Seoul Photo Festival (SePF), one of Seoul’s leading visual arts festivals that has expanded the landscape of Korean photography while tracing the currents of contemporary photographic practice, returns after five years.
 
Launched in 2010, the Seoul Photo Festival has served as a public platform for sharing diverse discourses and practices surrounding photography through exhibitions, lectures, publications, and participatory programs. The festival was, however, temporarily suspended after 2021.
 
The 2026 edition of SePF will be held for the first time at the Photography Seoul Museum of Art, Korea’s first public museum dedicated exclusively to the photographic medium. Marking a new beginning, the festival—once spread across various locations in central Seoul—now establishes a permanent home as a “house of photography.”

The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Come Back Home.' Here, 'home' does not simply signify physical structures. It can represent memories shared with others, a familiar neighborhood, a place where one has long resided, or even the intrinsic desire to return. Through photography, the festival invites us to reflect on the nature of home, what constitutes a sense of belonging, and how relationships and communities are formed.
 
This exhibition brings together a total of 23 artists, ranging from leading figures in Korean photography to emerging practitioners. It is organized into four sections—“What Makes a Home,” “Mobile Homes,” “On the Road,” and “Our Home.”
 
Following a path that extends from the second to the third floor, visitors are invited to experience the exhibition as if moving from room to room, encountering each artist’s space in sequence.

In particular, this year’s Seoul Photo Festival significantly expands beyond exhibitions by greatly increasing programs that invite active public participation and engagement. Through a wide range of activities held throughout the museum, the space becomes an open platform where anyone can share their stories and connect through photography.
 
In the unused spaces on the first and fourth floors, the Photo Discovery Project 《Photo House》 is presented as a preview of the festival. Throughout the festival period, various programs will also take place in the video hall, exhibition galleries, and photo library.

Eun-ju Choi, Director of the Seoul Museum of Art, stated, “This year’s festival, returning after five years, has been prepared as a ‘festival of photography for all,’ where citizens can actively participate and engage.” She added, “We hope it will become an open cultural celebration where diverse memories and perspectives come together through photography.”
 
The 2026 Seoul Photo Festival will open on April 9 and run through June 14. More information about the festival can be found on the Seoul Museum of Art website (https://sema.seoul.go.kr/kr/index).

References

• 서울시립미술관, 2026 서울사진축제 “컴백홈” (Seoul Museum of Art, 2026 SePF “Come Back Hom”)
• 뉴시스, 서울사진축제 5년 만에 컴백홈…서울시립 사진미술관서 9일 개막, 2026.04.08