This is your source for information on San Francisco Bay Area exhibitions, talks, artist receptions, and workshops for people interested in photography. Our focus is on events that are free or are sponsored by non-profit/educational organizations.
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Meanwhile ... last chance to see these events! They will end within the next 2 weeks:
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-01 to 2025-06-19
Berggruen Gallery
10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Event is Free
Hours: Mon 10:00 AM-5:00 PM; Tue - Fri 10:00 AM-6:00 PM; Sat 12:00 AM-12:00 AM;
For more information:
Berggruen Gallery is proud to announce Western Wave, an exhibition of photography by American artists Vanessa Marsh and Joni Sternbach. Western Wave will be on view from May 1 through June 19, 2025. The gallery will host a reception for the artists on Thursday, May 1 from 5 to 7 PM.
Event Type: GALLERY TALK
2025-06-26 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Cantor Arts Center
328 Lomita Drive at Museum Way, Freidenrich Family Gallery, Stanford, CA 94305-5060
Event is Free
For more information:
Join Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, on this special highlights tour of Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. Comprised of forty-four photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe, this exhibition explores the complexities of this proposed new age: vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.
Event Type: CLASS
2025-03-29 to 2025-06-23
First Exposures
265 Shotwell Street, PO Box 881971, San Francisco, CA 94188
Event is Free
For more information:
Are You Ready for Summer at FX?
Join First Exposures for our free Youth Photography Mentorship program this summer! We'll have two class sessions to choose from in Digital Photography and Film Photography where you'll get to learn photography, go on photo walks, and express yourself creatively with an amazing community.
If you're between the ages of 11-18, apply to be a mentee and learn all about the art of photography. Click HERE for more info.
If you're over 21 years old, apply to be a mentor and inspire the next generation of photographers. Click HERE for more info.
Classes are free and run from June 23 to August 14, so get your applications in and save your spot ☀️
Event Type: SHOW
2025-04-26 to 2025-06-15
Marty Knapp Photo Gallery
11245 Shoreline Hwy, Marty Knapp Photo Gallery, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Event is Free
Hours: Fri - Sun 11:00 AM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
Classic B&W photographs of the starry night sky above Point Reyes & California’s high deserts
Reception: Friday, May 3, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Marty will show his finest night sky photographs during this exhibit. Opening Reception is on Saturday, May 3, coinciding with the First Saturday Artwalk in downtown Point Reyes Station.
On the walls will be several newly-editioned photographs as well as classics of his best known starry night images.
All photographs are made by Marty Knapp in his studio and are made available in a number of sizes from miniatures to dramatic large wall art pieces.
Notecards and his book, Sky Walks featuring Marty’s night sky photography will also be available at the gallery..
Event Type: SHOW
2025-04-14 to 2025-06-25
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, KCI Gallery Bldg 4000, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
Hours: Mon 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Tue 9:00 AM-7:00 PM; Wed 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Thu 9:00 AM-7:00 PM; Fri 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Sat 10:30 AM-4:00 PM;
For more information:
In collaboration, community college photography instructors Judy Walgren (Foothill College) and Lesley Louden (Cabrillo College) bring together the work of 30 Bay Area community college photography instructors to celebrate the diversity of our artistic practices and our commitment to photography education.
Artist Reception Thursday, May 8 • 5-7 p.m. KCI Gallery Building 4000, Lower Level
Event Type: SHOW
2025-04-14 to 2025-06-25
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, Gallery 6100, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
Hours: Mon 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Tue 9:00 AM-7:00 PM; Wed 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Thu 9:00 AM-7:00 PM; Fri 9:00 AM-5:00 PM; Sat 10:30 AM-4:00 PM;
For more information:
Gallery 6100 presents a selection of exceptional work curated from Foothill’s photography club members and photography students created during the Fall ‘24 and Winter ‘25 quarters.
Gallery Hours Tuesday & Wednesday 12-3 p.m., Thursdays 12-6 p.m., and Monday by appointment. To schedule a visit by appointment, email Judy Walgren at walgrenjudith@fhda.edu.
