This is your source for information on San Francisco Bay Area exhibitions, talks, artist receptions, and workshops for people interested in photography. Our focus is on events that are free or are sponsored by non-profit/educational organizations.
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Meanwhile ... last chance to see these events! They will end within the next 2 weeks:
Event Type: SHOW
2025-01-24 to 2025-05-18
Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
705 Front Street, Solari Gallery 2nd Floor, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Event is Free
Hours: Thu - Sun 12:00 PM-6:00 PM;
For more information:
An exhibition that pays tribute to the world of travel photography, community, and adventure, where architecture, design, and aesthetics converge in stunning symmetry reminiscent of the iconic filmmaker's visual style.
Produced in collaboration with brand and social media community Accidentally Wes Anderson (AWA), this exhibition takes guests on a visual journey to the most beautiful, idiosyncratic locations around the globe—including Santa Cruz County—all seemingly plucked from the whimsical world of filmmaker Wes Anderson.
From impossibly grand hotels and chateaus to idyllic lighthouses, cable cars, and train carriages, AWA explores the filmmaker’s distinct aesthetic, whether a perfectly symmetrical landscape or a European city brimming with technicolor structures. The MAH exhibition, which will include a selection of community-sourced images of quirky places and locales in Central Coast California, is also presented as homage to the centennial celebration of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Giant Dipper roller coaster, an Anderson-esque vintage wooden coaster that debuted in 1924.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-04-12 to 2025-05-10
Gray Loft Gallery
2889 Ford Street, Oakland, CA 94601
Event is Free
Hours: Fri 12:00 AM-12:00 AM; Sat 1:00 PM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
We are excited to announce this visually stunning photo show dedicated to exploring the beauty, emotion, and symbolism of the various dimensions of purple through the lens of the camera.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-05-10 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Gray Loft Gallery
2889 Ford Street, Oakland, CA 94601
Event is Free
For more information:
We are excited to announce this visually stunning photo show dedicated to exploring the beauty, emotion, and symbolism of the various dimensions of purple through the lens of the camera.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-03-22 to 2025-05-04
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
282 High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
Event is Free
Hours: Tue - Sun 10:00 AM-4:00 PM;
For more information:
Leftward Bound is our first Photography Exhibition. The theme reflects the challenges in the world around us and urges us to see things from our own unique perspective.
Event Type: CLASS
2025-02-19 to 2025-05-06
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Non-Resident $190.00, Resident $180.00
For more information:
Learn essential manual camera functions like F/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO in this hands-on class. Requires an SLR, rangefinder, or mirrorless camera, either film or digital.
Activity meeting dates: Four sessions, May 6, 2025 - May 27, 2025, Tue 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: FUND RAISER
2025-05-08 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
First Exposures
SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA 94103-4906
Event is Free
For more information:
Looking Forward Giving Back, our annual art auction, celebrating the work of our amazing youth photographers, their mentors, and our community of artists. We'll also have a special guest MC from the art world + live music + food + wine + much more!
Event Type: SHOW
2025-02-20 to 2025-05-05
Modernism West
2534 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Event is Free
Hours: Sun - Thu 5:00 PM-9:30 PM; Fri - Sat 5:00 PM-10:00 PM;
For more information:
The photographs in Male Fiction seem vaguely familiar. The vignettes, styled and lit cinematically, appear to be part of a longer but forgotten dramatic narrative, fragments missing a beginning and an ending. Some scenes recall the suspense and ominous unpredictability in the masterpieces of Alfred Hitchcock, others the masculine libertinage in French new wave cinema. In still others, we recognize the bravado and furtive gazes of Bond-like agents and, in some, the arresting presentations in fashion advertising.
However, there is ambiguity about the images of the men themselves. While acknowledging the familiar tropes and stereotypes of stoically, inexpressive manhood, the portraits in Male Fiction explore the complexities beneath the surface associated with male archetypes and issues related to masculinity, sexual identity, and emotion. A complex portrayal deeply ingrained in our collective memory and popular culture.
In Male Fiction, Lindsay McCrum creates nuanced and unexpected portraits of male beauty in contemporary settings. She uses the conventions of movie making and advertising as backdrops and vehicles for her pieces of fiction, combining lighting, costuming, staging, and camera placement to create the dramatic look of these images.
