Photo London Moves to Olympia: A New Home for a New Decade
Building on the success of its tenth anniversary edition, Photo London will move to Olympia, at the heart of Kensington, from May 2026. The move marks the start of an ambitious new chapter for the fair.
Olympia is undergoing a £1.3 billion transformation co-designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC. The fourteen-acre site is being redeveloped as a cultural and entertainment district that combines heritage with innovation. This principle reflects Photo London’s mission to celebrate photography’s past, present and future. Situated close to leading institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum, and the Serpentine, Olympia remains accessible to international visitors through Heathrow.
From 14 to 17 May 2026, with a VIP preview on 13 May, Photo London will be staged beneath the historic canopy of Olympia’s National Hall. The venue will provide greater flexibility for galleries and partners to design spaces that best present their work, while improving navigation and sightlines across the fair. Increased capacity will allow for additional talks and public programmes. Visitors will also have access to Olympia’s wider facilities, including a new theatre, cinema, music venues and a range of restaurants and bars.
Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad said: “Throughout its first decade, Photo London has earned a reputation for innovation as the photography art fair of the future, and we are proud to have played our part over the past ten years in contributing to the evolution of Somerset House as a cultural powerhouse for London.
Our chapter at Somerset House has been one of shared ambition and creative success, and we thank the team for being such a valued partner.
It is within this tradition of innovation and cultural leadership that we have decided to make our new home in Olympia, at the heart of Kensington, a destination with an ambitious vision focused on a renewed cultural identity.
This exciting move positions Photo London at the forefront of one of the most significant cultural developments to have taken place in London in over a decade.
We very much look forward to welcoming visitors to Olympia for the eleventh edition of Photo London in May 2026, which is set to be another powerful celebration of photography in all its forms.”
Director Sophie Parker added: “From outstanding gallery presentations to thought-provoking exhibitions and vibrant conversations, Photo London is the best place to explore the past, present and future of photography.
The move to Olympia offers an expanded platform to showcase photography in a setting that embodies both tradition and modernity.
The dramatically enhanced Olympia will be a blaze of activity and excitement from morning to night, and it is precisely this energy and excitement that make it an ideal venue for Photo London’s second decade.
Olympia’s new cross-cultural profile means we will benefit from increased Synergy with other arts, entertainment, and creative businesses, creating opportunities for audience development and idea exchange, while enhancing the fair’s appeal to visitors and simplifying our layout to ensure a more unified experience for all participating galleries.
We look forward to supporting Olympia in becoming a landmark destination for culture and creativity for both Londoners and visitors from around the world.”
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Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: joanne@theappwhisperer.com