Artists Reception May 29, 2025, 3–5 p.m. in Gallery 6100
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-01 to 2025-06-27
Robert Koch Gallery
49 Geary Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
Event is Free
Hours: Mon - Fri 11:00 AM-5:30 PM; Sat 2:00 PM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 1, 5:30-7:30 pm
The Robert Koch Gallery presents Mammoth Plates, an exhibition of early photographic images of California by Charles Leander Weed (1824–1903), Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916), and Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904). Shown in conjunction with Matt Black’s exhibition, New World Atlas: California & Nevada, the exhibition draws a connection between 19th-century images of grandeur and a present-day view shaped by environmental fracture. The exhibition includes rare prints, among them a Watkins image that is not included in the J. Paul Getty Museum's comprehensive catalog of his work, Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs, published in 2011, as well as prints for which few examples are known to exist. The exhibition will feature mammoth plate albumen prints dating from 1864 through 1883.
Weed was the first to photograph Yosemite, producing some of the earliest images of the Sierra Nevada in 1859. Watkins followed in 1861, expanding on that visual record with photographs that would later lend weight to the growing conservation movement. Muybridge began making landscapes in the late 1860s. They contributed to the wider picture being formed of California’s dramatic terrain, including places like Yosemite Valley and Lake Tahoe.
All three photographers worked with the wet collodion process, which required photographers to coat, expose, and develop glass plates on site while the emulsion was still wet. This method was technically demanding and physically cumbersome, but allowed for exceptional clarity and detail, especially with the contact printed large-format mammoth plate albumen prints, which have a wider tonal range than later produced gelatin silver prints.
While these photographs are often linked to the idea of an untouched wilderness, they were made at a time of rapid expansion and change. Their precision and scale helped shape public perception of the West and played a part in early efforts to preserve parts of it. At the same time, they contributed to the mythology of the frontier, a place still being imagined even as it was being altered.
Placed in dialogue with Matt Black’s look at contemporary California and Nevada, Mammoth Plates offers a layered reflection on how the land has been seen, understood, and represented over time. The pairing invites a reconsideration of what has changed, what has endured, and what these images continue to ask of us.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-01 to 2025-06-27
Robert Koch Gallery
49 Geary Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
Event is Free
Hours: Mon - Fri 11:00 AM-5:30 PM; Sat 2:00 PM-5:00 PM;
For more information:
Robert Koch Gallery is pleased to present New World Atlas: California & Nevada, the third solo exhibition at the gallery by American photographer Matt Black. Known for his visceral approach to documentary photography, Black turns his focus to the evolving climate of the American West, using thermal and infrared imaging to examine the effects of extreme weather events and the vulnerabilities of a rapidly shifting landscape.
New World Atlas is organized in a series of 17 chapters, one for each state lying west of the 100th meridian. This exhibition presents California & Nevada, the first two chapters of this larger body of work. In this series Black departs from conventional photographic representation and incorporates technologies that extend human perception. Thermal imaging makes the invisible visible, allowing viewers to witness heat as a signifier of change, from drought and fire to evaporation. Infrared photography distinguishes the living from the inert, exposing a shifting terrain beneath what once seemed immutable.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-03 to 2025-06-28
Casemore Gallery
1275 Minnesota Street, #102, San Francisco, CA 94107
Event is Free
Hours: Tue - Sat 11:00 AM-6:00 PM;
For more information:
Casemore Gallery is pleased to present You, the performer, a group exhibition that brings together eight contemporary artists —Sophronia Cook, Jim Goldberg, Todd Hido, Whitney Hubbs, Jim Jocoy, Steve Kahn, Rachelle Mozman Solano, Larry Sultan, and Lindsey White— whose works explore the theatrical impulse embedded in both the act of image-making and the staging of the scenes documented within the frame. Drawing upon the aesthetics of performance, illusion, and mise-en-scène, these artists delve into the personal and collective unconscious, blurring the lines between documentary and fantasy, observer and participant, and fiction and reality.
In his 1960 work Leap into the Void, Yves Klein subverted the notion of photography as a purely documentary medium. His photograph, a staged leap from a Paris rooftop, offered a fantastical image that questioned the relationship between reality and illusion. As curator Mia Fineman writes, Klein’s work “symbolically enacts the leap of faith we make in accepting the truth of any photograph.” This moment marked the beginning of an era in which photography began investigating truth through a conceptual and performative lens.
