The InCadaqués Photography Festival is steadily establishing itself as a prominent fixture in the international art scene. While the ninth edition features fewer celebrity photographers than previous years, the event remains compelling with 40 artists from 20 countries presenting their work across 25 exhibitions throughout the Catalan coastal town.
The festival's program spans a broad spectrum of photographic styles, including aesthetic, experimental, documentary, photojournalistic, and even unclassifiable works. A recurring theme throughout the exhibitions is the connection between people and the distinctive landscape of rocks and light that defines the region. This relationship is particularly evident in Cloé Harent's work, created during her residency at Cap de Creus, where she demonstrates a deep dedication to raw materials and natural energies through her assured yet meditative artistic vision.
French photographer Julien Mignot has focused his lens on the horizon during his festival residency, continuing his ongoing project "Present Time," which began in Deauville and later expanded to Mexico. Each of his images captures an entire day from dawn to sunset in a single frame, representing both a technical achievement and an exploration of frozen, elusive time. Meanwhile, artist Nyo Jinyong Lian presents her series "Trust Me," which she describes as working equally on themes of trust and doubt. Her work examines life's aberrations and misinterpretations with perfectly controlled clarity, creating images with aesthetically pleasing surfaces that contain cultural and intimate subtexts, generating a gentle yet unsettling tension.
Australian photographer Lisa Sorgini contributes her compelling series "In-Passing," which focuses on intimacy, motherhood, and life while innovating narrative approaches. Sorgini's work demonstrates one of photography's primary functions: penetrating intimate spaces, exploring identity and mourning, and conveying deeply personal experiences through a highly individual visual language without the need for words.
Japanese photographer and videographer Lieh Sugai, who currently lives in New York, offers a different artistic approach while also exploring themes of identity and memory. Through her integration of analog film and chemigram experiments, she carefully manipulates light, chemicals, and photographic paper to create organic and textured images that reflect her encounters with fragmented and evolving memories. Her series "Kaikou" (Encounter) emerges from instinctive processes and random interactions, representing her attempt at emotional reconciliation between her native Japan and the United States, where she now resides.
The festival also highlights the sensitive documentary work of Italian photographer Valentina Sinis, who captures the lives of Afghan women through a lens bathed in benevolent light. Adding to the festival's diverse offerings, the surrealist influence appears through the photographic work of Man Ray, appropriately displayed in the gardens of Casa Dalí in Port Lligat. Though Man Ray experimented across multiple artistic genres, his still photography work shared many commonalities with Salvador Dalí, including mystery, aesthetics, and humor, which gave their collaborative creations the bold dreamlike quality characteristic of their prolific era.
The festival continues to broaden its scope while maintaining opportunities for direct encounters with artists, most of whom were present during the opening week to encourage exchanges and potential sales of their works. The artistic experience is enhanced by the InPhoto Festival app, which recognizes and provides detailed information about selected images throughout the exhibitions.
The InCadaqués Photo Festival runs from October 9 to 26, 2025, with exhibitions displayed in various locations throughout Cadaqués, Spain, in Catalonia. The event includes additional programming such as photography workshops, film screenings, artist signings, and special events, with complete information available at https://fr.incadaques.com/en/homepage-2025.
