The Photography Show presented by AIPAD is the longest-running fair dedicated to photography in the world. The 2026 edition at the Park Avenue Armory is filled with jaw-dropping classics and eye-opening new talent. We attended opening night and walked the full floor so you know what’s worth slowing down for.

_{Stephen Wilkes “The Four Seasons, View of Central Park, Summer, Day to Night” (2024)}

Stephen Wilkes, The Four Seasons, View of Central Park — Day to Night | Holden Luntz Gallery | Booth A12

You’ve probably seen Wilkes’s Day to Night series on social media before, but standing in front of it at the Armory is something else. Each Central Park view collapses an entire day from each of the four seasons into a single frame: dawn light bleeding into deep blue dusk. The city’s rhythms and life seem to dance around the image without ever cutting away. Fireworks above the Upper West Side during the summer, the meadow powdered with snow in the winter. It’s a technically staggering series of works that covers a full year of attention to detail, and well worth seeing in person.

_{Gina Osterloh “Grid, Eyes” (2020)}

Gina Osterloh | Higher Pictures Booth A16

Higher Pictures stands out in a way that no other gallery on this list does: they’ve transformed their booth into Gina Osterloh’s photographs. Rather than hanging Osterloh’s work against a plain white wall, the space itself allows you to step into the piece, as if you were in Osterloh’s stage. The result is immersive in a way that most fair presentations aren’t, and it makes you look at the photographs through quite an intimate lens.

_{Victor Llorente Aperture Portfolio Installation View}

Aperture Portfolio Prize 2026 | Aperture Booths P1 & P2

2026 marks the twentieth annual Aperture Portfolio Prize, representing two decades of discovering, exhibiting, and publishing a broad and exciting range of styles by artists working in the medium of photography. This year, five artists were shortlisted from over a thousand submissions across 64 countries: Olivia Crumm, Victor Llorente(above), Megha Singha, Aaryan Sinha, and Farren van Wyk. All five are on view, and by the time you’re reading this, the winner will have been announced. Check Aperture’s channels to find out who took it.

_{Jefferson Hayman “Across the Sea”(2022)}

Jefferson Hayman | Michael Shapiro Photographs Booth D18

Walk the floor long enough and the visual language becomes predictable fast: black frame, white mat, repeat. Hayman’s work, presented by Michael Shapiro Photographs, cuts through all of that. His timeless photographs are mounted in vintage frames that feel considered rather than decorative, an intentional decision that makes a big difference in how you receive the images. He’s also got one of the best Artist Statements of the entire show;

“Hayman is an artist who is fond of chardonnay and dogs. Examples of his work can be seen on the wall directly in front of you.”

_{Yi Hsuan Lai “Wander Wonders” (2025)}

Yi Hsuan Lai | SoMad Booth F10

Lai is one of the artists presenting in Focal Point, AIPAD’s new solo-presentation sector, and her work stops you mid-step. At first glance, you’d assume heavy Photoshop, the images have a composite, layered quality that feels digitally constructed. They’re not. Everything is done in camera, and the result sits somewhere between photography and sculpture. They combine elements like water balloons, holes in the final work that allow you to look through to the wall behind, and often the photographer herself. These are definitely works worth exploring and spending time with.

_{Sohei Nishino, Diorama Map Venice (2026)}

Sohei Nishino, Diorama Map Venice (2026) | IBASHO Booth B4

Nishino builds his maps by walking a place obsessively, photographing everything, then piecing the prints together into a massive, handmade collage. The Venice edition is exactly what it sounds like: iconic palazzos and churches, fireworks bursting overhead, and gondolas and vaporettos threading through the canals, all rendered from hundreds (possibly thousands) of individual photographs. It looks like a map, but at the same time, like a memory of a city.

_{Wang Ningde, Water Ripples(2022)}

Wang Ningde, Water Ripples | Robert Klein Gallery Booth A15

One of the more formally inventive pieces at the fair. Ningde’s work is built on a grid of transparent acrylic panels, illuminated from above. As you move around it, the photograph shimmers. Not as a trick or a gimmick, but in a way that genuinely feels like water catching light. Each of the acrylic panels allows a colorful shadow to be cast on the panel of the wall, resulting in a mesmerizing viewing experience. It’s one of those works that can’t quite be captured in a photograph of a photograph. You have to be in the room.

The Photography Show runs through Sunday, April 26 at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, and if you’re going to be attending, make sure to save this guide.