Photo London takes the National Hall at Olympia from 13 to 16 May 2027, with a VIP Preview on Wednesday 12 May. The twelfth edition of the fair.
Photo London was established in 2004 by Daniel Newburg and held at the Royal Academy until 2006, moved to Old Billingsgate for 2007, and then stopped. It was relaunched in 2015 at Somerset House, where it drew 20,000 visitors and seventy galleries from more than twenty countries in its first year back, and it has grown every edition since. Photography had no fair of its own in London before it and has had one ever since.
The medium needs a fair more than most. A photograph exists in an edition, its value depends on when the print was made and by whom, and none of that is legible from a screen, so the trade in it is built on being able to stand in front of the object and ask. The fair also runs a public programme of exhibitions, talks and awards alongside the dealers, which is unusual for a commercial floor.
The twelfth edition runs at the National Hall at Olympia from Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 May 2027, with the preview the day before on Wednesday 12 May. Olympia is a change of building for the fair, and its scale allows more galleries than Somerset House could hold. Gallery applications open a year ahead. Awards are given alongside the fair, and the public programme is announced with the exhibitor list.