Melbourne's PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography opens

Australia’s self-proclaimed 'largest photography biennale' has opened in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography runs until 22 May. The festival program features 123 local and international artists and photographers, celebrated across 90 exhibitions, including 24 projects specially commissioned for the 2022 festival. 

Now in its second edition, the festival was first created to bring a global celebration of photography, art and ideas to Australian audiences. The theme for PHOTO 2022 is ‘Being Human’, and this year’s Festival will see a number of large-scale outdoor installations on display across Melbourne, as well as a series of gallery events, exhibitions and education programs explore the concept of the human condition with reference to ideas about society, self, mortality, nature and history. 

With exploration as a key idea underpinning the festival program, the PHOTO 2022 events and venues are split across five festival precincts, namely: Town Hall Precinct, Parliament Precinct, River Precinct, State Library Precinct and Fitzroy/ Collingwood. There are also a number of additional venues across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria taking part in this year’s photo biennale. 

As part of this year’s festival, PHOTO 2022 will feature the works of two icons of photography: Helmut Newton and Cindy Sherman.

Newton, one of the world’s most prominent fashion photographers, will be celebrated in an exhibition titled HELMUT NEWTOWN: In Focus presented by the Jewish Museum of Australia in partnership with the Helmut Newtown Foundation.

The work of American artist Cindy Sherman will be honoured with a large-scale artwork set to be installed on the facade of a building at Fed Square. 

Other festival highlights include: Atong Atem’s Surat, an homage to family photos and the characters that comprise a family; Christian Thompson AO’s Being Human Human Being, a showcase of his new Flower Wall series paired with an immersive soundscape at the courtyard of the Old Melbourne Gaol; and Vasantha Yogananthan’s After Life, an exploration of travelling to the afterlife via the Dussehra festival in India. 

PHOTO 2022 has free entry, excluding the HELMUT NEWTOWN: In Focus exhibition. The headline talks program PHOTO Live and the Photobook Weekend are also free. Precinct and Cycle Tours of the festival will set you back $10. 

To find out more about tickets and to see the full program, you can visit the PHOTO 2022 website here.