Innovative Australian Photography Festival Announces Closure
PHOTO Australia, an ambitious photography festival that displayed large-scale prints in public spaces, has announced it is permanently closing.
PHOTO Australia was held in Melbourne in 2021, 2022, and 2024, featuring over 400 photographers and attracting over 600,000 visitors. Notable artists included Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Zanele Muholi, and Ryan McGinley.
The festival installed large prints around the city, coupling it with gallery shows and community events.
In a statement posted to the PHOTO Australia website, the organization trumpeted its achievements.
“PHOTO Australia set out with a bold vision: to bring photography into public life through free and accessible programming,” the statement reads.
“The closure of PHOTO Australia highlights 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.”
PetaPixel reached out to PHOTO Australia for further clarification, but did not hear back as of publication.
On his Instagram page, the founder and director of PHOTO Australia Elias Redstone says that it is “with immense sadness that I am sharing the news that the Board of PHOTO Australia has made the difficult decision to close the organisation and that PHOTO 2026 will not proceed.” Adding that, “I appreciate this will be a huge disappointment to so many, myself included.”
In an article for One Earth Media, Mark Anning writes that the news is a “devastating blow” for photography in Australia.
“PHOTO Australia shows what was possible when photography was treated not as a niche, but as central to public life… The Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney closed in 2021. State and federal funding for the arts is stretched thin. Costs for staging ambitious public events are rising.”
In 2023, PetaPixel reported on the Australian photo industry website Inside Imaging closing down.
But despite the bad news, photography will remain popular in Australia, and other avenues will appear. Just yesterday, PetaPixel reported on the stunning Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
