The Jakarta International Photo Festival (JIPFest) 2026 curatorial team, consisting of Chelsea Chua (Singapore) and Yoppy Pieter (Indonesia), has selected 22 photography and multimedia projects from 17 countries to be presented at the festival’s Photo Exhibition, taking place from 11 to 20 September 2026.
The selected projects came from an open call, which ran from 6 April to 11 May 2026, as well as from curators’ invitation. The final selection was made from 408 submissions representing artists from 58 countries.
This year’s theme, RESILIENCE, invites us to reflect on the many forms resilience can take in a world shaped by constant change, uncertainty, and overlapping crises. From conflict and social inequality to the climate crisis, these challenges continue to influence how individuals and communities endure, adapt, and find hope.
Through this theme, JIPFest 2026 encourages audiences to see resilience not as a singular or heroic quality, but as something expressed in diverse experiences and contexts. The selected projects offer different perspectives on how people, communities, cultures, and environments navigate change, loss, and the possibilities of a shared future.
Chelsea Chua, curator, observed that “The quality of the submissions to the festival this year made the selection process an extremely difficult one, which also shows how resilience as a theme is so resonant and important to the current moment.” She added, “The projects that we have chosen feature different aesthetics and methodologies that speak to narratives of survival and struggle, but also to the persistence and fragility of memory, spirit and history. I hope that the exhibition will enable conversations about how resilience is so intimately entwined with the ways in which we live our lives and build communities. While we might be geographically distant from each other, the stories we explore in the festival connect us to a broader experience of what it means to be human and to dream of a better future.”
Yoppy Pieter, curator, reflected, “The selection process reshaped my understanding of resilience. At first, I expected stories of hardship, survival, and recovery. Instead, I encountered a much broader interpretation. The selected works span a wide range of approaches, from collaborative practices and classical documentary photography to conceptual and experimental forms. Across these projects, resilience emerges not only through experiences of crisis, but also through care, memory, courage, cultural preservation, our relationship with nature, and collective action. What stayed with me most was the honesty of each artist’s voice and the way these works invite us to see resilience not simply as the ability to endure, but also as the courage to care, transform, and imagine new futures.”
“RESILIENCE comes in many forms. This year’s shortlisted artworks and program direction reflect the diversity of subject matter, materials, medium, social background and emotional landscapes that, ultimately, is interconnected. We present projects that bring our attention and awareness to the crises that we are facing as a community, from personal and family histories to grassroots movements that push for welfare, climate justice, and conflict resolution. All of this may feel like they are isolated events, but it’s all connected to systemic political legacy and economic structure that shape the world as we know it today. In my view, when we talk about resilience, it’s also a hopeful call to reconnect and become stronger together.” said Nin Djani, program manager.
The selected projects will be exhibited at Taman Ismail Marzuki, from 11-20 September 2026, in Cikini, Central Jakarta. Please find below the list of exhibiting photographers and artists:
- Ahmed Alaqra – Palestine
- Artem Humilevskyi – Ukraine
- Chantal Pinzi – Italy
- Duy-Phuong Le Nguyen – Vietnam
- Federico Estol – Uruguay
- Gabriel Barreto Bentin – Peru
- Gui Christ – Brazil
- Jake Homovich – USA
- Juliana Tan – Singapore
- Karl Mancini – Italy
- Kunga Tashi Lepcha – India
- Liss Fenwick – Australia
- Min Ma Naing – Myanmar
- Natthaya Thaidecha – Thailand
- Nicola Muirhead – Bermuda
- Nopri Ismi – Indonesia
- Ore Huiying – Singapore
- Ryan Andrew – Indonesia
- Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo – Colombia
- Swastik Pal – India
- Tace Stevens – Australia
- Yuki Furusawa – Japan
