will give one-on-one reviews in the Book Dummy Reviews on May 1, at Stephen Bulger Gallery, offering emerging Canadian artists invaluable feedback and networking opportunities. Applications for this program are open now until April 6.
The CONTACT Photobook Lab champions photobooks through a year-round reading room and store, while presenting a roster of programs that investigate contemporary approaches to photobooks and connect photographers with the resources they need to develop and publish their work.
CONSTELLATION | Public Art Guest Curators
Through CONSTELLATION, CONTACT invites local and international curators to program public art installations, often over a three-year term. Established in 2022, this program allows for a plurality of voices, perspectives, and dialogue to take shape throughout public space in the city.
The 2026 CONSTELLATION curators are: Su-Ying Lee, an independent curator living in Tkaronto/Toronto whose projects have taken place across Canada, in Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Quezon City (Metro Manila, Philippines); and Emilie Croning, a curator, art historian, and writer committed to creating space for emerging artists and advancing global dialogues on representation, identity, and diasporic visual culture. In 2025, she launched EMC Contemporary, a nomadic curatorial platform supporting community-building and artist development through accessible opportunities and resources.