Yet McCrum doesn’t replicate actual movie scenes. Her subjects are not photographed on constructed sets but rather on location in and around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Bay Area. Inspired by Hitchcock, she makes strong visual use of familiar—and famous—landmarks in San Francisco: The Legion of Honor, Aquatic Park, and the Headlands.
Also, with this work, McCrum pays homage to the Eastern European graphic artists who shaped the revolutionary poster art of the French New Wave. With bold, electrifying colors and dynamic compositions, she creates a fusion of cinematic allure and graphic influences. Trained as a painter, Lindsay McCrum’s photographs incorporate principles of light, form, and gesture. But as a fine art photographer, she understands that the stories conveyed in these images lie beneath the surface. The man in the white dinner jacket, martini in hand; the man in sunglasses staring blankly out to sea; the man in the rearview mirror with his furtive gaze all embrace elements of strength, surprise, quiet dignity, love, and even arrogance. Inwardly, these heroes exhibit the emotional range of everyman. Their outward appearance is male fiction.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-03-29 to 2025-05-04
Center for Photographic Art
San Carlos at 9th Avenue, At the Sunset Center, Carmel, CA 93921
Event is Free
Hours: Wed - Fri 12:00 AM-12:00 AM; Sat - Sun 12:00 PM-4:00 PM;
For more information:
Opening reception: Saturday, March 29, 4:00 – 6:00pm Reception, walk-through, and awards with Juror Allie Haeusslein
Please join us as we celebrate the winning photographs from the 2025 Members' Juried Exhibition! Our juror selected 45 images for the gallery exhibition from over 2,400 entries submitted by photographers throughout the United States and abroad. 45 additional juror selections will be on view on our website starting March 29. A catalog of the gallery exhibition and online images will be available for purchase.
Congratulations to all the artists!
Event Type: CALL FOR ENTRIES
2025-03-01 to 2025-05-07 5:00 PM
Alameda County Fair
4501 Pleasanton Ave, Alameda County Fairgrounds, Pleasanton, CA 94666
Entry Fee $10.00
For more information:
email: exhibits@alamedacountyfair.com
website: annual.alamedacountyfair.com/pdf/exhibits/adult/Fine_Arts_Guide.pdf
Event Type: CLASS
2025-03-02 to 2025-05-06
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Resident $180.00, non resident $190.00
For more information:
Learn essential manual camera functions like F/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO in this hands-on class. Requires an SLR, rangefinder, or mirrorless camera, either film or digital.
May 6, 2025 - May 27, 2025 Tue 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: ARTIST TALK
2025-05-10 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Center for Photographic Art
San Carlos at 9th Avenue, Carpenter Hall, Sunset Center, Carmel, CA 93921
Event is Free
For more information:
The Center for Photographic Art is pleased to present the work of the 2024 CPA Artist Grant Recipients. Visit the gallery to see new photographs, installations, and mixed media pieces by grantees Debra Achen, Matthew Finley, Maria Isabel LeBlanc, and Katie Shapiro.
All four artists will be speaking about their projects prior to the opening reception in a special artist talk in Carpenter Hall at 3pm, so don't miss this opportunity to hear these fearless photographic artists talk about their processes and their journeys.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-05-10 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Center for Photographic Art
San Carlos at 9th Avenue, At the Sunset Center, Carmel, CA 93921
Event is Free
For more information:
The Center for Photographic Art is pleased to present the work of the 2024 CPA Artist Grant Recipients. Visit the gallery to see new photographs, installations, and mixed media pieces by grantees Debra Achen, Matthew Finley, Maria Isabel LeBlanc, and Katie Shapiro.
Event Type: CALL FOR ENTRIES
2025-03-20 to 2025-05-08
Harvey Milk Photography Center
50 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
Event is Free
For more information:
The 2025 San Francisco Photobook Fair will host over 30 tables of publishers and vendors selling and promoting photography books, magazines, and zine publications during a two-day weekend event hosted at the Harvey Milk Photo Center. The fair will take place October 18th, 11am-5pm and 19th, 10am-4pm, 2025 and will be open to the public for free.
The Harvey Milk Photo Center invites photobook publishers and artists to join the fair by applying to reserve a table for book displays and sales through our application.
Click Here to Download our application guidelines here to learn more about participating in the fair as a vendor.
