The best free photo exhibitions in Paris
PARIS AND ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
Eleven free exhibitions
Photography is celebrating its two hundredth anniversary, and much of what's on display in Paris and the Île-de-France region is free. Eleven free exhibitions, from galleries in the Marais to suburban photography centers, are listed from the most prominent to the most obscure.
Humanist Paris, from Doisneau to Sabine Weiss, at La Galerie Rouge
For the bicentenary of photography, the gallery brings together those who have traveled the world with images of Paris. Édouard Boubat, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Louis Stettner and Sabine Weiss present very different perspectives, and Martine Barrat responds with the Goutte d'Or district of the early 1980s.
LA GALERIE ROUGE
From October 1 to December 12, 2026
Irving Penn at Thaddaeus Ropac Marais
From 7 From November 2026 to January 30, 2027, the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in the Marais district is showing portraits by Irving Penn, Marcel Duchamp, and Elizabeth Peyton: images that rival paintings, with free admission. Read our article.
THADDAEUS ROPAC MARAIS GALLERY
From November 7, 2026 to January 30, 2027
7 rue Debelleyme, 75003 - Metro: Saint-Sébastien - Froissart (Line 8)
Tue. to Sat. 10am-7pm
Free admission
Pierre et Gilles at the Templon Gallery
The Templon Gallery celebrates fifty years of collaboration between Pierre et Gilles with Rose for you, and rose for me, from November 7 to December 30, 2026. Around twenty portrait-paintings created over the last two years, hand-painted photographs, are on display. Free admission. Read our article.
TEMPLON GALLERY
From November 7 to December 30, 2026
30 rue Beaubourg, 75003 - Metro: Rambuteau (Line 11)
Tue. to Sat. 10am-7pm
Free admission
Serge Najjar at the Lahumière Gallery
From October 17 to December 19, 2026, the Lahumière Gallery, in the Marais district, is exhibiting the photographs of Serge Najjar: angles and flat planes captured on construction sites in Lebanon, and the first photographer to be featured in the gallery's history. Free admission. Read our article.
GALERIE LAHUMIÈRE
From October 17 to December 19, 2026
70 rue des Tournelles, 75003 - Metro: Chemin Vert (Line 8)
Tue. to Sat., 2 pm - 7 pm
Free admission
Kwame Brathwaite, Black is Beautiful, at the Maison Doisneau
The Robert Doisneau House of Photography in Gentilly presents Black is Beautiful until March 14, 2027. Kwame Brathwaite recounts an evening in January 1962 in Harlem, when young Black women, rejected by all the modeling agencies in New York, walked the runway. York. Read our article.
ROBERT DOISNEAU HOUSE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Until March 14, 2027
1 rue de la Division-du-Général-Leclerc, 94250 Gentilly - RER B Gentilly
Wed. to Fri. 1:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 1:30 p.m.-7 p.m.
Free admission
Paris 1, Mark Heier, at Studio Harcourt
The studio in the 16th arrondissement, which has been sculpting faces with a projector since the 1930s, entrusts its space to a photographer from outside the studio. Mark Heier hangs his work in the studio's own living rooms, and L'Album de la France unfolds alongside it, showcasing nearly a century of archives.
STUDIO HARCOURT
From November 2 to 14, 2026
PhotoSaintGermain, the free Left Bank art trail
For its fifteenth edition, the festival takes over some thirty galleries, bookstores, and institutions in the 5th, 6th, and 7th arrondissements. The Maison d'Auguste Comte, the Mineralogy Museum, Deyrolle, and the Hôtel la Louisiane are opening their doors to photography, and the Eugène-Delacroix Museum is holding a special evening event on November 9th.
PHOTOSAINTGERMAIN
From November 5 to 28, 2026
Robert Burley, Great Lakes, at the Canadian Cultural Centre
The Canadian Cultural Centre presents Great Lakes, an exhibition by Toronto photographer Robert Burley, until November 14, 2026. Beaches, dikes, industrial wastelands, and reclaimed forests: a slow meditation, free admission, on a territory shared by two countries. Read our article.
CANADIAN CULTURAL CENTER
Until November 14, 2026
130 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 - Metro: Miromesnil (lines 9/13)
Mon. to Fri. 10am-6pm - Closed Sat. and Sun. (exceptionally open Sat., November 14)
Free admission
Didier Lefèvre at La Contemporaine in Nanterre
La Contemporaine, in Nanterre, is exhibiting Didier Lefèvre from November 18, 2026 to May 15, 2027, with free admission. Three hundred previously unpublished images and documents from his archives—notebooks, posters, contact sheets—reveal another side of the Photographer's hero. Read our article.
LA CONTEMPORAINE
From November 18, 2026 to May 15, 2027
184 cours Nicole-Dreyfus, 92000 Nanterre - RER A Nanterre-Université
Tue. to Sat. 1 p.m.-7 p.m.
Free admission
Isabelle Le Minh at the Centre photographique d’Île-de-France
The Centre photographique d’Île-de-France, in Pontault-Combault, is exhibiting Isabelle Le Minh until December 20, 2026. Her series Traumachromes, photographed in Rochester on Kodak film and then printed on silk, tells the story of a single operation. The ruin of an empire. Read our article.
ÎLE-DE-FRANCE PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTER
From October 4 to December 20, 2026
107 av. of the Republic, 77340 Pontault-Combault - RER E Émerainville-Pontault-Combault
Wed. to Fri. 1 p.m.-6 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 2 p.m.-6 p.m.
Free admission
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200LUX, 33 photo festivals at the Maison des Arts in Créteil
The MAC, Maison des Arts in Créteil, is hosting 200LUX until December 19, 2026, with free admission. Thirty-three photography festivals, from La Gacilly to Mulhouse, are exhibiting together to celebrate two hundred years of photography, each with an artist from its program.
Read our article
[compact]MAC - MAISON DES ARTS DE CRÉTEIL
From September 19 to December 19, 2026
Pl. Salvador-Allende, 94000 Créteil - Metro: Créteil-Préfecture (Line 8)
Tue. to Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Free admission
Find other bicentennial events, including those with admission fees, in our selection of photo exhibitions to see in Paris.
