Les Rencontres de la Photographie de Marrakech return 7 to 10 October 2026 for a sixth edition at Meydene on M Avenue. The theme is two centuries of light, tied to 1826, the year of the first permanent photograph. The official festival site is already publishing selected series. This is not the film festival. It is four days of exhibitions, screenings, talks, and a discovery prize in Guéliz, not the medina.
Meydene, not Jemaa el-Fna
M Avenue is the newer commercial spine in the Hivernage and Guéliz side of town. Meydene is the cultural box inside that development. If your map pin is still on the square, you will be 20 minutes away in a taxi that does not want to go north at dusk. The Picter open call, Le Brief, and the festival's own site all repeat the same four dates and the same venue. That is the rare clean fact in a Marrakech calendar that usually slides.
Voix Plurielles, the Casablanca association behind the Rencontres, has run this since 2016. Abdellah Oustad is the name attached to the growth from a couple of thousand visitors to more than 8,000 in 2024. 2025 went to Dakhla for the Green March anniversary. 2026 comes home to Marrakech and pairs with the OFF of Rencontres d'Arles. Twenty winners from the "Two Centuries of Light" call showed five works each at Galerie Triptyque in Arles, 3 to 20 July. Their three-minute videos screen here in October. Thirty finalists get two-minute videos and a page on rencontres-photos.com.
What is actually on the site right now
The festival homepage is already a stack of series, not a teaser. Yzza Slaoui's Prix de la Découverte sits at the top, with a call that opened 15 August and closed 21 September for a 2027 solo or screening plus a 2,000 euro grant. Other published series include Vladimir Karamazov's Belene prison work, Neil Kramer's Domestic Theater, Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Gloria Oyarzabal, and Chinky Shukla. That is the tone: documentary and conceptual, not hotel-lobby Morocco.
The programme will add exhibitions of Moroccan, African, and European contemporary work, monumental outdoor projections, lectures, and workshops. Exact door times were not on the homepage when I checked. Treat Meydene like a mall-adjacent arts hall: go in daylight for the walls, stay for the evening projections. M Avenue has food. You do not need to detour to the medina between rooms.
How this sits next to the other October dates
Unibet Open occupies Casino de Marrakech from 24 September to 4 October. Folklore Days are listed 22 to 25 October on their own site. The short film festival already has a piece on this site for September. Do not mash those into one "culture week." The photography days are four dates in a new-build venue. Folklore Days are parades and crafts. The poker festival is a casino. You can do photography and a riad dinner the same night. You cannot do all three festivals as one itinerary without a driver and a headache.
Maison de la Photographie in the medina is a different institution, a private museum of historic Moroccan pictures at 46 Rue Bin Lafnadek. It is a useful same-week visit if you want 19th-century plates after a day of contemporary work. It is not a festival venue.
If you only have one afternoon, go 8 or 9 October. Opening days are for speeches. Closing days are for packing. The videos from Arles are the thing you will not see on Instagram in the same cut.
Practical Details
- Dates: 7 to 10 October 2026
- Time: Daytime exhibitions, evening screenings. Confirm door hours on the festival site the week of.
- Venue: Meydene, M Avenue, Marrakech (Guéliz / Hivernage)
- Nearest transit: Taxi or bus toward M Avenue. Not a medina walk.
- Price: Festival pages have not posted a single public ticket price. Budget for a free or low door and paid workshops if they open a till.
- Website: Rencontres de la Photographie de Marrakech