Click HERE to submit a request to display
Deadline is May 8, 2025.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-03-21 to 2025-05-10
Small Work SF
1113 Connecticut Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
Event is Free
Hours:
For more information:
website: smallworkssf.com/
Balsamic Time features recent plant-developed gelatin silver fiber prints by Oakland-based artist, archivist, and historian Beatrice Thornton. Beatrice’s practice centers on using sustainable darkroom processes to develop film and make prints using homemade chemistry from foraged plants to communicate ideas about place with geometric arrangements of exposures on a single sheet of paper.
This installation at Small Works Projects through May 10th, includes a series of multi-image compositions made from 35mm gelatin silver film shot mostly while hiking along the California coast and in Mexico City. The works, or “balsamic moments,” climb across the gallery walls, intersecting to form diagonals and zig-zags.
Balsamic Time is an herbalist practice for harvesting plants when their healing properties are most potent. It is also the final waning crescent of the lunar chart and considered a period of introspection. To make each of her film and print developer brews, Beatrice brews a tea from foraged plants specific to the locations pictured but also mindful of the plants’ medicinal uses as they might relate to her imagery. For instance, mugwort, is commonly used to induce dreaming.
These works reconsider the frame — both as it appears on a roll of film and the rectilinear format in which photographs are typically printed in the darkroom — through her use of overlapping negative frames and circular masks to obscure and create alternative experiences of the same image through repetition. Her work also considers relationships to place through references to art and design history, poetry, and Buddhist and environmental concepts, mingled with biographical details.
Event Type: LECTURE
2025-05-04 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
PhotoAlliance
Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason, Landmark Building B, 2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123
General Admission $20.00, Students $.00
For more information:
PhotoAlliance is pleased to present a compelling lecture featuring artists Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey, with Ala Ebtekar. This evening of discussion and exploration will highlight their innovative approaches to contemporary photography and its evolving role in visual culture. Through presentations and dialogue, the artists will share their experimental methodologies, thematic inquiries, and unique storytelling perspectives.
Spanning diverse subjects from the intersections of myth and history to the delicate balance of nature and climate. Each artist challenges traditional photographic boundaries, expanding the medium’s expressive possibilities. Audiences will gain insight into the ways photography can bridge disciplines, evoke deeper narratives, and reimagine our understanding of the world.
Amanda Marchand is a Canadian, New York-based photographer and educator recognized for her experimental techniques and poetic engagement with themes of nature and climate change. Her work has garnered numerous accolades. Leah Sobsey is an artist and educator specializing in alternative photographic processes and natural history. She collaborates with Marchand, blending art and science to explore memory, materiality, and the environment. Ala Ebtekar is a visual artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, and installation. His work navigates the intersection of history, myth, and contemporary culture, often reflecting on identity and the cosmos.
This lecture offers a rare opportunity to engage with three artists pushing the boundaries of photography and visual storytelling. Don’t miss the chance to explore their distinct perspectives and groundbreaking approaches to the medium.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-04 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
PhotoAlliance
SF Camerawork, Fort Mason, Landmark Building A, 2 Marin, San Francisco, CA 94123
General Admission $425.00, SF Camerawork Members $400.00, students $375.00
For more information:
We’re thrilled to invite you to a one-day Anthotype Workshop, Sun-Fused Imagery, this May with Amanda Marchand @amandabethmarchand and Leah Sobsey @leahsobsey, inspired by the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson’s herbarium. This immersive, hands-on experience invites participants to connect with nature while exploring one of photography’s earliest processes, using plant-based emulsions and sunlight to create unique, organic prints.
Drawing from their own gardens, participants will gather leaves, petals, and botanicals to craft Anthotype printing paper. Under the guidance of Marchand and Sobsey, they will experiment with a range of techniques including pressing plants onto paper, extracting pigments using a mortar and pestle, and even hammering flowers onto fabric. Each revealing the delicate, fleeting beauty of this eco-conscious photographic process.
A ticket to attend the May 4th PhotoAlliance lecture at Fort Mason featuring Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey, with Ala Ebtekar is included with registration to this workshop.
Sun-Fused Imagery workshop is presented in partnership with SF Camerawork @sfcamerawork . Seats are limited.
Event Type: ONLINE ARTIST TALK
2025-05-07 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Center for Photographic Art
San Carlos at 9th Avenue, At the Sunset Center, Carmel, CA 93921
General Admission $10.00, CPA Members $.00
For more information:
Click HER to Register before April 9 at 6:00pm. You will receive a zoom link the evening before the talk.
