5th Annual Student Show

09.18 - 10.18
Opening Reception: 09.18, 7-9pm
130 S 17th St., Phila. PA

Now in its fifth year, the Annual Student Show at PhotoLounge celebrates the work of emerging photographers in honor of our founder's friend and mentor, Jerry Brown. Jerry was both a talented photographer and a giant in the photo lab industry who strongly believed in supporting young artists. This exhibition continues that legacy by showcasing the work of more than 100 student photographers from universities across the country, helping to introduce and promote the next generation of emerging artists.

No Other Place to Go

09.04 – 10.17
Opening Reception: 09.10, 6-9pm
1400 N American St., Phila. PA 19122

Featuring: Anita Allyn, Richard Boutwell, Laura Krasnow, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Emma Ressel

No Other Place to Go considers how photography reflects the psychological weight of climate change, shaped by collective anxiety, grief, and uncertainty.  The featured work by Anita Allyn, Richard Boutwell, Laura Krasnow, Kaitlin Pomerantz, and Emma Ressel exemplifies photography’s capacity to show what is happening in a world undergoing rapid climatic and ecological change. These images affirm that evidence and emotion are not opposing forces, but complementary forms of knowledge—together shaping how environmental realities are seen, remembered, and acted upon.

20/20 Call for Entry: Transforming Landscapes

09.04 - 09.27
Opening Reception: 09.12, 12-5pm
121 N Christopher Columbus Blvd, Phila. PA 19106

The 20/20 Photo Festival call for entry exhibit Transforming Landscapes juried by Philadelphia-based photographer Andrew Piccone, encourages artists to reflect on the evolution of the American landscape over the past 250 years. This includes not only physical terrains, but also the technological, societal, political, scientific, and artistic environments that shape contemporary life.  “Amidst social movements, climate change, political turmoil, and the proliferation of invasive technology in our lives, now more than ever we as photographers have an urgent sense of duty to document our changing landscapes in an attempt to better understand the how and the why of these transformations,” said Piccone.

50 Years of The Photo Review Photography Exhibition

09.04 - 09.27
Opening Reception: 09.12, 12-5pm
121 N Christopher Columbus Blvd, Phila. PA 19106

Celebrating Philadelphia's place in the history of photography and the role of The Photo Review in promoting photography locally and nationally over its 50-year existence.  The exhibit at Cherry Street Pier goes through the history of their annual photography contest over the past 40 years featuring both local and nationally recognized artists. 

The Ben Franklin Bridge at 100: Photographs by James B. Abbott

07.03 - 09.27
Opening Reception: 09.12, 12-5pm
121 N Christopher Columbus Blvd, Phila. PA 19106

Spanning more than four decades of Abbott’s work (1982–2023), the exhibition features photographs from four distinct bodies of work documenting the Ben Franklin Bridge and its evolving urban landscape. Beginning with images captured in the 1980s, visitors will see how the neighborhoods surrounding the bridge transformed over time.

Eco-Social Realism: Historic Mural Activations

09.10 - 11.21
Opening Reception: 09.10, 6-9pm
1400 North American St.

Mural Arts Philadelphia and TILT present Eco-Social Realism: Historic Mural Activations. The exhibition takes as its starting point four murals within the larger neighborhood around TILT that were produced in the early years of Mural Arts Philadelphia. Those murals include: Forest Green (1996) by Ras Malik, Cinema Verde (1998) by Dennis Haugh, Tropical Landscape (1999) by Diane Keller, and Tropical Landscape with Waterfall (2000) by Ana Uribe. As with many murals of that time period, these four engaged in the representation of pastoral and garden scenes, often mixing fantasy with landscapes familiar to both nearby Pennsylvania and the Caribbean, where many neighbors originally migrated from.

From the Ashes

09.05 - 10.18
Opening Reception: 09.11, 5-8pm
1627 N. 2nd St, Phila. PA 19122

Featuring: Laurie Beck Peterson, Tony Bellaver, Kari Varner, and Yelena Zhavoronkova.

The artists in From Destruction to Creation utilize alternative and historic photographic processes to react to and interrogate issues surrounding landscapes impacted by both human-caused and natural transformation. From documenting clearcuts and feed lots to creating work of and directly onto local flora, the artists individualize methods of creatively processing the changes that they encounter.

These Are Not Landscapes…

07.01 – 09.30
749 S 8th Street, Phila. 19147

Featuring: Chuck Kelton

The SPACE Art Gallery is proud to present These Are Not Landscapes..., a new exhibition of unique chemograms and photograms by internationally recognized artist, master printer, and educator Chuck Kelton. At first glance these luminous works appear to depict vast mountain ranges, celestial horizons, rivers, geological formations, and distant planets. Yet they are not photographs of places that actually exist. They are entirely constructed through light, chemistry, oxidation, precious metals, and time. As the exhibition title suggests, These Are Not Landscapes... invites viewers to reconsider not only what they are seeing, but also what photography itself can be.

Mesh

09.04 - 10.17
Opening Reception: 09.04, 7-9pm
28 S. 2nd St, Phila. PA 19106

Featuring: Oli Gardea and Lawson Saby

Lawson tells me, we are so fortunate to make photographs with so much of us in them, although we are never actually in them. We see our friends - who they were and who they have since become - and can see ourselves.  The image retrieves a lost thing but always with a new context. We find the place where something used to be.

