Audiences explored a wide range of activities across the festival grounds, including interactive displays, exhibitions and introductory sessions, as Xposure commenced a seven-day programme dedicated to photography, film and visual storytelling. The festival brings together workshops for children and adults, public talks and panel discussions, portfolio review sessions, and opportunities to engage directly with photographers and documentary filmmakers from around the world.

This year’s edition also introduced an interactive experience that brought photography and music together, extending visual storytelling beyond the image and into live artistic performance. In one of the festival halls, photographic exhibitions were accompanied by musical renditions of classic works by Umm Kulthum and Fairuz, performed by Julie Al Bahiri, a media student at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), with her colleague Abdulrahman Tawfiq on the oud. The spontaneous performance blended seamlessly with the surrounding exhibitions, creating a lively point of interaction between visitors and the creative space, and drawing warm engagement from audiences.

The musical intervention reflects Xposure’s broader commitment to supporting emerging talent and offering the public an integrated artistic experience, where image and sound intersect within an open platform for creative exchange.

Xposure 2026 places a strong emphasis on education and professional development, with 280 portfolio review sessions, a broad programme of hands-on workshops, and discussions that examine visual storytelling across editorial, documentary and creative practices.

Spanning both indoor and outdoor spaces across Aljada’s 49,000 square metre venue, the festival presents a comprehensive agenda that includes 95 exhibitions showcasing more than 3,200 artworks. In total, more than 570 visual events are scheduled over the course of the festival, organised across 12 thematic zones.

The 10th edition of the Xposure International Photography Festival runs from 29 January to 4 February 2026 at Aljada, Sharjah.