Open Call for the 13th International Photography Festival
CITIZENS
Open Call for the 13th International Photography Festival
CITIZENS
ABOUT
PHOTO IS:RAEL is pleased to invite artists to submit proposals for the Main Exhibition of the 13th International Photography Festival, taking place in Tel Aviv in November 2026.
Widely recognized as the premier photography platform in the country, the International Photography Festival returns in November 2026 for its 13th edition. The festival has long since become an established and well-known cultural institution which welcomes thousands of visitors each year, as over 200 leading Israeli and international photographers exhibit their work over the course of two weeks.
Selected works will be exhibited in the Festival’s Main Exhibition and featured in the 2026 Festival catalog and website.
The upcoming festival theme is:
CITIZENS
The theme of this year’s festival, Citizens, positions photography as active civic practice. Citizenship is not merely a legal designation, but a choice to be present and to make one’s voice heard. By bringing forward grassroots perspectives, the festival transforms personal experience into shared public knowledge. The camera becomes a means of claiming visibility, enabling marginalized groups to redefine themselves and, through acts of creation and participation, take part in shaping and strengthening the democratic fabric.
We invite artists working with lens-based media – including photography, film, video, performance documentation, animation, and digital, interactive, or hybrid forms – to submit proposals for the upcoming Festival. We welcome submissions from artists worldwide, at all stages of their careers, featuring existing works or new projects that explore this year’s theme.
Deadline for submissions: June 17, 2026
Submission fee: $32.00 (US dollars). The processing fees go towards the registration and the presentation of the artworks at the 2026 International Photography Festival.
* Submissions may include up to 12 images, depending on the nature of the proposed works. For video works or live performance documentation, please include a direct viewing link within the project description section
05.05.2025
Registration
17.06.2026
Submission deadline
03.08.2026
Selected artists notified
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL
Since its launch in 2009, the International Photography Festival has become an art institution that draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. The two-week festival is the biggest photography event in Israel which features works by hundreds of prominent international and Israeli photographers, and offers a glimpse into unique Israeli photography archives, social projects, lectures, masterclasses, workshops, gallery talks and more.
2025 – Voices, Enav Cultural Center and City Garden, Tel Aviv, Curator: Svetlana Reingold
2024 – Unthemed, Enav Cultural Center and City Garden, Tel Aviv, Curator: Maya Anner
2022 – Action, Enav Cultural Center and City Garden, Tel Aviv, Curator: Yaara Raz Haklai
2021 – Meeting Point, The Daniel Rowing Centre, Tel Aviv, Curator: Yaara Raz Haklai
2020 – Transformation, Kikar HaMedina, Tel Aviv, Curator: Maya Anner
2019 – Fantasy, Azrieli Sarona, Tel Aviv, Curator: Maya Anner
2018 – Relations, Golf Complex, Tel Aviv, Curator: Maya Anner
2017 – Identity, Midtown Tel Aviv, Curator: Dr. Joshua Simon
2016 – Safe Space, Jaffa Port, Curator: Eldad Rafaeli
2014 – Photographic Memory, Carmel Winery, Rishon LeZion, Curator:
2012 – Sustainability, Jaffa Port, Curator: Vardi Kahana
2009 – Point of View, Hatachana Tel Aviv, Curator: Dr. Aya Lurie
ARTISTIC COMMITTEE
Svetlana Reingold
Chief Curator, PHOTO IS:RAEL International Photography Festival, Israel
Eyal Landsman
Co-Founder & Director | PHOTO IS:RAEL
SELECTED ARTISTS FROM PREVIOUS FESTIVALS
