Cape Town Photography Festival | Cape Town
Celebration
The Cape Town Photography Festival returns this September with the theme "Authenticity," offering a month-long photographic extravaganza for the entire city. The 2026 event explores how photography shapes viewers' understanding of memory, identity, history, and power. This issue becomes increasingly urgent as artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and image manipulation technologies continue to reshape trust in what we see. As Festival Director Heidi Eldman stated, viewers should not merely question whether photographs can still be trusted, but rather focus on how they interpret images. Since its inception, the program has expanded significantly, now encompassing 40 exhibitions and over 160 photographers across the city. This year's festival extends beyond traditional gallery spaces to public and historical venues throughout Cape Town, including Cape Castle, the Company Gardens, the Central Library, and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation. Highlights include Zanelle Muholy's solo exhibition "Kanja Nave" and the outdoor exhibition "Cape Rhythms: Goema, Klops, and Memory" in the company gardens, exploring the relationship between photography, Cape Town's musical history, and collective memory. The festival also injects an international element into the city with photographic works from Reyon Island and workshops hosted by PICHA Stock, Nairobi-based platform for African photography and visual storytelling. The International Student Photography Exhibition has quadrupled in size, presenting the work of emerging photographic talent across three venues.