Photo Fringe 2026: more than 100 photography shows and events this October

Photo Fringe^1,2,3,4,5, the city’s photography festival, is on until 31 October, with more than 100 exhibitions and events at more than 20 venues in Brighton & Hove, Newhaven and Portsmouth, plus online.

It is the 12th festival. It happens every two years, and most of it is open-platform: photographers, collectives and community groups put on their own shows. This year’s theme is Feedback Loop, about how images and ideas change as they pass between people.

“Photo Fringe is built on connection,” said Ricardo Reverón Blanco, the festival’s producer.

Phoenix Art Space has the Collectives Hub, where eight photography collectives are showing work in response to Phoenix’s 30th anniversary theme, Future Histories. It is open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm to 5pm, and runs on after the festival, until 22 November. In Phoenix’s Window Gallery, Murray Ballard’s Ghosts in the Field looks at Salento in southern Italy, where he has been going for more than a decade.

LULL, at Unit 6, Duke’s Lane, is Laura El-Tantawy’s portrait of Brighton as seen through its gulls, in still photography, film and sound. It is open from 3 to 16 October, 10am to 6pm.

Richard Billingham’s book Ray’s A Laugh came out in 1996. His film Fishtank, made from video he shot in the family flat at the same time, is showing at Satellite Storefront, 26 St John’s Road, BN3 2FB, on Thursday to Saturday evenings from 6pm to 9pm.

Further along the coast, the Newhaven Open, at BN9 Marine Workshops, brings together ten lens-based projects that look at the town. It is open Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.

Not every venue is open every day, so the festival asks visitors to check each exhibition’s dates and opening hours on its website first.

Most venues are wheelchair accessible. The festival names four that are not: the first floor of Regency Town House, Gallery DODO, WRAP and John Marchant Gallery. Phoebe at Photo Fringe can help plan a visit (phoebe@photofringe.org).

If you can’t get out, every exhibition in the festival is also online, best viewed on a computer rather than a phone.