For the seventh consecutive year, the Experimental Photo Festival 2026, to be held in Barcelona from July 22 to 26, opens its international call for photographers and artists of all backgrounds, nationalities, and ages. The invitation is open to anyone working with creative, experimental, alternative, historical, and hybrid photography, who wishes to take their work to a new level by exploring innovation in concepts, techniques, or forms of exhibition.
The 20 selected creators will have the opportunity to present their exhibitions in some of Barcelona’s most iconic venues throughout the month of July. Some will be displayed indoors, others outdoors on large-format canvases, and a few will be specially adapted to unique spaces. First, they will open for the International Meeting of Photography Festivals, with representatives from more than 50 festivals worldwide. Then, they will reopen for the Experimental Photo Festival 2026, for the city’s community and international audiences. This strategy ensures privileged international exposure before curators and festival directors from all over the world, as well as the citizens of the city.
From this call, artists will be selected to participate in twenty solo exhibitions, which will be presented in three emblematic spaces of the city:
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Pati Llimona Civic Centre
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Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia (IEFC)
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Experimental Hub Barcelona
Space allocation will be determined by the festival's curatorial team, which will also support the artists throughout the design and installation process. Furthermore, the festival encourages active participation in its workshops, both by proposing and attending. Knowledge sharing and community building are essential pillars of the Experimental Photo Festival.
The festival does not establish a specific theme. The program revolves around photographic experimentation and three main axes:
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Combine techniques.
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Reinforce the message.
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Work collectively.
Projects on any topic are welcome, even those that have already been exhibited, published, or have won awards. The key is each proposal's ability to innovate and expand the boundaries of photography.
How to participate?
Registration is available through Picter. Participation is simple and takes no more than ten minutes:
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Go to Picter.com.
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Create an account and complete your personal information.
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Each person may submit more than one project, but each must be submitted as a separate application.
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Pay the registration fee: €20 per project.
That's all! Submit your work and be part of the transformation of photography. We look forward to hearing about your project and discovering the future of photography with you.
Benefits and Commitments
Benefits
Selected artists will receive €800 in cash and in-kind support as detailed below:
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Financial support of €350 for production, transport, or installation of the work.*
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One free festival ticket, or a full pass if they lead a workshop (estimated at €200).
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Official merchandise (estimated at €40) and lunches during the event (estimated at €50).
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€150 in courses at Ágora, School of Experimentation.
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Participation in an international conference on experimental exhibitions.
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Priority access to official accommodation in Barcelona.
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Promotion of their projects through the festival’s channels, reaching a community of over 60,000 followers.
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Visibility before influential festival directors and curators on the international scene.
*To do the payment, we require an invoice in your name. As you can see on our transparency page, at our festival, 94 people receive financial compensation (50 artists, 14 staff members, and 30 volunteers) for a total of 232 people who pay to participate.
Participation Commitments
Selected artists must be in Barcelona to carry out the installation of their exhibition and remain in the city until the festival closes. If they cannot personally attend the installation, they must ensure the work is in Barcelona along with a clear installation plan during the first week of June 2026, so the festival’s technical team can carry it out.
In all cases, selected artists must be present during the festival dates (July 21–26, 2026), taking part in the opening and the scheduled activities. The technical team will support the installation and deinstallation processes, although final responsibility will always rest with the artist.
Once participation is confirmed, a contract requiring signature will be sent, detailing the conditions outlined here, along with aspects related to payment and the assignment of image and intellectual property rights.
Registration for the call is final: submitted documents cannot be modified, and the fee paid will not be refunded under any circumstances.
Beyond the exhibitions, artists are encouraged to propose workshops and conferences. The festival may also invite them to deliver these, reinforcing the spirit of exchange and collective learning that characterises the Experimental Photo Festival.
Please note that works presented will not be for sale during the festival.
The selection results will be communicated individually by email starting on December 17.
Do you dare to apply for other calls?
ARTISTS
Participate in the open call for artists to give workshops and conferences. It's a unique opportunity to share your work in a hands-on way with all the other festival participants and artists!
RESIDENCY
INTERNATIONAL
of Experimentation
Join the International Experimentation Residency . A unique opportunity to develop projects, explore new processes, and interact with artists from around the world in a creative, collaborative, and inspiring environment dedicated to experimental photography.
with the collaboration of
Thanks for sending your proposal!
General conditions
Registration in this call entails automatic acceptance of the following rules:
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The artists give the Experimentalphotofestival Association the non-exclusive right to distribute and reproduce the photographs sent digitally (always indicating the name of the photographer and the title of the work) for promotion (for example: newsletters, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, the festival websites, Ágora, IEFC, Centro Cívico Pati Llimona, and the galleries where the exhibitions are held), for exhibition, educational and commercial purposes. No royalties or compensation will be paid for these purposes. The photographer retains all copyright and ownership rights in the works. However, please also note that third parties such as educational institutions, journalists, search engines or individuals may download, save, store or archive images from our website with or without our knowledge. The Experimentalphotofestival Association will have no control over such downloading and subsequent use and therefore cannot accept responsibility for such use. The artists assume and accept all legal and financial responsibility for any infringement of the privacy, property or copyright rights of others, caused by the creation or presentation of their work in public.
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The artists assign their image rights to the Experimentalphotofestival Association and it does not have the power to assign them to third parties without express consent. By registering, they authorize it to capture, reproduce and disseminate the images of the festival where their person is in still image or video format without geographical or temporal limitation and free of charge.
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The Experimentalphotofestival Association reserves the right to exclude from the festival those dossiers and artists who violate the general conditions of participation or who violate our values, copyright, and human or privacy rights.
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The Experimentalphotofestival Association is the organizer of the Experimental Photo Festival and the Ágora, School of Experimentation, which means that the assignment of rights to the association automatically allows its use by both events.
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The Experimentalphotofestival Association reserves the right to make changes to the program until the last moment.