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
2024-09-26 to 2024-11-17
Coastal Arts League
300 Main St, Zaballa Square, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
Event is Free
Hours: Mon 12:00 PM-5:00 PM; Thu - Sun 12:00 PM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-16 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Photography West Gallery
Dolores Street, 1 SE of Ocean Ave, Carmel, CA 93921
Event is Free
For more information:
website: www.photographywest.com
Please join us for Christopher Burkett’s annual artist reception at the gallery on Saturday, November 9th, from 3-5pm, featuring an exhibition of his handcrafted Cibachromes.
Event Type: SHOW
2024-10-05 to 2024-11-17
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:
Please join us for a rare and special exhibition of works by renowned photographer Daido Moriyama. The Center for Photographic Art is honored to present 33 images from this master photographer spanning five decades, 1966 - 2007. From his early series such as Japan: A Photo Theater and Karyūdo (A Hunter) to more recent projects and prints, we'll get to view the progression of this legendary artist's work. A selection of Moriyama's books will also be on view. On opening night we have the pleasure of hearing Asako Shimazaki, one of Moriyama's students, speak about his long career and his influence. Not to be missed!
Daido Moriyama was born in 1938 in Ikeda City, Osaka, Japan. Switching from designer to photographer, he worked as an assistant for Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe, before embarking on his career as a freelance photographer in 1964. For series such as “Japan: A Photo Theater,” which appeared in Camera Mainichi in 1967, he received the New Artist Award from the Japan Photo-Critics Association.
Opening reception: October 5, 4:00 - 6:00pm
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-23 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Transmission Gallery
770 West Grand Ave. Suite A, cross street West St., Oakland, CA 94612
Event is Free
For more information:
Exhibit by the Bay Area Photographers Collective.
Meet the artists: Dec 7 and Jan 11 1-4pm.
On view Nov 21, 2024 – Jan 11, 2025.
The curators write about the show:
"Perusing the work of the Bay Area Photographers Collective we were inspired by the remarkable emotional range of the nighttime images. Hovering on the periphery, in the shadows, or boldly exploring an illuminated twilight adventure, the selections for Night Vision invite a complex and layered experience for the viewer."
Event Type: CALL FOR ENTRIES
2024-09-01 to 2024-11-17 11:59 PM
Santa Cruz Art League
526 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
SCAL members one entry $35.00, Non-members one entry $40.00, Each additional entry $10.00
For more information:
We selected this theme to inspire you to submit photographs that capture the magic of motion in your everyday lives. Movement, with its ever-changing nature, offers a beautiful canvas for you to explore and share your unique perspectives.
Photography is such a special art form because it lets us hold onto those fleeting moments that might otherwise pass us by. This theme invites you to look closely at the different ways movement happens around you, whether it’s the hustle and bustle of a busy city, the peaceful flow of a river, or the gentle swaying of a tree in the breeze. We welcome photos that show both the lively and the calm, the spontaneous and the carefully planned.
Movement is something we all experience, but it is different for each of us. By exploring this theme, you will have the opportunity to show the rhythm and energy of life as you see it. Our exhibition aims to celebrate the many ways movement shapes our world and our experiences. We encourage photographers of all levels to share their work, which will inspire thought, curiosity, and creativity. By participating, you’ll help create a collective story that captures the beauty of moments in motion throughout our Santa Cruz County and beyond.
Event Type: SHOW
2024-09-21 to 2024-11-16
Rena Bransten Gallery
1275 Minnesota St., Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA 94107
Event is Free
Hours: Tue - Sat 11:00 AM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
Works Never Before Exhibited in San Francisco: The Rudest, The Hardest to Sell, The Just Plain Wrong.
A hit parade of hell, Waters’ photographic prints and sculptures use appropriated movie imagery that both mocks and embraces the extremes of the art world and show business all in one whoop of demented joy. Failed masculinity, anal trauma, Catholic rebellion, critical revenge, capital punishment, even children acting out a G-rated video version of the X-rated film “Pink Flamingos”. It’s all here, on the walls, on the floor like leftover storyboards and damaged movie props abandoned by a B-list publicist who fled the industry. Waters considers this a group exhibition with only one artist: himself.
