Programs & Events

The Portfolio Reviews provide a dedicated forum for artists and photographers to engage with leading professionals, receive constructive feedback, and build meaningful connections. This year, sixty photographers will have the opportunity to present their work to twenty international experts—including festival directors, curators, publishers, editors, and critics—who will convene in Athens for a focused program of dialogue and exchange. Each participant will take part in a series of 20-minute individual sessions designed to foster professional growth and new opportunities for collaboration.

Participating artists in the Main Exhibition, whose work and thinking stand out for their process and critical insight, engage in conversations about their artistic practice. They discuss the development of their projects, the research and methods that shape their work, and the ideas behind the images on view.

The Main Program expands photography beyond the static image through live actions, participatory gestures, and performative interventions. A series of performances draws inspiration from the works on view, approaching the photographic image as presence, movement, and spatial experience. Through these encounters, the exhibition space becomes a site of shared perception and dialogue—between image, body, and viewer.

Talent Lab is an artistic development initiative of the Athens Photo Festival, designed for a select group of photographers seeking to advance their creative practice and strengthen their artistic voice. Led by international experts, the program offers an intensive five-day workshop that combines group sessions, one-to-one mentoring, and critical discussions, concluding with a final public presentation. Participants are selected through the Festival’s current open call.

Literacy through Photography invites school-age participants to explore how images shape the ways we perceive and understand the world. Through play, observation, and creative experimentation, photography becomes a medium for imagination and connection. The program fosters curiosity and critical awareness, encouraging young participants to imagine, create, and share new ways of seeing.

The Festival’s mediation program creates facilitated spaces for encounter, dialogue, and reflection on contemporary photography. Led by cultural mediators, guided tours, focused walkthroughs, and reflective workshops invite audiences into a slower, more attentive way of looking—engaging with the works on view, the exhibition’s spatial context, and the ideas they activate.

The program actively engages communities and supports positive social change through photography. Through specially designed workshops, participants explore the narrative power of the image with an emphasis on participatory methods. Combining photography, collage, oral histories, and text, the program creates space for shared storytelling and collective expression. In collaboration with non-profit community organizations, the Festival tailors each experience to the needs, interests, and abilities of every participating group.

Rooted in Athens and connected internationally, APhRC brings together education, practice-based research, and a community-driven spirit. It is designed as a meeting point for ideas, creative risk-taking, and long-term artistic growth. APhRC is structured around five foundational pillars — the Library & Archive, Education Programs, Research Activities, Artist Residencies, and the Public Program.