Image by Louie Villanueva | Exposure Photography Festival 2022 at Contemporary Calgary
Through juried open-call exhibitions and a diverse array of partner programming, we showcase the best of contemporary practices within this medium, create opportunities for emerging artists, and invite the public to engage with a wide variety of visual storytelling – both home-grown and internationally renowned.
Partner Exhibition registration is open to all galleries, arts organizations, DIY spaces, artist collectives, independent artists, photographers and curators across the province. Thanks to these collaborators for drawing attention to a wealth of perspectives, active practices, and stimulating conversation in Alberta’s photographic community.
Join us as we celebrate photography across Alberta!
exposure 2025 Exhibitions
Curated by Exposure:
Image by Kyler Zeleny | “Bury Me in the Back Forty” Detail
EXPOSURE FENCE: “Getting Home”
Presented in partnership with Chinook Blast.
On display on Stephen Avenue from January 31 - February 17th.
Representations of rural communities can be polarizing, often over-simplified or “othered” as either idealized snapshots of pastoral landscapes and bygone charm, or sites of controversial political opinion and industry.
“Getting Home” looks past nostalgia and stereotypical expectations, as four artists contend with a much more nuanced sense of place. Each tells a unique story of way-finding, reclamation, belonging, and stewardship in the changing landscapes of small-town Alberta and Saskatchewan. They grapple with the effects of colonialism and climate change as much as they bask in the beauty of the surrounding environment. They tell stories of people shaped by land, and land changed by people. We are left to question: Where have we come from? And where do we go from here?
Featuring Artists: Julya Hajnoczky, Grant Harder, Nahanni McKay, Kyler Zeleny
Partner Exhibitions in Calgary:
Alive She Cried, cSPACE Marda Loop
Best of Alberta Exhibit, cSPACE Marda Loop
Bleeding Hearts, Idle Eyes Studios
Class: Uncertain Selves, University of Calgary
Continuum, Christine Klassen Gallery
Erika DeFreitas: and that break is the one that shows (to shift, a curve, to quiver), Esker
Exposed in Bowness, The Teeny Tiny Art Collective
Exposing the Darkroom, cSPACE Marda Loop
Alexis McKeown: Figuring, cSPACE Marda Loop
Wenda Salomons: flora, Central Library
From Nothing to Something to Something Else, Sparrow Artspace
Byron Robb: Further Explorations in Cubist Photography, Framed On Fifth
Group: Vikky Alexander, Geoffrey James, Han Sungpil at TrépanierBaer Gallery
Into the Tall Trees, Holy Grill
Muse, Studio 122
Nothing In Common but the Camera, University of Calgary
Perusal, The Collectors' Gallery of Art
Kristine Zingeler: Portraits of Time and Place, Herringer Kiss Gallery
Ian Gregory: Since I've Moved, cSPACE Marda Loop
Yaiza Lopez Garcia San Roman: Stock Homo, The Bows Studio Gallery at the Graycon Building
The Artist's Lens: Identity, The Alberta Society of Artists Galleries
Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi: The blue of the sky depends on the darkness of empty space behind it, Esker
Vivek Shraya: Niche, Contemporary Calgary
Neat Film Lab: What We See, NVRLND Boutique
Partner Exhibitions in the Bow Valley:
Celebrating Winter, Canmore Art Guild Gallery
Facing Photographs, Walter Phillips Gallery
Meltdown: A Drop in Time, The Whyte
Linda Craddock: Mirage, Willock & Sax Gallery
Partner Exhibitions in Central & Northern Alberta:
Andrzej Maciejewski: Ephemeral Fields, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre
InFocus Photo Exhibit 2025: Light & Shadow, Wild Skies Art Gallery
Tom Willock: Legacy, Miller Art Gallery at the Roxy
Sherry Penner: The Fabulous@40+ Project, Lacombe Performing Arts Centre
Gerry Dotto: The Problem with Perception, Strathcona County Gallery@501
Emma Paige Evie Lotus, Lacombe Performing Arts Centre, Youth Exhibition Space
We’ll see you out there!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that the Exposure Photography Festival takes place on the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. We would also like to acknowledge that Exposure Photography Festival is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and that the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary. Finally, we honour and acknowledge all Nations, indigenous and non, who live, work and play in Moh’kins’tsis and help steward this land and honour and celebrate this territory.