Event Type: ONLINE ARTIST TALK
2024-11-21 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, KCI Gallery Bldg 4000, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
For more information:
Click HERE to register to join by Zoom
Fauxliage captures the proliferation of disguised cell phone towers across the American West. By attempting to conceal an unsightly yet essential technology of the modern world, the landscape is now adorned with a quirky and unsettling mosaic of masquerading palms, conifers, flagpoles, crosses, and more. These structures are simulacra. They are water towers that hold no water, windmills that provide no power, and trees that provide no oxygen; yet they all provide five bars of service.
Beneath their often-whimsical camouflage lies a more clandestine narrative of surveillance capitalism, where big tech and government entities commodify our every digital interaction. The environmental repercussions are equally concerning: the aging faux trees shed plastic needles, adding to the ecological toll of our digital age. What began as an attempt to reduce visual pollution is now creating plastic pollution.
Traversing ten western states to document this architectural phenomenon, Fauxliage examines technology's dual role as a disruptor and unifier within the landscape. The disguised towers provoke a crucial question: How much ersatz landscape and manufactured nature are we willing to accept for connectivity?
As fifth-generation (5G) technology advances, these elaborate towers may become architectural relics of the past, and fade into obscurity like drive-up photo kiosks, phone booths, newsstands, and drive-in movie theaters. Coincidentally, those functionalities are now seamlessly integrated into our handheld devices — a poignant reminder of the evolution of the technological landscape.
Event Type: ONLINE ARTIST TALK
2024-11-14 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, Gallery 6100, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
For more information:
Visit jchenphotographs.com to read Jessica's biography and more about her work.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2024-10-04 to 2024-11-17
East Bay Photo Collective
312 8th St, Oakland Photo Workshop, Oakland, CA 94607-4210
General Admission $55.00
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
EDITING A PHOTO STORY NARRATIVE - SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17th - 3-6PM - HELD AT OAKLAND PHOTO WORKSHOP BY DAVID BARREDA Everybody needs an editor, but until you have one you need to be your own best editor! In this one day workshop, an experienced photo editor will guide you through the basics of photo story and project editing. You’ll learn how to build narrative, visually-led stories from an existing body of work and gain a deeper understanding of the narrative editing process to apply to your own projects.
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-16 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Bolinas Museum
48 Wharf Road, Bolinas, CA 94924
Event is Free
For more information:
Berkeley-based photographer Jenny Sampson has spent many years photographing the Bay Area skater community. Skaters have long been seen as rebellious, marked by their fashion, the noise they make rolling down the streets, and their unconventional use of urban spaces.
This non-conformist image reflects the depth and determination of skate culture, where skaters fall, rise, and persevere with resilience. Working with the 173-year-old photographic process of wet collodion or tintype, Sampson captures the beauty and spirit of the thoroughly contemporary culture of skating.
Creating these intimate portraits requires time, interaction, and collaboration, mirroring the inclusive nature of skater culture. Each portrait reveals a unique honesty, offering a glimpse into the skater or sitter’s true character.
3:00 pm talk, 4:00 – 5:00 pm reception.
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-23 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:
On view: November 23 - December 29, 2024
The Center for Photographic Art (CPA) is excited to announce the 2024 International Juried Exhibition with over $5,000 in awards! Forty-five juror-selected photographs will be exhibited from November 23, 2024 through December 29, 2024 in our historic gallery in Carmel, California, and vie for eight cash awards totaling more than $5,000. These photographs will also be featured in an online gallery on the CPA website along with an additional forty-five juror selected images.
