New Orleans Photo Alliance

10/27/2026

The deadline to apply for PhotoNOLA portfolio review scholarships is 10 days away!

These scholarships offer photographers an opportunity to participate in portfolio reviews, connect with industry professionals, receive thoughtful feedback on their work, and build relationships that can support their creative growth. We encourage photographers who would benefit from this opportunity to apply and share their work with the PhotoNOLA community. Our goal is to make portfolio reviews accessible to a wider range of artists and help emerging and established photographers alike take the next step in their practice. Scholarship opportunities are only eligible for New Orleans-based photographers.

Scholarship applications close on November 5. Apply through the link: https://photonola.org/scholarship-request-form/

10/26/2026

Do you have a photography exhibition being held during the PhotoNOLA festival (December 2–6)? List it with us so we can promote it and include it in our printed festival materials!

You can find the exhibition listing form through the link: https://photonola.org/participate/exhibit/

FEATURED EXHIBITION: What We Are Given�FEATURED ARTISTS: Jade Thiraswas, Camille Farrah Lenain
LOCATION: 3700 St. Claude Ave
EXHIBTION DATES: November 2, 2026 – January 3, 2027

What We Are Given brings together photographs by Jade Thiraswas and Camille Farrah Lenain exploring the possibilities and limits of portraiture. Through obscured faces, fragmented bodies, objects, gestures, and spaces, the artists approach photography as an exchange shaped by trust, empathy, and circumstance. The exhibition asks what it means to photograph another person without claiming to fully know them—and considers what can be shared, what remains withheld, and what we are given permission to see.

10/24/2026

Register to participate in PhotoNOLA portfolio reviews this year! More names have been added to our roster. See the updated list of participating reviewers and register: https://photonola.org/registration/

REVIEWER SPOTLIGHT: MICHELLE DUNN MARSH

Michelle Dunn Marsh began her vocation as a designer with Aperture Foundation, and served as senior editor of art and design with Chronicle Books before co-founding Minor Matters in 2013. She holds a BA in literature and art history, an MS in Publishing, and has led tandem careers as an educator and arts administrator. She has refined her aesthetic and business acumen through thirty years of professional engagement in the formation and dissemination of books.

10/21/2026

Looking to develop your own film? Or are you a photographer who wants to try it?

Join us at the NOPA Center Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–4 p.m., for darkroom sessions.

Never used a darkroom before, but curious? Our tutorials will show you the ropes!

For more information and to book a darkroom session or tutorial, use this link! https://neworleansphotoalliance.org/nopa-center/

📍2011 Magazine Street, Second Floor

10/20/2026

Registration is open for the PhotoBOOK Fair! Reserve a table to share your photo publications during PhotoNOLA festival! Registration through the through this link: https://photonola.org/photonola-2026/2026-photobook-fair/?mc_cid=74681f2b32&mc_eid=2db5f89ce8

The PhotoBOOK Fair returns to the historic Patrick F. Taylor Library at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. This event offers the chance to peruse a beautiful array of contemporary photobooks & zines, and engage with the artists and publishers who created them.

Saturday, December 5, 2026 | 11am–4pm�📍Ogden Museum of Southern Art

The PhotoBOOK Fair is free and open for the public to attend.

10/19/2026

There is still time to register for PhotoNOLA 2026 portfolio reviews! You can find the full list of participating reviewers through the link: https://photonola.org/photonola-2026/2026-reviewers/

REVIEWER SPOTLIGHT: IMANI WILLIFORD

Imani Williford is a writer, historian, and the Curatorial Assistant for Photography, Fashion and Material Culture at the Brooklyn Museum. Since joining BKM in 2022, she has worked on numerous exhibitions, including Thierry Mugler: Couturissime (2022 - 2023), Jamel Shabazz: Faces and Places, 1980–2023 (2023), Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines (2023 - 2024), Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit (2025), and Seydou Keita: A Tactile Lens (2025 - 2026). She received her BA in the History of Art from the University of Pittsburgh and her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 2024, she was selected to join the inaugural cohort for Arts Leadership Praxis at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has contributed writing to Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Museum, and the University of Pittsburgh.

10/07/2026

The deadline to submit your work to CURRENTS 2026 is approaching!

CURRENTS is the annual PhotoNOLA showcase exhibition at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, highlighting 8–10 portfolios of diverse photographic work created by New Orleans Photo Alliance members. Featuring up to 4 images per selected photographer, it offers an overview of contemporary photographic practices and projects.

The CURRENTS 2026 juror is Bill Boling, book publisher and creator of Fall Line Press

Submissions are due October 16, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. CT. Selected work will be on view from December 4, 2026, to February 1, 2027. Submit here: https://opportunities.wearecreativewest.org/opportunity/18130/CAFE

CURRENTS 2026 submissions are open to New Orleans Photo Alliance members. Not a member yet? You can join through the link: https://neworleansphotoalliance.org/membership/

📸: Josh Aronson

Photographers are invited to submit work for consideration in CURRENTS 2026. CURRENTS is a showcase exhibition featuring work from active members of the New Orleans Photo Alliance.

10/06/2026

Join us TONIGHT at 6pm for our monthly Tuesday Talk series with Fred Horst and his Afghan box camera! This event is free and open to the public.

Fred is an independent photographer who makes portraits on the streets of New Orleans using his custom box camera. Inspired by traditional Afghan box cameras, it lets him take a photograph and develop it within the same box. Fred will explain how he built it, show how it works, and demonstrate it in action.

Have an idea for a future Tuesday Talk? We welcome proposals for upcoming gatherings! Submit yours through the link in our bio.

📍Art Spot, 2011 Magazine St. (Second Floor)

10/05/2026

We are excited to announce our PhotoNOLA 2026 keynote speaker, Sharon Farmer!

Sharon Camille Farmer (b. 1951) was the first African American woman to be hired as a White House photographer and the first woman to be appointed director of the White House Photography Office. After graduating from Ohio State University, she began a career as a freelance photographer — working for the Smithsonian Institution, The Washington Post, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Beginning in 1993, Farmer traveled the world as a White House photographer for President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Among the many famous images she captured was the handshake between the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat and President and Mrs. Clinton witnessing the launch of the space shuttle Discovery with astronaut John Glenn. In 2004, Farmer was the campaign photographer for Senator John Kerry’s presidential election campaign. Farmer has also presented her work in exhibitions at museums and cultural institutions nationwide, including: Art against AIDS, Gospel in the Projects, Twenty Years on the Mall, Washington, D.C. - Beijing Exchange, and Our Views of Struggle.

Tickets will be available soon — stay tuned!

10/03/2026

Register to participate in PhotoNOLA portfolio reviews this year! More names have been added to our roster. See the updated list of participating reviewers and register through the link: https://photonola.org/photonola-2026/2026-reviewers/

REVIEWER SPOTLIGHT: NICOLE FRUGÉ

Nicole Frugé is the Director of Visuals for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she leads one of the most diverse metro photo staffs in the nation. Her team won the Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Human-Interest Storytelling in 2023. She has led and edited photo stories on the fentanyl epidemic that were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography (2023, 2022 and 2026). The National Press Photographers Association named Fruge the Jim Gordon Photo Editor of the Year (2019), Photo Editor of the Year (2018 and 2024), and the Chronicle’s photo editors Picture Editing Team of the Year (2014 and 2017). Before photo editing, she was a staff photojournalist, focused on homelessness, environmental issues and conflict photography for newspapers in Texas and Florida.