For a decade, Photo London was rooted in the courtyard of Somerset House. Visitors queued before the stone facade overlooking the Thames, scanned their tickets, and lost themselves among the photographs inside. That location had become an inseparable part of the fair’s identity; viewing cutting-edge contemporary imagery within a historic landmark created a productive tension between form and content.
However, this year, Photo London has moved. The new home for its eleventh edition is Olympia in Kensington. This is more than a mere change of scenery; the fair is celebrating its entry into its second decade with this radical decision. The fourteen-acre site—undergoing a £1.3 billion redevelopment designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC—is being reshaped with theaters, music venues, hotels, and public spaces. Photo London has chosen to position itself at the very heart of this transformation.
Why Olympia, Why Now?
Director Sophie Parker’s explanation is quite clear: “This move has given us the freedom to expand everything. The Discovery, Positions, and Publishing sections are now larger than ever.” But the shift isn’t just about physical scale. Beyond being within walking distance of the V&A, Design Museum, and Serpentine, Olympia offers direct access to Heathrow. This strategic location makes it significantly easier for the fair to capture the traffic of international collectors and curators.
The new venue has enabled much more. For the first time, a screening room has been established—a major step that turns photography’s close relationship with the moving image into a dedicated program. The corridors are wider, exhibition spaces are deeper, and the areas reserved for talks are larger. While space constraints often shrink programs at other fairs, here, the opposite is true.
Highlights of This Year
Steven Meisel — The Main Stage
This year’s ‘Master of Photography’ title has been awarded to Steven Meisel (the award was notably not given to anyone in the 2025 edition). Meisel is a figure who rarely appears in public and seldom exhibits his work. The man behind countless Vogue covers usually prefers not to let his own persona overshadow his work, which is exactly what makes this exhibition so rare.
The show will feature London portraits from Meisel’s early professional assignments: Bella Freud, Plum Sykes, and Isabella Blow. Three of the most critical figures in fashion history captured by the lens of a young photographer who had not yet achieved his current status. Viewing these photographs today feels like looking at history through a time capsule.
Autograph — We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For
This group exhibition, curated by the London-based gallery Autograph, focuses on women and non-binary artists who have reshaped the visual archive over the last forty years. Curated by Bindi Vora, the show includes major names such as Zanele Muholi, Carrie Mae Weems, Ingrid Pollard, and Joy Gregory.
Muholi recently won the Hasselblad Award, one of the most prestigious honors in the photography world. Their practice of documenting Black LGBTQI+ communities in South Africa functions as both an art archive and an act of resistance—or, as they put it, “visual activism.” Seeing all these masters in a single exhibition requires no further justification.
Source — New Section, Marginal Voices
The Source section, brought to life under the curation of photography specialist Tristan Lund, is designed as a recurring theme throughout the fair. It focuses on marginalized artists and risk-taking artistic approaches. Alfredo Jaar’s series questioning African representation in Life magazine and Wu Chia-Yun’s photographs exploring Taiwanese identity are among the standout works in this section.
Discovery — Curated by Charlotte Jansen
As in every year, the Discovery section remains the most vital part of the fair. Critic Charlotte Jansen brings together rising talents and experimental practices. Furthermore, this year features a particularly strong program focusing on South Asian photographers.
Positions — For Unrepresented Artists
Positions allows independent artists not represented by a gallery to meet an international audience of collectors and curators. This is one of Photo London’s most original structural decisions, and it has expanded even further with the move to Olympia. Considering how difficult a career path photography was before such platforms existed, this section is a complete game-changer.
Gallery Lineup: A Global Roster
Returning galleries include Curatorial (London), Akio Nagasawa (Tokyo), and FishEye (Paris). Among the newcomers, New Delhi-based Photo Ink stands out as they celebrate their 25th anniversary. New participants from India and Africa have notably expanded the geographical map of this year’s edition.