2024 IJE Juror CPA is pleased to announce this year’s International Juried Exhibition juror: Elizabeth Avedon. Elizabeth Avedon is an independent curator, and photography book and exhibition designer. She is a sought after consultant for photographers; editing, sequencing, and advising towards their exhibition, book, and portfolio projects. Former Director of Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe; Creative Director for The Gere Foundation; Art Director for Polo Ralph Lauren national advertising; and Photo Editor for Ralph Lauren Media’s RL Magazine, Elizabeth has received awards and recognition for her curatorial work, exhibition design and publishing projects, including the retrospective exhibition and book "Avedon: 1949-1979" for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and High Museum, Atlanta; "Avedon: In the American West" for the Amon Carter Museum, Corcoran Gallery, and Art Institute of Chicago. Also from the Leica Gallery, New York; the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; and for the Estate of Diane Arbus, among others. She is an instructor in the prestigious Masters in Digital Photography program at the School of Visual Arts, New York and proud to have received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Elizabeth brings a deep understanding of photography and a broad appreciation of diverse photographic styles, genres and mediums to CPA's 2024 International Juried Exhibition.
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-16 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Euqinom gallery
49 Geary Street, Suite 417, San Francisco, CA 94108
Event is Free
For more information:
EUQINOM Gallery is delighted to present Peripheral Gestures, its second solo exhibition with Chilean-born, Los Angeles-based artist Rodrigo Valenzuela. The exhibition showcases Valenzuela’s newest works, including his Garabatos photographic series, Muecas white ceramic sculptures, and a selection from his New Land paintings, developed during a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
In Peripheral Gestures, Valenzuela continues his exploration of protest, labor, and the universal bodily language of underground movements. His black-and-white Garabatos series draws inspiration from his research into Latin American subcultures and music scene during the dictatorship years, in the aftermath of Operation Condor, a CIA lead initiative aimed to neutralize socialist agendas in South America by creating a web of cooperation among military regimes. Utilizing archival images, magazines, and films, Valenzuela isolates bodily gestures, transforming these documentary scenes into a unique visual language. By recreating and photographing these movements as abstract sculptures, he conjures a haunting reflection on collective memory and the visceral expression of suppressed voices.
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-14 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Leica Store and Gallery
463 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
Event is Free
For more information:
The Gallery at Leica Store San Francisco is honored to present About Face, a journey into the soul of portraiture. In this group exhibition, 23 artists capture the delicate space between presence and absence, revealing the unspoken dialogue that unfolds in the quiet exchange of a glance.
About Face explores the profound nature of the human gaze—an ordinary moment made extraordinary through the lens of Leica photographers. Each portrait, like a fleeting breath, holds stillness and intensity, bearing witness to the lives lived in the span of a single frame. Here, faces tell stories beyond words, where the personal becomes universal, and the subject invites us to pause, reflect, and see them in their essence.
In this collection, time stretches, emotions deepen, and cultural landscapes emerge. The photographers transform everyday encounters into moments of truth, where vulnerability and strength coexist, and the camera becomes a tool for understanding, empathy, and revelation.
About Face is an invitation to reflect on the intimacy of portraiture and the quiet power it holds in connecting us to one another, beyond the surface.
Event Type: SHOW
2024-10-26 to 2024-11-17
East Bay Photo Collective
312 8th St, Oakland Photo Workshop, Oakland, CA 94607-4210
Event is Free
Hours: Fri - Sun 12:00 PM-7:00 PM;
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
“Refractions; a Lenticular Exhibition” is a dynamic group exhibition featuring femme and queer artists who explore the boundaries of mixed media and experimental photography through lenticular techniques. This showcase not only delves into the scientific intricacies of lenticular art but also invites viewers to contemplate the philosophical dimensions of change and alternative perspectives in life.
The gallery is open Fridays and Saturdays 12-6pm, Sundays 12-3pm. Located at 312 8th St., Oakland CA.
Closing reception and artist Q&A November 1st 6-9PM.
Featuring the work of: Indie Courtney Jamie Fletcher Janett Perez Julie Bernadeth Leeann Huang Lejin Fan Sakara Birdsong Samantha Ash-craft Ziru Mo
Event Type: OPENING
2024-11-14 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Mission Bowling Club
3176 17th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Event is Free
For more information:
Rusty Weston’s environmental-style portraits of people who live or work in the San Francisco Mission District will be exhibited in a solo show called de la Misión at the Mission Bowling Club.