You, the performer continues this exploration, with works spanning from the 1970s to the present, questioning and playing with the validity of the oft-repeated "quintessential American life" narrative through the use of models, the stage, and acute directorial and editorial interventions. Whether set in the suburbs of Los Angeles, the gated communities of Panama, the streets of Hollywood, a dive bar in San Francisco, or the artist’s studio, these images underscore the shifting and often surreal underpinnings between the self, the other, and the interiors we inhabit—physically and psychologically.
As much about the stage as it is about the characters who perform upon it, this exhibition reveals how easily the boundaries between the two can become porous. The models in the photos of Todd Hido, Larry Sultan, and Rachelle Mozman Solano become fairytale-like femme-fatales, the stars of their own movies unfolding in real-time within the image and in collaboration with the photographer’s investigation of their personal inner subconscious landscape.
Lindsey’s White’s You, the performer, the exhibition's titular piece, allows the viewer to choose whether they want to be the performer or remain part of the audience. Jim Jocoy’s double-exposure plays within a similarly temporal space, as the photographer becomes a bridge between performer and audience, evoking the energy of a performance through the physical abstraction of the scene.
Other artists’ works offer a seemingly “empty” stage scattered with remnants—teddy bears, seashells, mylar curtains, ropes, swaddled organs—prompting the audience to mentally reconstruct an implied narrative. In the works of Steve Kahn, Larry Sultan, and Whitney Hubbs, interior spaces transform into psychological containers. The physicality of the printed image becomes performative in Jim Goldberg’s photograph of a stage curtain, printed on paint-embellished fabric and hung as a curtain, and in Sophronia Cook’s aluminum mold of her studio floor. With the aid of these photographers’ perspectives and directorial embellishments, stages and backdrops morph into characters in their own right.
In an era where image-making is second nature, we find ourselves deeper than ever in Foucault’s epoch of simultaneity, reassessing and redesigning the everyday architecture and backdrops that shape our own lives. The works in You, the performer offer both a reflection and a means of escape from the prescribed “American life”—a portal into alternate dimensions that are, perhaps, more honest depictions of our true feelings about the world.
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-14 to 2025-06-28
Chung 24 Gallery
698 Pennsylvania Ave, San Francisco, CA 94107
Event is Free
Hours: Tue 12:00 AM-12:00 AM; Wed - Sat 1:30 PM-6:00 PM;
For more information:
This solo exhibition of work by Edinburgh-based artist Kayhan consists of large-format photographs united by a single word: balance. Each image captures a state of suspended animation—a delicate tension before movement, transformation, or dissolution. Crafted through slow, intuitive methods, these photographs are material traces of touch, time, and light. They bear witness to the uncertain equilibrium of our collective condition, speaking to the fragility and strength of that which endures.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-11 to 2025-06-28 10:00 AM
East Bay Photo Collective
412 13th St, EBPCO Darroom, Oakland, CA 94612
General Admission $80.00
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
Saturday, June 28, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
This workshop will introduce students to pinhole photography! Participants will learn how to construct their own pinhole cameras utilizing recycled everyday materials and use direct positive silver gelatin paper to create black and white prints directly from the cameras they built. There will also be a brief introduction and overview to traditional darkroom printing - all experience levels are welcome. Bring your own shoe box, coffee canister, oatmeal container, etc. to construct your camera. All other materials for this workshop are provided by EBPCO.
Event Type: CLASS
2025-05-11 to 2025-06-29 3:00 PM
East Bay Photo Collective
312 8th St, Oakland Photo Workshop, Oakland, CA 94607-4210
General Admission $55.00
For more information:
website: www.ebpco.org
Sunday, June 29, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
For beginners with an Adobe Lightroom subscription that want to learn to get the most out of this powerful editing tool. In this one-day workshop, an instructor will guide you through the basics of digitally editing images using Lightroom. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of what Lightroom is useful for as well as a better sense of it’s functions and capabilities including importing image files, editing individual images, sorting and editing multiple images, and exporting image files. Participants must bring their own laptop computer with Lightroom enabled, chargers, and 10-40 images files they’d like to work with.
