All images © Estate of Akihiko Okamura Akihiko Okamura photographed the Vietnam War before arriving in Ireland – and his view of the North’s sectarian violence was uniquely poetic Akihiko Okamura’s photographs of the North of Ireland during the early part of the Troubles are subtle and resonant. There are no others quite like them. The Memories of Others, a beautifully presented show at Photo Museum Ireland, confirms the brilliance and exceptionality of this work by the Japanese photographer. The Dublin exhibition is the first substantial show of Okamura’s Irish work and includes previously u ..read more

© Rehaf Batniji In a one-off event at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Slidefest brings together five photographers exploring overlooked aspects of Palestinian life “What I really enjoyed was that a lot of the people who came to Slidefest weren’t the kind of people who would normally go to a gallery opening, you know?” asks Mohamed Somji from his home in east London. “They were just people who were interested in learning more about the world. That’s really where it started.” Somji has just arrived in the capital from Dubai, where he is the director of gallery and community organisation Gulf Phot ..read more

Exploration I © Maheder Haileselassie, courtesy the artist and Koop Projects Curated by Charlotte Jansen, the Discovery section is the destination for more experimental and emerging artists “I’m really happy with how it has shaped up because we have galleries from far and wide,” says writer and editor Charlotte Jansen, who is curating this year’s Discovery section at the Photo London Fair. “It’s a very high standard of work, and a nice representation of a global community.” Gathering galleries which are about eight years old or less, Discovery is a place to find lesser-known artists and their ..read more

All architectural renders of the The Lishui Photography Culture Center courtesy the Center Investment in a vast new photography centre illustrates the scope of the city’s cultural reach, adding to China’s stature as a global photo destination In October 2024, a huge new photography museum is due to open in Lishui, south-east China. The Lishui Photography Culture Center cost 309 million yuan (approximately £34.7million) to build over two years and will have a total construction area of 34,221 square metres, of which 15,150 square metres is devoted to three floors of exhibition space. By way of ..read more

Permafrost #6 © Natalya Saprunova The Reggio Emilia showcase is themed Nature Loves to Hide, with shows by Arko Datto, Lisa Barnard and Susan Meiselas Fotografia Europea is a key player in the Emilia-Romagna photography scene, bringing cutting-edge international projects to Reggio Emilia each year. The 2024 theme is Nature Loves to Hide – an attempt “to capture nature by exploring how concealment and discovery are interconnected”. This means highlighting the fact that our species is part of nature, undoing the hierarchy that positions humankind above – and separate from – the world around us ..read more

From the series Porcelain Souls © Inuuteq Storch. All images courtesy the artists In the main Foreigners Everywhere exhibition and around Venice, photography fulfils an earnest documentary function How useful is it to focus on a single art form at an exhibition as sprawling and dense as the Venice Biennale? For the painting, drawing and sculpture that tend to dominate the main exhibition, not very. The variety within these categories means a media-specific approach barely narrows the field of analysis (from several hundred works to perhaps a hundred each, if you include the Biennale’s collat ..read more

©André Josselin Europe’s most popular professional photo sharing software eases the collaboration between artist and brand Commercial photographer André Josselin is all about authenticity – or at least creating the feel of it for clients. One week he might be taking pictures of FC Bayern Munich players away from the pitch, or following the musical production duo The Chainsmokers on tour; the next, he’s on location with models for Cartier, BMW or Tommy Hilfiger. Whether or not the shoot is staged, Josselin’s soft documentary style reverberates with realness; the images are not ‘polished’. As h ..read more

Paddy Summerfield © Alex Schneideman One of several artists inspired by Summerfield’s iconic Mother and Father series, Schneideman reflects on the life of an Oxford icon Paddy Summerfield was broadly considered Oxford’s greatest photographer since Henry Fox Talbot. He was imbued with the city’s unique history and art from infancy, living in the same Summertown house from the age of two until his death on 11 April. Having studied at Guildford School of Art, Summerfield became known as a photographer in the 1980s, working primarily in black-and-white, but it was not until the 2014 publication o ..read more

All images © Tara Laure Claire Sood Tara Laure Claire Sood is fascinated by South India’s retro portrait studios, reimagining them with fresh Bollywood and fashion tropes Tara Laure Claire Sood has long been intrigued by portrait studios, recognising their importance in Indian photographic history and as sites of self-fashioning for families, couples, colleagues and models eager to project a certain image. Her project The Studio pays homage to these spaces while also exploring two personal threads. First, there is Sood’s experience shooting fashion editorials and working with stylists and mod ..read more

Robert Zhao Renhui in the forest around Gillman Barracks, Singapore, 2023. Portrait and work images all courtesy the artist Ahead of his show at the Venice Biennale, Renhui discusses anthropocentrism – and how his work addresses this thorny, colonially influenced issue Getting to grips with Robert Zhao Renhui’s art can be tricky. His work shapeshifts, a series of ecological inquiries you can read, watch, hang on a wall, and sometimes step inside. His installations – a terrace house converted into an imagined natural history society, for example – can leave you wondering where the science ends ..read more