Philly Photo Day 2026

On Monday, April 6, TILT opens submissions for Philly Photo Day: How We Stay Free, a special week-long event transforming Philadelphia into a site of creative inspiration. The annual event returns with a new theme inspired by the nation’s Semiquincentennial, inviting tourists or residents with a camera or smartphone to capture images of Philadelphia that respond to the prompt, “How do we stay free?” Participants must submit their photos online by April 12 for inclusion in the Philly Photo Day exhibition, which will be displayed for free to the public in TILT’s Project Gallery, located in The Crane Arts Building, from May 13 to June 27, including during InVISION on April 30.

Philly Photo Day: How We Stay Free welcomes all to share their vision of the city’s communities as they work to respond to the prompt for this year’s event. The photographers in How We Stay Free are marking how protest movements help us to stay free, but individuals are also doing that each day, through even the most ordinary moments. Asking Philadelphians to show how they stay free in their day-to-day lives opens up possibilities for sharing community gatherings, family relationships, or encounters with nature. Celebrating freedom as a process and lived experience. And what better way to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary than by sparking conversation through images made by the people.