If you’re in the mood for a good story, check out these spring photo exhibits. Some tell a story unfolding over years, others explore the relationship between narrative and imagery, and still others give you a look at the story behind the photographer’s work. We’ll also preview the year’s early photo fairs and festivals that get under way in the spring.

Spring Photo Exhibits

Helmut Newton: Fact & Fiction

The first of our spring photo exhibits offers a look behind the lens of one of the twentieth century’s most influential photographers. It combines his iconic fashion images with rarely seen landscape shots, videos of Newton at work, personal photos from over the course of his life, and some of the tools he used over his 60-year career. You can explore the story behind the storied images at the MOP Foundation in Coruña, Spain, through May 1.

The Adventures of Guille and Belinda

Argentinian photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti met two cousins in 1999 and found their lives so fascinating that she went back year after year to create images with them as they grew into young women in the Argentinian countryside. You can see their adventures for yourself in Sanguinetti’s photographs and films at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris through May 19. While you’re there, check out the exhibit of New York storyteller Weegee’s work running concurrently.

Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s)

French artist Josèfa Ntjam is making her U.S. debut at Fotografiska in New York with this show that brings photomontages together with videos and biomorphic sculptures. Ntjam blends Afro-diasporic history, African mythology, science fiction, and her own life story to explore grand narratives about origin, identity, and race. The show runs through May 24. Make time to see the concurrent Human/Nature exhibit featuring work from 14 artists exploring the story of our relationship with the planet while you’re there.

Native America: In Translation

Nine Native American artists reclaim both personal and collective narratives to tell new stories with the images presented in this show. Their work raises questions about land rights, identity, and the legacy of violence toward Native people, as well as the history of photography in representing Indigenous populations. The exhibit runs through May 12 at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

Exteriors: Annie Ernaux & Photography

French writer Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. Curator and writer Lou Stoppard used her 1993 novel Exteriors (Journal du dehors) to guide his selection of over 150 photographs from the collection of the MEP in Paris for this show. They’re presented along with text selections from Ernaux’s book, which takes the form of random journal entries about ephemeral encounters on the outskirts of Paris. The show runs through May 26.

ICP at 50: From the Collection, 1845–2019

New York’s International Center of Photography celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, this exhibit presents selections from the collection it has built during that time, with works representing nearly the entire history of the medium, from 1845 to 2019. It not only tells the story of a period of remarkable change in the world, but manifests the history of photography itself.

Anton Corbijn: MOØDe

Anton Corbijn isn’t only a photographer. He’s also a filmmaker and has collaborated with musicians to craft the stories they tell the world and shape our cultural landscape. This show presents over 200 of his fashion-related images. You can see it through May 12 in the Netherlands at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen.

Janna Ireland: True Story Index

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara collaborated to put together this major mid-career survey of Janna Ireland’s images. It includes everything from intimate portraits to large installations, with work presented in both museums. Visit them through June 2 to experience Ireland’s exploration of themes of family, home, and the expression of Black identity in American culture.

American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson

In 1942, Gordon Parks spent the summer photographing Ella Watson as she went about her daily life, working as a custodian, serving as a deaconess at her church, and taking care of her family in Washington D.C. Through this personal story set in the then-segregated capital of the nation, Parks explored larger questions about American life. The exhibit presents nearly 60 photographs from the collaboration between Parks and Watson at the Minneapolis Institute of Art through June 23.

In the Now

As you might imagine, this exhibit presents art created during the 21st century. It brings together more than 70 photo-based works from almost 50 women artists born or based in Europe. They explore how ideas of gender and nationality shape the lives of women on the continent, and how photography itself tells the story of those lives. The show is up at the Brooklyn Museum in New York from May 8 through July 7.

Cindy Sherman

This final entry in our spring photo exhibits features the shape-shifting photographer Cindy Sherman as she continues her lifelong interrogation of constructed identities with this latest series of self-portraits. She spliced together parts of her own face to create asymmetric collages of herself, exploring how we create characters in the stories we tell the world about ourselves. The show runs from March 29 through August 4 at Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, but if you’re in New York City you can catch some of these new images through March 16 at Hauser & Wirth.

Spring Photo Fairs and Festivals

AIPAD: The Photography Show

AIPAD’s annual Photography Show returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York from April 25 through April 28 this year, featuring work from more than 75 galleries and collections from around the world.

Fotofest

This Houston biennial festival takes the theme “Critical Geography” for 2024, and will include work from more than 24 artists at locations throughout the city from March 9 through April 21.

Medium Festival of Photography

The bi-national Medium Festival sprinkles exhibits and events across San Diego and Tijuana from April 24 through April 28 this year. Some exhibits open earlier, so check the Medium website for updates.

Contact Photography Festival

Toronto’s annual citywide festival runs throughout the month of May this year, bringing new work from lens-based artists to museums, galleries, and other locations.

Photo London

Featuring work from over 100 exhibitors, this show at Somerset House presents everything from vintage photographic prints to contemporary AI-generated images. It runs from May 16 through May 19.

Photofairs Shanghai

This forward-looking annual fair features photo-based and digital artworks from a multitude of exhibitors at the Shanghai Exhibition Center from April 25 through April 28. If you can’t make it to Shanghai, check out the fair’s online exhibitions.

Kyotographie

This year’s Kyotographie festival takes “Source” as its theme, exploring it through 13 exhibitions at over a dozen venues in the eminently photogenic Japanese city of Kyoto. The festival runs from April 13 through May 12.

The Imagination Series

Painterly Portraits

Creative Portrait Series