Discover Morocco’s pluralistic identity through photography
Did you miss last night’s Long Night of the Museums and Cultural Venues, or simply not get enough of the host city’s cultural offer? And did you notice that there is a special emphasis on photography in this year’s cultural activities? That is because Photo Tanger, the International Image Festival, is also happening throughout the city, giving you many more opportunities to dive into Tangier’s cultural scene.
THE CALL OF THE SEA
Between 17 June and 31 August 2026, you can visit the festival, currently celebrating its first edition in various cultural venues and public spaces across the city of Tangier. The theme is “The Call of the Sea”, which pays homage to this city that faces the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, evoking openness to otherness and travel since antiquity. It also underscores Tangier’s enduring cultural appeal, as Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun said:
Photo Tanger, the first international image festival, does justice to the city and its history. Photo exhibitions, film screenings at the Ciné Alcazar, dear to my heart. Tangier will be part of the celebration, thus reconnecting with its traditional openness to the sea.”
Together with friends and colleagues, Tahar Ben Jelloun realised in summer 2025 that despite its urban and economic dynamism, Tangier lacked a unifying cultural event. This is how the idea for Photo Tanger was born – and 2026 marks a particularly fitting year since it has been 200 years since the oldest surviving camera photograph, titled “View from the Window at Le Gras”, was captured by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
A FESTIVAL ROOTED IN LOCAL COMMUNITY
This international photography festival aims to contribute culturally to the dynamism of the city on the Strait of Gibraltar, by reconnecting with its rich photographic heritage and exploring contemporary visual practices and their creative evolutions. It strives to be a festival rooted in the local community yet open to the world, highlighting new perspectives and fostering intercultural exchange through the presentation of works by established and emerging artists, both local and international.
The first edition of Photo Tanger highlights the young generation through its flagship exhibition: Perspectives of Moroccan Photographers Around the World: Existing Between the Certainties of the World. This exhibition reveals the richness of their journeys and the uniqueness of their perspectives, nurtured by mobility, exchange, and the experience of both shores of the Mediterranean.
This exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad, committed to promoting creators from the diaspora and convinced of their role in cultural renewal.
Committed to its international outlook, the festival highlights artists from a different country each year. For this inaugural edition, Spain was a natural choice, given its historical and cultural ties with Morocco. On this occasion, an exhibition dedicated to Isabel Muñoz, a major figure in Spanish photography, will be presented at the Instituto Cervantes in Tangier. It will be accompanied by a series of Spanish films , screened in the legendary Alcazar cinema, tracing the evolution of Spanish cinema from the 1950s to the present day.
The festival is supported by the Wilaya of Tangier, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Communication, the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad, the National Museums Foundation and the Port Tanger Medina. In addition, the Alliances Foundation and the TGCC Foundation are coproducing initiatives within the festival.
Read more: https://phototanger.com/