Ron Tarver, The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America

09.11 - 11.14
Opening Reception: 09.10, 5:30-7:30pm
1614 Latimer St, Phila. PA 19103

The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America features color photographs made by the Philadelphia artist Ron Tarver, challenging the whitewashed myth of the all-American cowboy and deconstructing ideas of Black identity. Taken in the 1990s, Tarver’s images offer testimony to the lived experiences of a thriving community, offering insightful glimpses into the lives of Black people embodying their Western cultural heritage. 

Americana: Photographs 1850-1950

07.23 – 10.11
2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Phila. PA 19130

The term “Americana” often brings to mind familiar symbols of life in the United States, from apple pie and baseball to small-town parades and family snapshots. Yet Americana is more than a collection of national icons. It is a continually evolving idea shaped by the diverse people, communities, and experiences that make up the nation.  Spanning the years 1850 to 1950, this exhibition explores American life through photography during a century of profound change. As the country was transformed by the Civil War, industrialization, mass immigration, and two world wars, photography became increasingly accessible. Affordable studio portraits and personal cameras allowed more people than ever before to record their lives and share their stories.

Evolving Freedoms: Exploring Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

09.02 - 12.13
Opening reception & Family Day: 09.13, 3-6pm
50 Lapsley Lane, Merion, PA 19066

How do we define freedom in the 21st century? How has the pursuit of happiness changed in the face of personal, political, and cultural transformation? This thought-provoking exhibition will bring together regional contemporary artists whose work reflects on the ever-shifting meaning of freedom in today's world. Contemporary artists will exhibit photography and print-based work that reflects on the shifting landscape of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This exhibition seeks to explore how these foundational ideals are interpreted, challenged, and reimagined through personal experience, social movements, and collective memory.  The guest juror is Katie Tackman, a graduate of Drexel University's photography program, is an artist, photographer, and fine art printer.

UNBOUND: A Visual Study on the Nature of Freedom

07.03 – 10.31
5423 Germantown Ave, Phila. PA 19144

This body of work takes us into the creative contemplation of Steven CW Taylor as he builds and expresses his philosophy, “The Way of Inquiry: An Openness to encounter”, where the journey holds far more value than the destination it assumes.  At the center of this public exhibition is a question that Steven holds with him:  “What could freedom look like when it is not measured by the ability to acquire more, but instead to simply require less?”  Join us, and toy with your interpretation on what it means to live liberated. What does it mean for you to live UNBOUND…

Photo-Versus: Reflecting America

09.01 – 09.12
Battle Event: Saturday, 09.12, 2pm
JPEG Photo Gallery, 303 Market St, Camden, NJ 08102

PHOTO-VERSUS!: NJ vs. PA.  Theme: Reflecting America" - One theme. Two states. Fifty photographers. Who will best reflect America?  The EJM Foundation proudly presents PHOTO-VERSUS!, an exciting photography competition and exhibition featuring photographers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Artists are invited to submit photographs that creatively interpret the theme, "Reflecting America," exploring the people, places, cultures, histories, and experiences that define our nation.

Zines in Focus: Exploring Philadelphia

09.17 - 10.24
Opening Reception: 09.17, 5-8pm
3810 Lancaster Ave, Phila. PA 19122

Zines in Focus: Exploring Philadelphia highlights five working artists through photography, zines, and other accessible book forms. At their core zines are an accessible way to reach and create community through art. In an ever divided world, we seek to draw closer and bring people together through the common human act of photography and art making. Each artist presents their own unique view and perspective of Philadelphia; perhaps their hometown, their muse, or their newfound love. Celebrating our city has never felt more relevant than the 250th anniversary of this country so we hope you will join us in celebrating the people and communities that make our city special.

A Federal Job in the Arts: CETA and Philadelphia in the 1970s

08.03 - 10.02
Panel Discussion and Reception: 09.18, 5-7pm
City Hall, Room 116. Phila, PA 19107

Creative Philadelphia’s Art In City Hall program presents A Federal Job in the Arts – CETA and Philadelphia in the 1970s, an exhibition curated by Blaise Tobia and Virginia Maksymowicz of the CETA Arts Legacy Project. The exhibit highlights the significance of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), the largest federally funded artists employment project since the WPA in the 1930s and demonstrates its relevance in the context of the current cultural sector. A Federal Job in the Arts features documentary photography and prints and includes artwork from local CETA artists who were part of VAPS, the Visual Artists in Public Service program run by the Brandywine Graphic Workshop in Philadelphia.

In Good Company

10.09 - 11.21
Opening Reception: 10.9, 4pm
2024 Wallace St.

In Good Company gathers something the public rarely gets to see. Not the work that photographers make, but the work they keep. Over a career, an artist builds a private collection of photographs by others, prints acquired, traded, gifted, and bid on over many years. These collections usually live on living room walls and in flat files, seen by a few friends and almost no one else. This exhibition brings them into one room.

Presented by The Photo Review and hosted at LightRoom Gallery, 2024 Wallace Street in Philadelphia, the show invites five to seven Philadelphia based photographers to each loan two to five pieces from their personal holdings. Side by side, these selections form a portrait of the city's photographic community, drawn through the eyes of the people who have shaped it and been shaped by it.