We thought we’d give you a heads-up so you can put these events on your calendar for 2026. Our Calendar event and our Special Members Only event are for Supporting Members only. World Anthotype Day and World Cyanotype Day are open to everyone. Don’t hesitate to take part!
Our events in 2026 in short:
- Calendar event. Closed. Back again 1 January – 31 March, 2027 with a new theme.
- World Cyanotype Day 2026. Open 26 September – 2 October 2026. Theme: GLOBAL BLUEPRINT – People, Place, and Environment
- World Anthotype Day. Open 1 August – 31 October 2026. Mission: Find unusual plants.
More about our events:
#1
Calendar event (and perhaps a Journal & a Book)
BACK AGAIN 1 JANUARY – 31 MARCH 2027 with a new theme. Each year, members unite around a theme to celebrate alternative photographic processes, fostering creativity and community. Past themes have included tributes to Anna Atkins (2023) and Sir John Herschel (2025), as well as creative challenges such as Composites (2024) and Colour (2026). This members-only event encourages experimentation and sharing. The results become beautiful, inspiring publications – calendars, journals, and books – created by artists, for artists, and shared with everyone to spread our passion for alternative photography. Exclusive to Supporting Members.
#2
World Cyanotype Day
OPEN 26 SEPTEMBER – 2 OCTOBER 2026. THEME: GLOBAL BLUEPRINT – People, Place, and Environment. World Cyanotype Day started back in 2015 with Judy Sherrod and a collective of artists called Shootapalooza. The collective started with the idea of making flags as a worldwide opportunity to create a work of art. Since 2020, we have been supporting the event with online galleries and social media coverage. Each year has a theme, in 2025 artists worked on the theme Cultivating Community, 2024 it was Enchantment, Inheritance in 2023, Enlighten in 2022, Rejuvenation in 2021, and Interconnected in 2020. To get notified, get the Cyanotype Newsletter. World Cyanotype Day is free to enter and open to all.
#3
World Anthotype Day – co-lab anthotype research and expand our database of emulsions
OPEN 1 AUGUST – 31 OCTOBER 2026. MISSION: FIND UNUSUAL PLANTS. In 2012, Malin Fabbri published the how-to book Anthotypes as a result of several years of research into anthotypes and sustainable, non-toxic processes. The book inspired many and helped further the popularity of anthotypes. In 2022, World Anthotype Day was started here at AlternativePhotography.com to continue the research into pigments and emulsions, now with the help of many more researchers.
The Anthotype beginners guide lists 100 emulsions and Anthotype Complete Guide around 140, which is only a fraction of all the pigments available, so now, every year, hundreds of artists and fellow researchers all around the world come together and pool their research and notes on how different pigments and plants work. The artists share their notes, and they are freely available in the database as well as in the Anthotype Emulsion books. After volume 1 in 2022 and volume 2 in 2023, we were wondering if there possibly could be more to share. Volume 3 in 2024 proved this as artists really stretched the boundaries. We have complete faith that volume 4 will be just as exciting! Volume 4 will be a double issue from 2025-2026.
For the next World Anthotype Day, artists around the world are again invited, and we accept entries from August 1st – October 31st 2026. It is free to enter, but we appreciate it if you help us with the costs – for the price of a coffee. The mission is to try to find an unusual emulsion and to co-lab to expand the database. The exposure times are long, so start early. The anthotype can be made any time since the previous World Anthotype Day.
World Anthotype Day
World Cyanotype Day