PHotoEspaña 2010

Now in its 13th year, the annual PHotoEspaña Festival remains a critical forum for international as well as Spanish photography and visual art.

The 2010 Festival features almost 70 exhibitions showcasing the work of over 370 artists from 41 different countries. Key elements include the OpenPHoto exhibition, which profiles projects from embassies and cultural institutes from Germany to Mexico, and PHE Encounters, a series of live debates held by some of the profession’s greatest experts and curators which will review the state of Spanish photography. The public programme also includes guided tours, family workshops, special events such as the Night of Photography - part of the Festival's street programme, which will include a 'PHotoMarathon', with the best images taken by the 'PHotoRunners' screened at the end of a predetermined route - and online features such as the Photography Scavenger Hunt, as well as interviews with international photographers and curators involved in the Festival.

An increasingly important part of PHotoEspaña in recent years has been the Best Photography Book Award, which profiles the pick of the crop in photography publishing from the previous 12 months. Books are entered under three categories: Best National (Spanish) Photography Book, Best International Photography Book, for which Phaidon’s Ancient Light, by renowned astronomer/photographer David Malin has been nominated, and Key Publisher of the Year. The 100 shortlisted entries for the Best Photography Book Award of the year will be exhibited in the Vestibule of Matadero Madrid – the city’s old slaughterhouse – for the duration of the Festival.