Elusive and liminal, the edge can inhabit many physical, social, and psychological forms. It may evoke the tension of a cliff edge, the tipping point of conflict, or the instability of a life lived on the margins.
In photography, too, the edge is inherent. Throughout history, the medium has always existed on the fringes, hovering between document and art; truth and fiction. Now, with the dawn of new technologies and an overload of images, photography faces a new edge – of uncertainty, but also discovery. What lies beyond any edge is unknowable, but does chaos always end in collapse? Or can the edge invite us to imagine a different world?
KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026 explores the edge as a site of both tension and transition. We see radical approaches to photography alongside studies of urban decline, while documents of marginal communities intersect with ongoing issues of colonisation and territorial disputes. We also explore the transcendental force of nature, and see how reaching an edge can open up new ways of seeing, thinking, and creating – even in the face of the bleakest environmental, political, and personal turmoil.
The edge is a place of uncertainty, yes, but also of possibility. A place where something ends to make way for something new.
Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi Co-founders and Co-Directors of
KYOTOGRAPHIE
Featuring Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective
Presented by Sigma
Exhibition organised by KYOTOGRAPHIE and Instituto Moreira Salles In collaboration with Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation
Curator: Thyago Nogueira
Scenography: Osamu Ouchi
Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival 2026
Apr 18 – May 17, 2026
KYOTOGRAPHIE
Kyoto, Japan
