Australia’s largest photography festival back in town

The highly anticipated PHOTO 2024: International Festival of Photography is back in Melbourne.

The event, which runs until March 24, will feature 100 free exhibitions and 29 outdoor art installations to explore across seven festival precincts.

This year addresses the theme of “The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It”, with audiences invited to discover the possible and parallel futures that lie ahead, and how current actions are shaping future realities – from AI-generated images and surveillance evasion to climate futures and animal espionage.

It is being presented in partnership with over 50 museums and galleries including ACMI, State Library Victoria, Museum of Australian Photography, and the Centre for Contemporary Photography.

The festival’s founder/artistic director Elias Redstone said some of the most famous photographers in the world would be in town alongside the “hottest new talent”.

“I will be visiting all 100 exhibitions during PHOTO 2024 and urge people to see as many as they can,” he said.

He added many artists would be speaking at PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit – “a testament to the festival’s growing reputation as a must-visit event in the global photography calendar”.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said it was “extremely fitting” to see the award-winning biennale in Melbourne where the event was born.

“Melbourne is not only the arts capital of Australia, but also the photographic capital, home to some of the largest and oldest photographic collections in the country,” she said.

We continue to support and uphold this mantel because we recognise the importance photography has to play not just as an artistic medium, but as a cultural medium that records civic and social history.

The festival will showcase the work of more than 150 contemporary photographers and artists, featuring some of the biggest names in photography worldwide.

Highlights include large-scale outdoor displays at iconic locations including the world’s largest Nan Goldin artwork installed on the façade of Fed Square facing Flinders St and Hosier Lane.