Hyderabad: The Indian Photo Festival 11th edition will open in Hyderabad on 20 November 2025 and continue until 4 January 2026. It will run at the State Art Gallery in Madhapur and at partner venues across the city. Organised by Light Craft Foundation, the festival will showcase global photography that explored conflict, identity, memory and the environment. Moreover, the programme followed an anonymous selection process that drew 820 submissions from 50 countries.
Jurors Nicole Tung, Gurinder Osan, Sukruti Anah Staneley and Madhavan Pillai carried out the final selections. As a result, their choices brought work from Brazil, Iran, South Korea, Belgium, the UK, Costa Rica and India. The festival will feature solo shows, group exhibitions, talks, workshops and documentary screenings. In addition, it will highlight fine art, documentary narratives, landscape work and long-form visual journalism.
Major showcases at the Indian Photo Festival 11th edition
The exhibition list included Alessandro Celante’s study of masks and perception. It also featured Rohit Chawla’s work on survival. Furthermore, Seunggu Kim’s slow-photography series examined leisure and collective life. Additional displays included M. Palani Kumar’s study of pollution in Ennore and Giles Clarke’s report from Sudan’s civil conflict. Exhibitions by Nazanin Alipour Jeddi, Glorianna Ximendaz, Marylise Vigneau, Elke Scholiers and Hridya Sadanand added global depth. Likewise, curators mounted group shows by Panos Pictures, Press Trust of India, APF and IPF’s portrait finalists.
The public programme listed talks by Newsha Tavakolian, Julie Hau, Divya Cowasji, Muriel Pénicaud, Sudeep Chatterjee, Aliona Kardash, Vinod Venkapalli and Srikanth Mannepuri. The launch will take place on 20 November at the State Art Gallery. After the opening, visitors can join a darkroom workshop, film screenings and panels on publishing and visual narratives. Additionally, a separate exhibition by Aliona Kardash will open on 5 December at Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad.
Festival partners included National Geographic, Panos Pictures, Press Trust of India, Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad, Rotterdam Photo, Alliance Française Hyderabad and L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad. The Government of Telangana and the Department of Tourism supported the event. Moreover, the festival planned analogue workshops, gum bichromate and cyanotype sessions, portfolio reviews with National Geographic editors and additional screenings.