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-11 to 2025-06-21
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
General Admission $90.00, Resident $80.00
For more information:
Make some photograms in our traditional darkroom, no camera needed! Bring in whatever objects you like to arrange on photographic paper for your image making adventure. Leaves, flowers, feathers, lace, and similar items or items with transparency characteristics (like glass) or recognizable features and outlines work best. 8x10 photographic paper will be provided.
Jun 21, 2025, Sat 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Event Type: CLASS
2025-05-11 to 2025-06-18
ImageCentral
1099 E Street, Hayward, CA 94541
General Admission $190.00, Resident $180.00
For more information:
An introductory class for individuals interested in traditional analog black-and-white process. Class will cover how to process black-and-white film and make black & white prints in our traditional darkroom! A $20 material fee will be due on the first class for students needing film and paper. (Limited: 35mm film cameras available for loan during class upon request.)
Jun 18, 2025 - Jul 9, 2025, Wed 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Event Type: WORKSHOP
2025-05-21 to 2025-06-19
Center for Photographic Art
San Carlos at 9th Avenue, At the Sunset Center, Carmel, CA 93921
Registration Fee $65.00, CPA Members $50.00
For more information:
Friday, June 20, 12:00pm-2:30pm
Limit 10; Register by June 19, space is limited.
Phytograms are a photographic process that combines botany, science and photography. These images are created by arranging thin plant materials on a photosensitive film surface, sandwiching the film and the materials together for exposure to sunlight. After exposure the film is developed with plant based developers in daylight followed by fixing it for permanency. This process yields a negative with bold silhouettes and delicate details ready for use with future alternative processes or as a finished object itself. The Phytogram workshop explores the creative possibilities with this process.
Each attendee will compose and layer their materials, expose and process their film creating a finished 8x10 film negative. A variety of 8x10 sheet films will be supplied and available to select including Kodalith Ortho film as well as the already prepared pressed plant materials and other thin natural tissues. Each person is encouraged, if possible, to contribute by bringing in plant materials pre-pressed for experimentation and sharing as well.
Don't miss this exciting and innovative workshop with long-time educator and artist, Rebecca Zeiss!
Event Type: SHOW
2025-05-17 to 2025-06-17
Peak Designs
529 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102-4213
Event is Free
Hours: Mon - Sun 11:00 AM-7:00 PM;
For more information:
Tofe and Justin met while photographing the streets of San Francisco. They share a similar passion for the dynamic nature of street photography and organizing the chaos of our world in a beautiful way. Justin and Tofe have closely collaborated in the past – most notably a zine “Don’t Touch, Just Feel” showcasing Dia de los Muertos in Mexico City.
Eager for a new experience, the artists set their eyes towards capturing the energy of the Wild West. The result, “The Still Frontier”, is a collection of images taken over a series of days in Wyoming at the Frontier Days Rodeo. The artists were surprised to find their restlessness quieted through the rodeo’s camaraderie and competition and have chosen images that represent the stillness they found in the Wild West."
Event Type: ONLINE VIDEO
2025-05-24 to 2025-06-21
Catchlight
2120 University Avenue, Ste. 311, Berkeley, CA 94704
Event is Free
For more information:
website: www.catchlight.io
Binh Danh, a photographer, educator, and the inventor of chlorophyll printing, shared unique visual representations of collective memory surrounding historical places and events, from his war-torn homeland to the grandeur of U.S. national parks. Watch his timely talk following the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month.
Event Type: ONLINE VIDEO
2025-05-24 to 2025-06-24
UC Berkeley School of Journalism
North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid, Berkeley, CA 94709
Event is Free
For more information:
In memory of Sebastião Salgado and an opportunity to hear him speak in the event The Photographer as Activist at Berkeley Journalism. This talk with Ken Light Fred Ritchin and Sebastião took place upon the publication of the only American edition of his Sahel photographs first photographed in 1984, which no US publisher dared to print at the time. Twenty years later Ken worked with Sebastião and Berkeley Journalism to bring it to the US audiences.