Please join us for a special artist program with 2024 Paula Riff Award winner, Minwoo Lee. Minwoo will talk about his artist practice and share works from various projects. Not to be missed!
Event Type: ONLINE EXHIBIT
2025-04-04 to 2025-05-04
Scott Nichols Gallery
450 1st Street East, Suite G, Sonoma Square, Sonoma, CA 95476
Event is Free
For more information:
[]Click HERE to view the photos](https://www.scottnicholsgallery.com/artists/sebastiao-salgado/)
Event Type: ONLINE EXHIBIT
2025-04-04 to 2025-05-04
The Image Flow
328 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, San Anselmo, CA 94960
Event is Free
For more information:
Click HERE to see the winner and Honorable Mentions
The Image Flow is pleased to present the results of our March 2025 Photo of the Month Competition – Impact.
We evaluated a vast array of submissions based on composition, color, contrast, and overall quality. In addition to technical components, we considered the subject of interest, point of view, and whether the image tells a story aligned with our theme.
Under the theme of Impact, this monthly competition was open to photographers globally.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-04-04 to 2025-05-18
East Bay Photo Collective
312 8th St, Oakland Photo Workshop, Oakland, CA 94607-4210
General Admission $60.00
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
Sunday, May 18 3:00 PM - 6:30 PM.
Finding the transition from still photography to video downright daunting? This hands-on workshop will demystify some of the settings, tools and techniques that are fundamental to capturing video. You'll have to unlearn some things and abandon some tried and true photography tricks but you'll have fun and start shooting better footage right away! Participants must bring their video-enabled digital camera and 1 or 2 of their favorite lenses. Participants are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with putting their camera into full manual video mode prior to the workshop.
Event Type: EXPERIENCE
2025-05-04 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
East Bay Photo Collective
2318 Telegraph Avenue, Telegraph Beer Garden, Oakland, CA 94607-4210
Event is Free
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
Let’s get social! Join us at Telegraph Beer Garden on Sunday, May 4th, for a low-key gathering. This is a chance to mingle and meet some fellow photographers, and talk about photography, or whatever else strikes our fancy!
Free and open to everyone!
Event Type: SHOW
2025-04-04 to 2025-05-05
Center for Photographic Art
500 Del Mesa Drive, Del Mesa Carmel, Club Mesa Building, Carmel, CA 93923
Event is Free
Hours: Wed - Fri 12:00 AM-12:00 AM; Sat - Sun 12:00 PM-4:00 PM;
For more information:
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 8pm
The gallery at Del Mesa Carmel is proud to announce a new photographic exhibit titled, “The Wynn and Edna Bullock Legacy Show.” A special reception will be held Sunday, April 13, from 4:00 - 6:00pm.
The April 13 opening reception event will feature introductory remarks by Professor and fine art photographer Brian Taylor; a PowerPoint presentation on the Bullock Family Photography Archive; a Q&A panel with fine art photographers Martha Casanave and Chris Johnson; and a hearty congratulations to Barbara Bullock-Wilson who is manager of the Bullock Family Photography estate and whose 80th birthday is April 13. Come wish Barbara a happy birthday! Also, don't miss your chance to buy a copy of Wynn Bullock: The Enchanted Landscape. Only during the presentation on Sunday, new copies of this beautiful out-of-print collectible Aperture monograph will be available. And cover girl, Barbara Bullock Wilson sign your copy!
The photography exhibit and April 13th event is part of The Center for Photographic Art’s month-long PhotoCarmel 2025 Celebration of Photography on the Central Coast.
The illustrated talk on the lives and creative journeys of both Wynn and Edna Bullock will be a highlight of the April 13 event. The Bullocks were prominent Monterey Peninsula artists and active members of our Central Coast’s arts communities. Wynn Bullock was a co-founder of Friends of Photography as a Founding Trustee and as the first Exhibitions Chair. Edna Bullock served as a Board Member of The Center for Photographic Art and its predecessor organization from 1988-1993. Barbara Bullock-Wilson is Wynn and Edna Bullock’s older daughter and as a child, served as a model in one of Wynn Bullock’s iconic photographs, “Child in Forest, 1951” which was included in the famous Family of Man exhibition and catalog. She has enjoyed a lifelong engagement in her parents’ lives and work, including authoring several books and catalogs, curating exhibits and producing the PowerPoint presentation which she will personally deliver on April 13th. Don't miss this chance to learn more about the history of photography on the Central Coast!
