The “Picture This” gala, a fundraising event held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto that also marked CONTACT’s 30th year, took place on February 24, 2026. There, just for the night, Jake Kimble’s piece Pow, Right in the Kisser was mounted on the wall, the animated crowd of patrons and photography lovers beyond hoisting numbered paper paddles to bid at the live auction. Like much of Kimble’s photographic oeuvre, Pow, Right in the Kisser is a self-portrait. In the image, the artist shoves streams of tinsel into their face, nearly swallowing the material — “Pow, smacking me right in the face.” 

A multidisciplinary Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) artist, as well as curatorial director of the Indigenous-focused gallery Ceremonial Art in Vancouver, Jake Kimble grew up in Treaty 8 territory in the Northwest Territories, on a dirt road. They will soon be showing in New York City and all over Canada: Fredericton, Vancouver and Toronto at United Contemporary, for a solo exhibition in October. Clearly, they’re much in demand, as their dozen-plus flights since the beginning of the year alone can attest – “I’m so incredibly grateful, but I also do have to go tree planting this summer to balance out my carbon emissions,” Kimble laughs.

Kimble, whose work was shown alongside Edward Burtynsky, Suzy Lake, Ken Lum and Kent Monkman at the gala, is the kind of exciting emerging artist that CONTACT has foregrounded to maximum effect. And they’ve been participating in CONTACT since 2023, when they were selected to mount their work on large billboards at King and Shaw, in a cross-country partnership with Capture Photography Festival based out of Vancouver. “That was my very first public art piece in Toronto,” Kimble says. “It’s been so lovely to have this history with CONTACT and I look forward to whatever they do every year.”

CONTACT Festival’s three decades of success is no small feat for any organization. And it’s this eye on the future of photography that makes it evermore relevant. In the last 29 years, it has exhibited 8,500 artists to over 20 million attendees. Darcy Killeen, the festival’s CEO, emphasizes that, despite being the world’s largest photography event, CONTACT remains a grassroots organization at its core. “We are a festival for artists and very proud to put young and emerging photographers side by side with national and international super stars,” he says. 

The Open Call Exhibitions, for example, have been at the centre of the festival since its beginnings. These calls encourage submissions from any lens-based artists who can organize and partner with a publicly accessible Toronto venue. “CONTACT is a grassroots organization founded in democracy,” Killeen continues, “And these exhibitions are crucial to fulfill our mandate.”

When I ask him about his most memorable standouts, Killeen says, “I can’t stop thinking of Carrie Mae Weems. She was such an important part of the festival in a six-part exhibition a few years ago that completely took over the city. But there are so many that hold the same value and meaning to me so I can’t really highlight a few. I love each and everyone of them.”

This year’s festival, kicking off on May 1st and taking over sites across Toronto, promises to arouse just as much fervour. The 2026 Core Program features curated Exhibitions and Public Art Installations highlighting projects by Canadian and international artists and photographers. In 2026, lens-based and mixed-media works examine subjects including decolonial practices, community-building, migration, personal and collective memory, politics and poetics.

The artists featured across the Core Program include Ernesto Cabral de Luna, Delali Cofie, Marlene Creates, Larry Fink, Tim Georgeson, Hassan Hajjaj, April Hickox, Risa Horowitz, Spring Hurlbut, Alvin Luong, Arnaud Maggs, Thandiwe Muriu, Lu Pan, Celia Perrin Sidarous, Dawit L. Petros, Yann Pocreau, Jessica Slipp, Sheida Soleimani, Adam Swica, Ho Tam, Sin Wai Kin, Bo Wang, and Ian Willms.

Photo, top of article: Jake Kimble, Grow Up #1, 2022, installation view, 460 King St W, Toronto, 2023