In its way, the Catalan autumn photography event is establishing its presence in the international artistic landscape. While the ninth edition features fewer image celebrities, it’s still worth a visit, with forty artists from twenty countries and no fewer than twenty-five exhibitions. With a program that broadens the spectrum of photographic styles—aesthetic, experimental, documentary, photojournalistic, and even… unclassifiable—the connection between people, and with this land of rocks and light, is ever-present.
As proof, this environment is revealed through the materiality of Cloé Harent’s work during her stay at Cap de Creus; a true dedication to raw materials and energies, resurrected by her assured yet meditative gaze.
Julien Mignot, meanwhile, has turned toward the horizon. Taking advantage of his residency at the festival, he continues his Present Time, a project initially begun in Deauville and later in Mexico. Each view is a long pause that encompasses a day, from dawn to sunset; a technical feat and the feeling of frozen, elusive time.
Nyo Jinyong Lian’s productions—Trust Me—work as much on trust as on doubt, according to the artist herself. Life’s aberrations and other misinterpretations are expressed here with a perfectly controlled lucidity. The pleasant and aesthetic surface of her images exudes a cultural and intimate subtext, distilling a gentle and unsettling tension. To be continued.
Photographing intimacy, motherhood, and life while renewing the narrative, sums up Lisa Sorgini’s beautiful series, In-Passing. The Australian photographer subtly demonstrates one of the primary functions of photography: penetrating intimate spaces, identity, or mourning, exploring and, without a word, convey in a highly personal visual language..
A very different register for Japanese photographer and videographer Lieh Sugai, who lives in New York, but who also explores identity and memory. “By integrating analog film and chemigram experiment, I carefully shape light, products, and photographic paper to create organic and textured images that reflect my encounters with fragmented and changing memories.” Through instinctive process and random interactions, the series Kaikou (Encounter) is intended to reflect her attempt at emotional reconciliation between her native country and the United States, where she lives.
Also noteworthy is the sensitive documentary work of Italian photographer Valentina Sinis, on the lives of Afghan women, through an eye bathed in a benevolent light.
InCadaqués wouldn’t be what it is without the surrealist touch, as brought by the photographic work of Man Ray, logically installed in the gardens of Casa Dalí, in Port Lligat. Although a dabbler in all genres, the American artist also experimented with still images and was one of the Catalan eccentric’s accomplices. They shared many commonalities: mystery, aesthetics, and humor, which gave their creations the bold dreamlike quality of a prolific era.
The festival, which seems to be broadening its scope, continues to offer encounters with the artists, most of whom were present during the first week, and thus encourages exchanges and sales of works. The artistic offering is supported by the InPhoto Festival app, which recognizes and provides information on the selected images.
Jean-Jacques Ader
InCadaqués Photo Festival, exhibitions from October 9 to 26, 2025 in various locations in Cadaqués (Spain, Catalonia); photo workshops, film screenings, signings, events etc. information: https://fr.incadaques.com/en/homepage-2025
