Photo Fringe 2026

Brighton Photo Fringe returns from 2 to 31 October, taking over galleries and community venues across Brighton & Hove and stretching along the south coast from Portsmouth to Newhaven. It's a biennial festival, so it only comes around every other year, and this edition keeps the open-platform format it's known for: a mix of self-curated shows and work selected through open calls, with photographers at every stage of their career. You'll find enthusiasts and recent graduates showing alongside established names, all hanging their work in the same city.

The thing that really sets it apart is where the photos end up. They aren't just in galleries and cultural spaces; they pop up in cafés, community rooms, seafront locations, empty shops and other unexpected spots across Brighton & Hove and the wider south coast. It's that unconventional approach that's become the festival's signature, and it's how it keeps photography out of the white cube and in the places people actually go. The festival returns each edition to the grassroots values it started with — artist-led participation, experimentation and community connection — and each programme invites artists to respond to a shared theme through their own practices and perspectives.

One of the sessions you can join is a mindful photography workshop with Eva Kalpadaki, which runs on Friday 23 October from 15:00 to 17:00 at the Hove Seafront, Hove, BN3 2FR. The workshop is free, and it's part of the wider festival that runs throughout the month. Beyond that, the Fringe has grown since it started in 2003 into one of the UK's largest and most expansive photography festivals, with exhibitions spread across the city and along the coast from the 2nd to the 31st of October.