Join us for the final in-person reception of the year, celebrating our AIN member-only curated shows! Meet the exhibiting artists, connect with fellow artists, art supporters, and ArtLovers, and enjoy drinks, bites, and bowling as we close out our 50th SFOS anniversary in style.
RSVP Required! Click HERE to reserve your spot
Also on view is Landscapes: Real and Imagined Part 2.
Event Type: CALL FOR ENTRIES
2024-11-13 to 2024-11-20
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
General Admission $82.00
For more information:
Show of your work & talent as an Artist in the annual spring show at ImageCentral. Discuss all aspects of the decision making process including editing, print selection, matting, mounting, framing, signing, editions, pricing and more. Learn the logistics of executing an exhibit; show preparation, hanging work, representing self etc. This exhibition is open to all types of Visual Art.
Activity meeting dates
1 Mar 13, 2025 Thu6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 2 Mar 20, 2025 Thu6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 3 Mar 27, 2025 Thu6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Type: CLASS
2024-11-13 to 2024-11-20
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.
Activity meeting dates
Jan 7, 2025 - Jan 28, 2025 Tue6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2024-11-13 to 2024-11-20
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Residents $80.00, Non-residents $90.00
For more information:
Make photograms in our traditional darkroom—no camera needed! Bring in whatever objects you like to arrange on photographic paper for your image making adventure.
Activity meeting dates Feb 8, 2025 Sat 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Event Type: CLASS
2024-11-13 to 2024-11-20
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Residents $180.00, Non-residents $190.00
For more information:
n introductory class for individuals interested in traditional analog black-and-white process. Class will cover how to process black-and-white film and make black & white prints in our traditional darkroom! A $20 material fee will be due on the first class for students needing film and paper. (Limited: 35mm film cameras available for loan during class upon request.)
Activity meeting dates Jan 8, 2025 - Jan 29, 2025 Wed 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: CLASS
2024-11-13 to 2024-11-20
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
Residents $200.00, Non-residents $210.00
For more information:
In this class, you will learn lighting for portraiture, as well as posing, light set up, starting with one light up to a five light set up. Some lighting scenarios will be demonstrated with a live model!
Activity meeting dates Feb 4, 2025 - Feb 25, 2025 Tue 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: PHOTO WALK
2024-11-23 1:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Random Posts
900 Palm Drive, Ione, CA 95640
One Session $40.00, Two Sessions $70.00
For more information:
website: https://prestoncastle.org/events/photographers-day/
On November 23rd, we will host two sessions for photographers in advance of a February 15th submissions deadline for an exhibit that will take place April 5th through August 19th inside the castle itself. Together, we will transform Preston Castle, a historic reformatory for wards of the state, into a museum, bringing light to a dark place. We hope to see you there!
What’s included Nov 23rd, access to the non-restricted areas of the Castle on the first floor, second floor, basement and grounds for your photo opportunities.
Itinerary Session 1: 1:30-3:30pm Session 2: 3:45-5:45pm **Sunset is at 4:45 PM on November 23.
Submit 3 images for $35 and additional images for $5 each up to 6 total to PrestonCastlePhotoExhibit2025@gmail.com by February 15, 2025, for inclusion in the photo art exhibit.
Event Type: ARTIST TALK
2024-11-20 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
California College of the Arts
145 Hooper Street, Timken Hall, California College of the A, San Francisco, CA 94107
Event is Free
For more information:
Libby Black will present her work and be in conversation with Christopher McCall and Allie Haeusslein, Directors of Pier 24 Photography. They will discuss the project and publication Photo Book Photo List and the final exhibition at Pier 24 Photography, Turning the Page.
Following the presentation, Black and McCall will be signing copies of their book Photo Book Photo List.
This event is free and open to the public