0
- 0
0
9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026
Curated by Mark Sealy
Experience photography as a space of responsibility, justice and humanity
The Triennial will be presented in venues city-wide across Hamburg
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Kunstverein in Hamburg, MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Museum of Work, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
Find directions, opening hours, accessibility and ticketing information on Triennial of Photograph Hamburg's website
The 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026, titled Alliance, Infinity, Love – in the Face of the Other, celebrates the creative potential of Alliance, Infinity, and Love, while calling for responsibility towards the Other.
The festival seeks to amplify a broad spectrum of photographic voices – established and emerging, visible and overlooked – that challenge dominant narratives, reclaim forgotten perspectives, and foster dialogue across social and cultural divides. According to Mark Sealy, photography is not regarded as a neutral recording device, but as an “intimate companion”: a medium for sharing the sacred, the vulnerable, and the deeply human.
Whilst acknowledging that photography has long been entangled with systems of control and oppression – shaping how people, histories, and cultures are seen and categorised – the festival honours its potential to evoke emotion, unsettle norms, and reveal what often remains unseen. In this spirit, the photographic image becomes a space of communion and critical reflection.
The conceptual point of departure of the 9th Triennial is the iconic song Nature Boy (1948), born from the artistic alliance – between African-American jazz musician Nat King Cole and eden ahbez, a proto-hippie and outsider poet. The song’s gentle yet radical message about love and humanity serves as both poetic and political reference for the 9th Triennial. Together with the critical writings of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas – whose central thesis lies in the recognition of the Other – this forms the creative and theoretical foundation for this festival edition.
Alliance, in this sense, speaks about the power of coexistance through the recognition of difference. The festival brings together diverse, divergent, and in-between voices in photography, creating a space to explore “the familiar and the unfamiliar” within cultural production – particularly in relation to rights and representation.
Infinity reflects the boundless possibilities of being human and the infinite capacity for acts of kindness. It gestures towards the infinite realities we inhabit and evokes the longing for a new visual paradigm – one that enables silenced voices to become an integral part of our common, interconnected reality, where restrictive borders dissolve and liberating futures can be imagined.
Love, as theorised by author bell hooks, is not understood as a romantic feeling but as a deliberate and politically effective act – an active force that moves against fear and alienation. Within this curatorial vision, love becomes a motor for change in photography: a departure from visual practices rooted in systems of oppression, towards photography as an act of community and cultural reparation.
Lee Shulman and Omar Victor Diop, The Anonymous Protect presents Being There, 2023
Mathew Thorne and Derik Lynch, Marungka tjalatjunu (dipped in Black), 2019-2023
Inuuteq Storch, Keepers of the Ocean, 2016-2022
Mario Cravo Neto, Odé, 1989
Mark Sealy has dedicated his career to questions of decolonisation, representation and cultural violence in photography. He is interested in the relationship between photography and social change, identity politics, race, and human rights.
He has been director of Autograph ABP (London) since 1991 and in his role as director has produced artist publications, curated exhibitions, and commissioned photographers and filmmakers worldwide. He holds a PHD in Photography and Cultural Violence from Durham University and is Professor of Rights and Representation, Photography, University of the Arts London.
His many curatorial projects include the recent exhibition Rotimi Fani-Kayode: Tranquillity of Communion at the Wexner Center for the Arts, USA and The Polygon Gallery, Toronto. He is the artistic director of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026. He co-curated The Unfinished Conversation / Encoding Decoding and Human Rights Human Wrongs, for Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto and the Photographers’ Gallery. He has published the books: Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Times; Photography: Race, Rights and Representation and A Lens on Liberation: Photography as Resistance.
Sealy has served as a photography jury member for World Press Photo, the Carmignac Gestion photojournalism award and the Sony World Photo award. He chaired the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book award in 2015 and the Hassleblad Photography Award in 2017. He has written for many international photography publications, including Foam Magazine, Aperture, and Next Level. In 2002, Sealy and professor Stuart Hall coauthored the critically acclaimed Different, which focuses on photography and identity politics.
Sealy has guest-lectured at institutions including the Royal College of Art and Tate Britain, Fabrica, and devised a global photography MA studies programme for Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He has been awarded the Hood Medal by the Royal Photographic Society and a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire award for Services to Photography.
Banner image: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Untitled [detail], 1987-88. © Rotimi Fani-Kayode. Courtesy of Autograph, London.
Exhibition preview: 1) Lee Shulman and Omar Victor Diop, The Anonymous Protect presents Being There, 2023. © and courtesy the artists. 2) Mathew Thorne and Derik Lynch, Marungka tjalatjunu (dipped in Black), 2019-2023. 3) Inuuteq Storch, Keepers of the Ocean, 2016-2022. © and courtesy the artists and Wilson Saplana Gallery. 4) Mario Cravo Neto, Odé, 1989. © the artist.
About the curator: 1) Mark Sealy. Photograph by Steve Pyke.
Join our newsletter and get the latest on Autograph’s exhibitions, events, open calls, digital content, books, prints and fundraising. Find out more.
Autograph is a space to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
Support our work
