The 22nd edition of the Photaumnales photography festival will take place from September 20 to December 31, 2025, featuring the theme "Living & Brazil." This comprehensive photography exhibition will explore the deeper meaning of inhabiting spaces beyond merely residing or dwelling in them.
The festival's central concept examines how people invest spaces with meaning, memory, and connection. Through their perspectives on architecture, heritage, and built environments, the invited artists of this 22nd edition will question what truly makes a "home." The exhibition will present home not just as a physical location, but as a symbolic and sometimes mystical territory that serves as an emotional and identity anchor.
The photographic works will span from intimate personal spaces to collective environments, from ruins to hearths, with images that resonate with viewers' roots, sense of belonging, and ways of inhabiting the world. The festival aims to explore how people live in the world or allow themselves to be inhabited by it. This year's theme is particularly significant as it coincides with celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of the construction of Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Beauvais.
The festival will expand across the region with more than 25 exhibitions focusing on architecture and built environments. Venues will include locations throughout the Beauvais metropolitan area, Clermont-de-l'Oise, and the Clermontois community of communes. This year's edition will extend into the Aisne region, featuring exhibitions at the Familistère de Guise and L'Échangeur in Château-Thierry.
A significant portion of the programming will highlight Brazilian photography, as the festival has received official recognition as part of the France-Brazil Season by the French Institute. This collaboration will showcase contemporary Brazilian photographic work, with a dedicated exhibition featuring the contemporary photography scene from Minas Gerais state. This special Brazilian exhibition will be held at the Musée Opale Sud in Berck-sur-Mer, providing visitors with an in-depth look at Brazil's vibrant contemporary photography landscape.
