MILAN.- MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas presents the fifteenth edition of the Italian fair dedicated to photography, taking place at Superstudio Più in Milan from Thursday 19 March to Sunday 22 March 2026 (invitation-only preview: Wednesday 18 March 2026).

Organised by Fiere di Parma and directed for the third consecutive year by Francesca Malgara, the fair is held under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan and is supported by BNL BNP Paribas — long-standing main sponsor since 2012 and title sponsor since 2025 — as well as Deloitte which, with the patronage of Fondazione Deloitte, became a main sponsor of the fair last year.

The camera lens focuses on the everyday lives of people living in the outskirts of Milan, exploring a humanity composed of faces that tell stories, dreams and aspirations. This is consistent with our IncluCity Project, developed to foster the social inclusion of young people in complex socio-cultural contexts.

The selection committee has chosen 111 exhibitors, including 76 galleries — 27 of which are international and 24 participating for the first time — confirming the fair’s role as a key point of reference for photography in Italy.

The exhibition programme is completed by 16 institutional presences (from both Italy and abroad), special projects and exhibitions, alongside 14 publishers and 6 media partners, bringing the total number of exhibitors to 111.

A programme that brings into dialogue historical and contemporary photography, documentary practices, artistic research and new technologies is presented by MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas for the 2026 edition.

This programme involves museums, international galleries, foundations, awards and editorial projects, confirming the fair as a reference platform for fine-art photography.

THE THEME OF THE 15th EDTION: METAMORPHOSIS

The fifteenth edition of MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas is titled “Metamorphosis”, a vital process of transformation affecting languages, identities, artistic practices and visual codes.

The theme refers to Ovid’s work of the same name, in which change is described as a universal condition of existence. At the same time, Metamorphosis is a key concept of contemporaneity, capable of describing both the evolution of the image — from analogue photography to digital post-production — and the cultural and social transformations that characterise our time.

The theme embraces the fair’s multiple dimensions — from curated sections to visual identity, from awards to special projects — and aims to stimulate new reflections on identity, materiality, media and the relationship between the human and the artificial. Because changing form does not mean losing recognisability, but rather acquiring new possibilities of meaning.

The fair’s lead image is a historic Polaroid by the American artist William Wegman, selected for its ironic and direct visual language, capable of evoking conceptual depth without digital artifice.

FAIR SECTIONS

The fifteenth edition of MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas is structured into four sections: the Main Section and three curated thematic sections — “Beyond Photography – Dialogue”, “Reportage Beyond Reportage” and “FOCUS Latino”.

A colour-coded system guides visitors throughout the exhibition path, with a chromatic reference applied to the various galleries or individual artists to indicate their respective section.

Beyond Photography – Dialogue
Curated by Domenico de Chirico

Now in its seventh edition, Beyond Photography – Dialogue continues its exploration of freedom of expression and the dialogue between different ideas and languages.

The project proposes a new, dynamic and open way of engaging with contemporary themes, stimulating critical reflection and the encounter between different visions.

This year’s theme, Metamorphosis, invites reflection on change as a generative force and a vital process, highlighting how every transformation — whether personal or social — can open up new expressive and relational horizons.

For this reason, Beyond Photography – Dialogue presents itself as an ideal space for interaction, in which photography enters into dialogue with other art forms — from sculpture to installation, from painting to performance and video — expressing its full dialectical potential.

Some of the galleries featured in this section are shared with the Focus Latino section, curated by Rischa Paterlini, revealing a proximity of themes and media through which exhibitors explore the multiple dimensions of photography.

Reportage Beyond Reportage
Curated by Emanuela Mazzonis

This section examines the evolution of contemporary documentary photography, in which reportage becomes an intimate and complex narrative capable of restoring meaning and depth to the photographic act.

In a context saturated with images and dominated by immediacy, Reportage Beyond Reportage invites viewers to slow their gaze and re-establish a more conscious relationship with the stories conveyed by the artists.

Today, traditional reportage gives way to a documentary photography that moves beyond the news and the “exclusive” in order to pose questions, challenge what is visible and restore depth to images, reaffirming photography’s role as a tool for revealing and understanding reality.

It is an invitation to rediscover the essence of the photographic act and the uniqueness of the image — an image capable of questioning and bringing into dialogue the elements of life unfolding before our eyes, and of restoring order to the visual world.

Following Italo Calvino’s reflections on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the multiplicity of images and meanings opens up a variety of interpretative possibilities. In the same way, Reportage Beyond Reportage invites us to embrace the complexity of the present and allow images themselves to guide us towards possible interpretations and new narrative codes.

Focus Latino
Curated by Rischa Paterlini

The Focus section presents a selection of Latin American, Iberian and diasporic artists, alongside Italian and international authors who have explored related themes connected to hybrid identities, migration and cultural transformations.

In dialogue with the fair’s theme of Metamorphosis, photography — expanded to include video, installation and artificial intelligence — becomes a vehicle for aesthetic and cultural mutations, opening up new imaginaries.

Focus Latino traverses geographies and genealogies ranging from Latin America to the Iberian Peninsula and diasporic communities, bringing together personal and collective histories, bodies, languages and senses of belonging.

Within this framework, the section intertwines its narrative with Beyond Photography – Dialogue, curated by Domenico de Chirico.

Main Section

Dedicated to projects presented by established galleries on the national and international scene centred on the theme of Metamorphosis.