Cape Town is getting a month-long celebration of photography this September, with the Cape Town Photography Festival returning for its second edition from 2 to 26 September 2026.
This year’s festival is built around the theme TRUTH, exploring how photography shapes the way we understand memory, identity, history and power. The programme has also grown significantly since its first edition, with 40 exhibitions featuring more than 160 photographers across venues around the city.
Rather than keeping everything inside traditional gallery spaces, the festival will take photography into some of Cape Town’s public and historic spaces. New venues this year include the Castle of Good Hope and Company’s Garden, alongside exhibitions at places including the Central Library and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation.
One of the highlights is Cape Rhythm: Goema, Klopse & Memory, an outdoor exhibition in Company’s Garden exploring the relationship between photography, Cape Town’s musical history and the memories attached to the city.
The programme also brings an international perspective to Cape Town, with photographic work from Réunion Island, as well as workshops led by PICHA Stock, a Nairobi-based platform focused on African photography and visual storytelling.
The International Student Photography Exhibition has also grown to four times the size of last year’s edition, showcasing emerging photographic voices across three venues.
And there’s plenty to do beyond looking at photographs. The festival programme includes artist conversations, workshops, a masterclass, demonstrations, a film screening and guided photography walks, giving visitors different ways to engage with the photographers and ideas behind the work.
The festival’s theme comes at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to take photographs at face value. With AI, deepfakes and image manipulation changing how we understand what we see online, the festival asks audiences to think more carefully about photographs: who made them, how they were made, what they show and what might be missing.
“We live in a world saturated with images. Rather than simply asking whether photographs can still be trusted, we need to become more attentive viewers.” – Festival Director Heidi Erdmann.
For anyone interested in photography, visual culture, film, history or simply seeing more of the city through a different lens, there’s plenty to explore.
The Cape Town Photography Festival runs from 2 to 26 September 2026 at venues across Cape Town.
- The full programme, exhibition details and information on how to take part are available at capetownphotofest.co.za.