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-10 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
San Francisco Arts Commission
401 Van Ness, SFAC Main Gallerry, San Francisco, CA 94102
Event is Free
For more information:
email: meg.shiffler@sfgov.org
website: www.sfartscommission.org/experience-art/exhibitions
Space is limited. Please email sfac.galleries@sfgov.org to reserve a spot.
Metaphors of Recent Times exhibiting artist Liz Steketee leads a photocollage workshop in which she introduces the use of mixed media to enhance the photographic image.
Metaphors of Recent Times: A Dialogue of the Personal, the Political and the Cultural is on view at San Fracnsico City Hall through June 20, 2025.
ABOUT LIZ Liz Steketee was born in Michigan and lives in Marin County California with her family. She has both a BFA (University of Michigan) and MFA (SFAI) in photography, digital media, and mixed media. For 11 years, after completing her master's degree, Liz taught on the San Francisco Art Institute photo faculty. She specialized in digital imaging, mixed media, and bookmaking. In 2017, Liz moved into a full time studio practice. Her work focuses the notions of photography and its role in memory, and identity. In her practice, Liz utilizes her photography in combination with textiles, sewing, sculpture, and installation.
Event Type: PHOTO WALK
2025-05-10 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
East Bay Photo Collective
2151 Ferry Point, Radium Runway, Alameda, CA 94501
Event is Free
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
We’re partnering with Radium Presents & West End Arts District for Focus Fest - Alameda’s first ever Climate Photography Festival.
Stop by our booth 12-5pm and join us at 4:30pm for a golden hour photo walk around The Radium Runway and Alameda Point.
Bring any camera you like, and be prepared to wander and shoot for up to an hour. The walk will end at Almanac Brewing where we can share our work over drinks.
EBPCO’s photo walks are a great way to connect with other photographers while exploring and photographing an interesting locations.
Our photo walks are free and OPEN TO ALL! Bring your camera(s) and your creativity. All cameras welcome, including phones.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-17 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
East Bay Photo Collective
2151 Ferry Point, Radium Runway, Alameda, CA 94501-4210
Event is Free
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
We’re partnering with Radium Presents & West End Arts District for In Plain Site - Alameda’s first ever Climate Photography Festival!
Explore the magic of lumen printing with Brenna Hansen of the East Bay Photo Collective in a two hour workshop which will focus on collaborating with the environment of the Alameda shoreline to create unique lumen prints.
Sign up is required and can be done HERE. Use code IPSPHOTO at checkout for 15% off before May 1st!
Lumen prints are photograms made with the sun! This camera-less photography process combines the photographic paper traditionally used in a darkroom setting with UV light and subject matter found outside. The results yielded from this open and experimental process are always surprising and dynamic. In this workshop, we’ll introduce this alternative analog process and experiment with a variety of materials found along the Alameda shoreline. Each participant will have the opportunity to create multiple unique lumen prints to take home, as well as learning DIY methods for digitally archiving their prints. No previous photography experience is required!
(recommended for ages 16 and over)
Event Type: OPENING
2025-05-08 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, KCI Gallery Bldg 4000, Lower level, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
For more information:
In collaboration, community college photography instructors Judy Walgren (Foothill College) and Lesley Louden (Cabrillo College) bring together the work of 30 Bay Area community college photography instructors to celebrate the diversity of our artistic practices and our commitment to photography education.
On view April 14 - June 25, 2025
Event Type: ONLINE ARTIST TALK
2025-05-15 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, KCI Gallery Bldg 4000, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
For more information:
Note: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
About the Artist
Carolyn Fong is a commercial and editorial photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in imagery that celebrates craft, community, and culture—often through the lens of food and drink. As an Asian American woman, immigrant, and business owner, she is deeply committed to representation and ensuring people feel seen and valued in visual media. Her lived experience informs her creative approach, emphasizing diversity and inclusion, particularly for BIPOC communities. Carolyn is dedicated to anti-racism and believes wholeheartedly that Black lives matter.
View Fong's work at carolynfongphotography.com