The second annual Swiss Photography Month (Swissphotomonth) returns from August 29 to October 5, 2025, featuring more than 50 participating institutions across Switzerland. Following last year's successful debut, this comprehensive photography festival brings together museums, galleries, archives, collections, and artist studios to offer an extensive program of exhibitions, lectures, guided tours, and studio visits for photography enthusiasts.

The month-long celebration serves as a catalyst for Switzerland's rich photography culture, providing audiences with opportunities to explore nearly sixty photography-related venues throughout the country. From emerging spaces to internationally renowned institutions, the festival showcases both established photography leaders and emerging Swiss and international talents across all regions of Switzerland.

Switzerland boasts one of the world's most dynamic photography scenes, featuring a dense network of festivals, museums, galleries, art and photography schools, libraries, archives, public and private collections, and artist studios. The Swiss Photography Month creates a comprehensive map of these locations, offering visitors more than five weeks to discover various artistic spaces, many of which are typically not accessible to the public. Most activities can be explored free of charge through exhibitions, artist studio visits and conversations, workshops, performances, and behind-the-scenes tours.

September traditionally hosts numerous significant photography events in Switzerland, including the Alt1000 Festival in the Neuchâtel mountains, Plat(t)form at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, and the Verzasca Photo Festival in Ticino. Early autumn also coincides with major exhibition openings at leading art institutions such as Photo Elysée in Lausanne and Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur, alongside dynamic programs from photography centers including Artphilein in Paradiso, Photoforum Pasquart in Biel, BelleVue in Basel, and Centre de la photographie Genève.

The festival capitalizes on this impressive convergence of events, their diversity and richness, through targeted measures aimed at increasing awareness and visitor numbers to photography-related locations and events. Another key objective is to promote Switzerland's photography scene internationally and encourage more professionals and enthusiasts of this important visual art to travel to Switzerland for this significant event.

Among the many program highlights, some of which open before the official launch, Swiss Photography Month invites visitors to discover the work of Swiss photographer Roger Humbert at Fotostiftung Schweiz, take behind-the-scenes tours of the remarkable ETH Library collection, and walk through the spectacular outdoor installations of Festival Alt1000. Participants can also enjoy exclusive tours of Keystone's archive in Zurich, one of Switzerland's largest photo agencies, and meet emerging Swiss and international talents at Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Additional attractions include celebrating ten years of photography exhibitions at Casa Pessina in Mendrisio, meeting photographer Ingar Krauss at Galerie Edition Stephan Witschi, and exploring the diverse meanings of plant life with Centre de la photographie Genève. Visitors can discover the beautiful Verzasca Valley brought to life through outdoor photo installations of the Verzasca Photo Festival and participate in exclusive visits to two private collections: Art Vontobel and Nicola Erni Collection.

The program also features a lecture by Gregory Halpern organized by Camera Arts in Lucerne, opportunities to admire Pino Musi's living walls at Fondazione Rolla in Bruzella, and engagement with Gen Z photographers' perspectives from around the world at Photo Elysée in Lausanne. Attendees can also explore the outdoor exhibition Format in the Bernese Jura, organized by Association Impulsion.

The comprehensive event schedule spans from March through early 2026, featuring dozens of exhibitions and events across Switzerland. Notable exhibitions include "Eugenio Schmidhauser: Oltre il Malcantone" at Masi Lugano (March 16 - October 12, 2025), "Pino Musi: Phytostopia" at Fondazione Rolla Bruzella (April 5 - September 28, 2025), and "The Lure of the Image - How Images Seduce on the Internet" at Fotomuseum Winterthur (May 17 - October 12, 2025).

Swiss Photography Month is organized by Spectrum - Photography in Switzerland, an association founded in 1996 as ASIP (Association Suisse des Institutions pour la Photographie) and renamed in 2017. Its institutional members include museums and art centers, galleries, festivals, private and public collections, archives and libraries, art schools and university faculties, and printing and restoration workshops. Individual members work in conservation and restoration, education and research, curation, writing, and criticism. The association currently comprises over 140 members and promotes exchange, networking, and synergies between various photography stakeholders in Switzerland.