One of the biggest American photography exhibitions, the FotoFocus Biennial, has announced its 2026 lineup with 74 exhibitions taking place across 65 venues starting from 30th September. Showcasing photography and lens-based art, this huge event is a great opportunity to gain inspiration for your photography and discover different styles and approaches.
Looking at other photographers’ work, not just the subject and technique used, but the presentation, size and positioning of the work tells a much broader story compared to just viewing images, say, only on Instagram or on a website. Photographs were destined to be printed, handled, viewed and interacted with.
Among the locations are galleries, museums, libraries, universities, and even hotels, but some will be set up outdoors in parks and other public spaces in Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky. Nine new venues are added to the repertoire with ArtsConnect, Cincinnati Art Club, Delhi Event Center, FotoFocus Center, Miami University: Hiestand Galleries, Here and Now, MOTR Pub, Oxford Community Arts Center and Swell Art Cafe.
The new headquarters for lens based art in Cincinnatti, the Foto Focus Center bares the name of the organisers in Cincinnati where the opening events will take place between the 30th September- 3 October. Foto Focus is a
This year’s theme, The Long View, refers to a broader perspective that encompasses not just physical distance and duration but also the distant past and future. It also references photography as it is something that you view long after the moment has passed. Simultaneously, it brings to mind telephoto lenses that allow you to see into the distance.
Photography not only documents history but can also help us today explore how our lived or distant history affects our day-to-day life and how our future might look. The Long View considers “photography as a metaphor for the attempt to grasp one’s place within the durational sweep of history. The Long View acknowledges the semiquincentennial of the United States (250th anniversary of its foundation) and encourages a posture of reflection in regard to the country’s history, its past, present and future.”
As FotoFocus Executive Director, Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth explains, “Some exhibitions have historical roots while others embrace futurism, using the lens as a tool to speculate what is on the horizon, while still others remain rooted in the present, addressing ideology, politics and culture in America and around the world.”
Featured Exhibitions
Trevor Paglen: the most merciful thing in the world
FotoFocus Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
- From October 1, 2026 – January 23, 2027
- 228 E Liberty St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
- Open Thursday to Saturday 11am – 6pm
Trevor Paglen showcases photography, video and sculpture in this body of work encompassing two decades. Headlining the Binnnial with his image of a woman in a blue scarf over her head and letters marking parts of her face, Trevor Paglen’s image highlights what remains unseen within systems of surveillance or military power and how our modern interactions with technology like facial recognition, AI-generated images and alternate reality games challenge our perception of the world.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Compressed Tenses
Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery
- From September 25, 2026 – January 3, 2027
- 650 Walnut St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
- Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 5:30pm, Sunday 12-5pm
Compressed Tenses showcases Sepuya’s physical collage practice, which began during a 2018 residency. By tearing and rearranging laser-printed fragments, Sepuya creates analogue compositions that explore the history of homoerotic imagery alongside modern narratives of queerness, Blackness, and the artistic gaze.
Natural Fictions
The Carnegie
- From September 30, 2026 – March 6, 2027
- 1028 Scott St, Covington, KY 41011, United States
- Open Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 12-5pm
Featuring work by Joshua Berg, Heesoo Kwon, Phillip Maisel, Sean McFarland, Mareiwa Miller, Ruby Que and Lydia Smith, this group exhibition features seven artists who use photography to disrupt conventional reality, linearity, and perspective. By blending science with spirituality and playing with scale, material, and time, the artists construct uncanny environments and cosmic, geological narratives that challenge viewers to rethink the worlds they inhabit and imagine.
Nancy Rexroth: Secrets of My Power
Cincinnati Art Museum
- From October 1, 2026 – January 3, 2027
- 953 Eden Park Dr, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
- Open Tuesday to Sunday 11am – 5pm, Thursday until 8pm
Marking the public debut of the Nancy Rexroth Collection at the Cincinnati Art Museum, this exhibition offers an unprecedented look into five decades of the artist’s defiant vision. The show features nearly 150 artworks, documents, and personal artefacts that contextualise Rexroth’s life and her influential 1977 photo book, IOWA, which was captured using a simple plastic camera.
In the Interest of Time
Contemporary Arts Center
- From October 2, 2026 – February 7, 2027
- 44 E. 6th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
- Open Wednesday 10am-5pm, Thursday, Friday 10am – 7pm, Weekends 10am – 4pm
In the Interest of Time was developed through a FotoFocus open call. The final selection features works by Elijah Howe, Julie Renée Jones, Robyn Moore, Osamu James Nakagawa, Jordanne Renner, Joseph Vitone, and Lynn Whitney, whose diverse photographic practices all uniquely engage with the concept of time.
Widline Cadet: Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)
Contemporary Arts Center
- From October 2, 2026–February 7, 2027
- 44 E. 6th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
- Open Wednesday 10am-5pm, Thursday, Friday 10am – 7pm, Weekends 10am – 4pm
Presented at the Contemporary Arts Center this multimedia exhibition examines Black diasporic life and the artist’s childhood immigration from Haiti. Faced with limited access to her family abroad, Cadet uses herself and other Black women as stand-ins to create an archive of absence and presence, blending photography, video, and photo-sculpture hybrids.
Lead image: Left: Trevor Paglen, KEYHOLE 12-3 (IMPROVED CRYSTAL) Optical Reconnaissance Satellite Near Scorpio (USA 129), 2007. © Trevor Paglen. Courtesy of The Artist and Fellowship, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, and Pace Gallery, New York. Right: Trevor Paglen, It Began as a Military Experiment (detail), 2017. © Trevor Paglen. Courtesy of The Artist and Fellowship. Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, and Pace Gallery, New York)
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