Held annually in February

The Exposure Photography Festival is a month-long
celebration of photography across Alberta.

We highlight exceptional contemporary work, create opportunities for emerging artists, and invite the public to engage with a wide variety of visual storytelling through juried open-call exhibitions and a diverse array of partner programming.

WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT

In anticipation of the 2026 Exposure Portfolio Review, we’re excited to announce the Exposure Portfolio Review Workshop – designed to help photographers understand and prepare for a portfolio review. Whether you’re new to portfolio reviews or returning with a fresh project, this session offers practical guidance on how to present your work effectively and make the most of your time with reviewers.

Led by experienced facilitators, the workshop will cover what makes a strong portfolio, including editing and sequencing images, deciding how much work to show, and navigating one or multiple bodies of work. We will discuss both printed and digital presentation formats, along with their practical considerations, and offer strategies for communicating clearly about your practice.

Learn how to navigate the portfolio review itself, including researching your reviewers, introductions, setting feedback expectations, listening productively, and managing nerves. A mock portfolio review will walk participants through the full process, with opportunities to pause and ask questions.

This workshop demystifies the portfolio review process, so you can arrive prepared, confident, and ready to have a productive, engaged conversation about your work. 

Participants will receive a coupon for $20 off their Exposure Portfolio Review registration.

WORKSHOP FEE: $30
DATE: Sunday, Jan 11, 2026
hosted by: the camera store

Register Now

Meet THE PRESENTERS

  • Dona Schwartz (she/her) received her PhD from the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on photography and ethnography. Her photographic work examines evolving identities, social bonds and boundaries. She is the author of Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), Contesting the Super Bowl (Routledge, 1997), and two photographic monographs with Kehrer Verlag: In the Kitchen (2009) and On the Nest (2015). Her award-winning photographs have been published internationally and exhibited at venues including the Saatchi Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Her work is held in major collections such as the Library of Congress, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the George Eastman Museum, the Musée de l’Elysée, and the Center for Creative Photography. Dona is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary.

  • Stasia Schmidt (she/her) is a fine art photographer based in Calgary whose work explores simplicity, form, and unexpected surrealism within landscapes and portraits. Drawn to themes of femininity and the natural environment, her practice uses photography to push creative boundaries and challenge expectations, creating vivid and resonant images. Her work has been exhibited in group shows across Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 2024, Stasia was recognized as the Canadian awardee of the Leica Women Foto Project and was named Emerging Artist of the Year by the Exposure Photography Festival for her celebrated Ephemerality series. The series also inspired her first photo book, published as part of the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize in Photography.

  • Brady Fullerton (he/him) is a lens-based artist and academic whose work explores trauma, masculinity, isolation, mental health, addiction, and beauty through a documentary approach to the everyday. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and uses photography to investigate philosophical questions while navigating personal experiences of mental illness. Brady’s award-winning work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows, online, and in print. He is currently developing Nowhere, a photographic exploration of trauma and memory in his hometown of Drumheller, Alberta, supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development.

Image courtesy of Alec Soth

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

How to Begin…Again | Artist Talk by Alec Soth, Presented by The Camera Store

We’re thrilled to announce that Alec Soth will be making his way to Calgary for an artist talk on Saturday, February 28th at the Central Library. Join us as Soth discusses his origins as an artist, the evolution of his practice, and celebrated projects like “Sleeping by the Mississippi” and his latest book, “Advice for Young Artists.”

Get Your Tickets

Image by Louie Villanueva-Eyre | Contemporary Calgary

HEADQUARTERED AT CONTEMPORARY CALGARY

Since 2020, Contemporary Calgary has hosted our open-call exhibitions: the International Open Call and Emerging Photographers Showcase, as well as a solo exhibition featuring the previous festival’s Emerging Photographer of the Year.

Admission to the Exposure exhibitions is free and open to the public during regular gallery hours.

Plan your visit

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that the Exposure Photography Festival is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. The traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary. This is the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. It is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. We honour and acknowledge all Nations, who live, work and play in Moh’kins’tsis, help steward this land, and honour and celebrate this territory.