From 8 to 12 May, Valencia will hold a week of activities and cultural proposals related to photojournalism and documentalism, 6 conferences, 8 exhibitions, night projections, workshops and portfolios. More information: http://www.photonfestival.com/

This edition invites to reflect about the consequences of climate change as one of the most important challenges of our time. This issue will be addressed by two exhibitions. The first one is “Killing The World I” at the Cultural Centre La Nau, headquarters of Photon València. It aims to raise awareness of the causes and effects of climate change and the important role that we all play in our day-to-day actions. The second one is “Killing The World II” and will be announced in the EMT bus shelters and the buses themselves. This exhibition has been possible thanks to the collaboration of EMT.  The rest of the exhibitions share the same theme: the harm that human beings cause to society.

Photon Festival intends to host for the first time in Spain the yearly FotoEvidence Book Award alongside with World Press Photo. It recognises documentary photographers whose projects have values and show commitment with human rights. The winner of this edition is the photojournalist Josué Rivas for “Standing Strong”, a documentary on the resistance of the people to the construction of the oil pipeland Dakota.

As every year, apart from the exhibitions there will be 6 Photon conferences that will take place at the Cultural Centre La Nau. Javier Corso is the winner of #BecaPhoton 2015, the director of OAK Magazine and an ambassador of Sigma. He will lecture conferences on Thursday 10. Other people who will participate in the conferences are Javier Zurita, Ofelia de Pablo, Hanna Jarzabek, Marta Soszynska y Alberto Rojas, Lola Hierro or Andoni Lubaki.

Night projections of PhotOn 2018 are free and opened to the general public. They will take place in the cloisters of La Nau. Among them, you will be able to watch reference works and projects of photography and multimedia schools in collaboration with national and international professionals.

The newness this year is the Acquisition Award that counts with the sponsorship of Cañada Blanch Foundation with a financial contribution of €2000. In this way, the festival supports photojournalism and documentary photography in the field of collecting. The winner of the 8th edition of #BecaPhoton will receive a monetary prize worth €1000 and a Sigma lens. A hundred of his books will be printed by La ImprentaCG, too.

Photon Festival releases in 2018 a new grant for young photographers. The new Enrique Algarra Award to support students that develop photographic projects is personally sponsored by Enrique Algarra. He has been a photographer and a professor of EASD in Valencia for more than 30 years. He collaborates with the agency Fotostock. Apart from this award, there is also BECA PHOTON for novice authors.

The festival has the objective to become an international start-up for novice talents. In this edition the Photo European Network Award (PHEN) in charge of the Budapest Photo Festival will be announced. They will choose the winner among the finalists and will also produce an exhibition to show it in the 2019 festival edition in Hungary.

The festival was created in Valencia. Nowadays, its commitment to showcase the important role of photojournalism in society still remains intact.

For the eighth year in a row, it counts with the sponsorship of Cañada Blanch Foundation and has its headquarters at the Cultural Centre La Nau. In 2018, the grant PhotOn Festival counts with the support of the Cañada Blanch Foundation and the Cultural Centre La Nau as its official headquarters. Fundación Caja Mediterraneo, EMT València and Metrovalencia are important collaborators and media-partners of the festival.