PHOTO Australia to Close, PHOTO 2026 festival cancelled
PHOTO Australia, the organisation behind the popular Victorian PHOTO festival, has announced it will close and the 2026 edition of the photography festival will not go ahead.
Founded in 2018, PHOTO Australia staged three editions of its international photography festival in 2021, 2022 and 2024. The events brought together more than 400 artists and attracted more than 600,000 visitors to Melbourne and regional Victoria.
The festival presented large-scale public installations, gallery shows, and events exploring photography’s role in contemporary culture.
In 2022, PHOTO Australia received the Melbourne Award for Arts and Events, recognising its contribution to the city’s cultural calendar in collaboration with more than 50 partner organisations.
The festival also achieved international recognition with its exhibition On Country: Photography from Australia, presented at the Rencontres d’Arles festival in France.
In a statement on the PHOTO Australia website, the board described its efforts as presenting a 'bold vision: to bring photography into public life through free and accessible programming.'
'With large-scale outdoor exhibitions, dynamic public events and international collaborations, the organisation redefined photography’s role in Australia’s cultural imagination,' the statement said.
PHOTO Australia was led by founder and Artistic Director Elias Redstone, alongside a 'small but visionary team,' the statement said.
In the statement, the organisation described the closure of as highlighting the broader challenges currently facing the Australian creative sector.
'The rising costs associated with delivering large-scale outdoor exhibitions, combined with a constrained funding environment, have made PHOTO Australia’s model increasingly unsustainable,' the statement said.
'While the organisation is coming to a close, its legacy lives on in the work it inspired, the stories it elevated and the cultural conversations it helped shape.'
Australian Photography and Capture reached out to PHOTO Australia for comment, but hadn't heard back at press time.