Photo London is back and bigger than ever
A cheeky snap
There’s something slightly funny about photography fairs becoming so big that they need to move house.
However, that’s exactly what’s happened with Photo London 2026, which returns this month for its eleventh edition and first-ever year at Olympia London after officially outgrowing its long-time home at Somerset House.
Over the last decade, Photo London has quietly become one of the biggest fixtures in the international photography calendar, pulling together heavyweight galleries, famous photographers, collectors, emerging artists and the kind of art-world crowd who somehow always look effortlessly expensive while carrying tote bags.
This year’s edition runs from the 14th to the 17th of May, with a VIP preview on 13 May, and marks the start of what organisers are calling a “new era” for the fair. The new Kensington location places the event inside Olympia’s historic National Hall, which is currently in the middle of a massive £1.3 billion redevelopment led by Thomas Heatherwick’s Heatherwick Studio.
More importantly for visitors, though, it means more space. More galleries. More installations. More opportunities to pretend you understand abstract photography while nodding thoughtfully with a coffee in hand.
The expanded fair will feature a huge international lineup of exhibitors spanning established names and emerging talent, with several entirely new sections launching this year. One of the biggest additions is Source, a curated area dedicated to solo presentations from culturally significant artists and photographers.
Among the highlights are Taiwanese artist Wu Chia-Yun, whose work explores identity and cultural memory, while Rosalind Fox Solomon’s deeply personal Portraits project will be presented by Galerie Julian Sander following the photographer’s death last year.
Elsewhere, Argentine artist Santiago Porter brings his striking Piezas series, while Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka uses AI image generation, stock imagery and digital manipulation to create deliberately unsettling work questioning truth and memory.
There’s also a new screening room dedicated entirely to artists’ films and photography-adjacent cinema, including Sarah Moon’s film There is something about Lillian.
The fair’s Discovery section has expanded significantly this year, particularly around South Asian representation. Mumbai gallery Fulcrum will showcase work by Vasudhaa Narayanan examining gender, caste and domesticity, while New Delhi’s Photoink presents Ketaki Sheth’s Twinspotting series, which pairs portraits of Patel twins living in Britain with Patel twins back in India after Sheth discovered there were more than 30,000 Patels listed in UK directories.
Fashion photography icon Steven Meisel is one of this year’s headline names through the returning Master of Photography exhibition, including his famous Anglo-Saxon Attitude series shot in London. Meanwhile, visitors can also see photographs by married German photographers Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler documenting fashion and life behind the Berlin Wall during the GDR years.
Outside the exhibitions themselves, Photo London still leans heavily into the broader art-fair experience too. Talks, screenings, publishers, collectors, networking and plenty of mildly intimidating creative people wandering around discussing “visual language” over overpriced wine.
Even if you’re not deeply plugged into photography culture, there’s something genuinely fun about the scale and variety of the event. One minute you’re looking at intimate documentary portraits, the next you’re staring at AI-generated surrealism or black-and-white urban photography from Morocco.
Tickets start from £20 for off-peak entry, while standard tickets cost £32. Weekend passes are available for £50.
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