Personality: The Face and Its Absence

A curated international photography exhibition

August 22 – September 15, 2026 @ PH21 Gallery Barcelona newsletter

Portraiture emerged as one of the most prominent genres of depictive media early in the history of the visual arts, and tacit or explicit rules, conventions, and cultural expectations have always influenced the ways in which artists approached the genre. Photography is no exception; numerous different and characteristic styles of portraiture have emerged throughout the history of the medium.

Today, we live in an exciting new era for portraiture. There has never been a time in human history when so many portraits and self-portraits were produced day after day as in the era of digital technologies. Photographers have responded to these cultural, social, and technological changes by reinterpreting the age-old genre of portraiture in countless creative ways.

We usually assume that faces are necessary components of portraiture. However, we may learn just as much about the character, personality, identity, or presence of a person by looking at images that depict other parts of their bodies, gestures, clothing, objects, surroundings, or places associated with them. Not focusing on the face may open up new dimensions of interpretation, while traditional portraits may continue to reveal the complexity of personality through expression, pose, light, setting, and photographic style.

PH21 Gallery invites photographers to submit their work for a group exhibition themed Personality: The Face and Its Absence. We welcome submissions from all photographers interested in this genre, providing them with an opportunity to share their work with a broader international audience through the exposure offered by PH21 Gallery. The theme is broadly construed: from traditional fine art portraits to selfies, from facial portraits to images that portray personality through the body, objects, spaces, traces, absence, or symbolic associations. Indeed, we are interested in all possible creative photographic interpretations of the theme. We welcome all types of photo-based images, including multiple exposures, photomontages, photograms, moving-image works, and AI-generated photo-based images.

This exhibition will be showcased in PH21 Gallery’s beautiful new venue, situated in the heart of Barcelona’s historic Gothic Quarter.

Submission deadlines

Early bird deadline: June 15, 2026
Final deadline: June 22, 2026