Event Type: BOOK SIGNING
2025-06-21 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Bradley Print Services
566 Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove, CA 93950
Event is Free
For more information:
- Live music
- Wine and hors d’oeuvres
- Book signing with Kim Weston
- An exclusive exhibition of original works from 5 generations of the Weston family
- Free admission
- Books available for purchase and signing at the event
This is more than an art show—it’s a rare opportunity to meet Kim Weston, grandson of the legendary Edward Weston, and celebrate the launch of Kim’s powerful new book, Growing Up Weston: In the Presence of Women. This beautifully crafted, 348-page coffee table book offers an intimate window into Kim’s life, art, and the legacy of one of photography’s most iconic families.
For the first time in decades, you’ll experience a curated exhibition of original prints from Edward, Brett, Cole, Kim, and Zach Weston, spanning nearly 100 years of photographic mastery. From modernist landscapes to abstract expression and emotional portraiture, this collection is a living testament to the soul of the Weston family.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-06-26 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Leica Store and Gallery
463 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
Event is Free
For more information:
The Gallery at Leica Store San Francisco is honored to welcome back artist Mark de Paola for his third solo exhibition, A Stab At Heaven. This evocative project is inspired by the true story of 18-year-old Ema McKie, who, upon learning of her fiancé’s suicide, sets off on a cross-country journey with a stolen car and a gun to fulfill a pact the two once made. As Ema navigates the depths of grief, her descent into madness becomes a search for truth and ultimately, a path home. A Stab At Heaven will be released as a feature film and is coming soon.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-06-21 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Harvey Milk Photography Center
50 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
Event is Free
For more information:
It is said that history repeats itself, but when the clock goes in reverse and our nation moves backwards, we cannot sit idle and let the advancements we’ve made fade away. We will not go away and we will not remain silent. The first Pride was a riot, and perhaps it is time to revolutionize and resist stronger than ever. We will rise up, be heard, be seen, and not erased. We are here, Unapologetically Queer!
On view June 21 – July 31, 2025.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-06-19 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Park Life
220 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
Event is Free
For more information:
On view June 19th – July 20th, 2025.
The Wizard of Awe explores the life of Kenneth Miller, once one of America’s most innovative fireworks makers, whose unrestrained pyrotechnic experimentation ultimately collided with the devastating reality of federal charges that upended his life.
Cooley’s photographs and videos capture a period of creative freedom—explosions, makeshift rockets, and billowing smoke—juxtaposed against the harsh reality of legal consequences, conveyed through an overwhelming display of forensic evidence taken by federal agents during a raid on Miller’s property. The raw energy of his craft feels mesmerizing yet dangerous, while the forensic images expose the stark realities of his living and working conditions, shedding light on the charges that were brought against him.
Miller's story gained widespread attention after the publication of a portfolio of photographs by Kevin Cooley in Popular Science. What followed was a shocking raid on his family farm, explosives charges, and a two-year prison sentence. This exhibition, alongside the accompanying book, seeks to humanize this misunderstood figure and reclaim the narrative surrounding his life and work.
Event Type: OPENING
2025-06-20 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
an.a.log SF Gallery
886 Capp St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Event is Free
For more information:
website: analog-space.org
Analog Gallery presents pioneering work in photography: two artists explore imagined and fabricated landscapes to investigate values attached to the real and the simulated. In different media, though grounded in a shared lineage of fine art photography, Kristen and Sophia both question the mythic tradition of landscape imagery via personal and psychological spaces. Their works situate the landscape tradition squarely in the 21st century, with 3D-wanderings and macro-explorations. The products of their investigations are wholly modern and visually stunning.
Showing through June 20 - July 5.
Join us for an Artist Talk Saturday, June 21th, 2pm
Event Type: ARTIST TALK
2025-06-21 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
an.a.log SF Gallery
886 Capp St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Event is Free
For more information:
website: analog-space.org
Analog Gallery presents pioneering work in photography: two artists explore imagined and fabricated landscapes to investigate values attached to the real and the simulated. In different media, though grounded in a shared lineage of fine art photography, Kristen and Sophia both question the mythic tradition of landscape imagery via personal and psychological spaces. Their works situate the landscape tradition squarely in the 21st century, with 3D-wanderings and macro-explorations. The products of their investigations are wholly modern and visually stunning.
Showing through June 20 - July 5
Opening Friday, June 20th, 5:30 - 8:30 PM.
Event Type: FUND RAISER
2025-06-28 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
FootHill College
12345 El Monte Rd, Building 6100, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Event is Free
For more information: