MODE: The World’s Photography Festival

Polly built Black Women Photographers in direct response to the excuses she kept hearing from editors and brands about why they weren't hiring more diversely.Polly built Black Women Photographers in direct response to the excuses she kept hearing from editors and brands about why they weren't hiring more diversely. Drawing from her experience on both sides of that conversation, as a working photographer and as a photo editor, she gives attendees a practical framework for navigating the industry, marketing themselves across markets, and building the kind of visibility that leads to real work.

For most photographers, walking up to a stranger and asking to take their portrait is one of the hardest parts of the job. Nico has made it his signature. In this photowalk through Minneapolis, he leads participants through his approach in real time, covering how to read a situation, build rapport quickly, and make images that feel genuine rather than grabbed. Equal parts workshop and walk, this session is for anyone who has ever wanted to photograph people but held back.

Abbie Parr demystifies one of the techniques that stopped her in her tracks early in her career: remote camera work. In this workshop, Abbie will walk participants through rigging and triggering remote cameras in real time. A beginner-friendly and hands-on session that will cover gear, placement, and the fundamentals that make remote setups possible, whether you're shooting a basketball backboard, a catwalk, or center field.

Ryan demonstrates two techniques that redefine what a photographer can do with existing images: recreating the classic Matrix-style bullet time effect using just two cameras in tandem with the latest in AI generation tools, and using AI to manipulate imagery in previously impossible ways, changing the lighting of an image, removing or adding elements, and even turning a still photograph into a layered, animatable video element faster than ever. His philosophy throughout is the same: input real imagery to enhance with AI, never generating from scratch.

After two decades shooting for places like Brooklyn Vegan and Bowery Presents and spending two years as photo editor at Impose magazine, Edwina Hay has a complete view of how access actually works in live music photography. This session covers the practical path from showing up without a pass to becoming a house photographer, including how to align with outlets, what publicists are looking for, and how to work the grind of a multi-venue festival.

AP Staff Photographer Abbie Parr traces her path from her first job at the Rocky Mountain Collegian to covering the Olympics for The Associated Press, using a slideshow of her work to anchor a conversation about community, the IOC Young Photographers program, and how to prepare for covering your first major event.

How do you get hired by brands? How do you price a shoot that includes both photo and video? And what do the people making those hiring decisions actually look for? This panel brings together photographers, advertising producers, and brand marketing leads for a conversation about how commercial photography really works, from the first email to the final deliverable.

Steven traces his journey from shooting the streets of New York to co-founding Street Dreams Magazine and running a gallery in Tokyo, exploring how a communal and validating approach to photography opened doors he never expected. A candid look at what it takes to turn a passion into a body of work that travels.

A deep dive into the history of photography, exploring the development of photographic processes throughout the nineteenth century and the visual culture of the American West. Drawing on her doctoral research from the Université de Paris, Jessica examines how technological innovations, photographic practices, and visual representations shaped the medium during a period of rapid change.

A panel with food and beverage photographers on craft, culture, and storytelling, exploring how commercial food imagery can function as a cultural force rather than just a marketing vehicle. A grounded discussion about what it means to make work that is intentional, honest, and genuinely connected to the human experience of food.

Past grant recipients and judges from the Flickr x Black Women Photographers program gather to reflect on the work the grant has supported and what sustained investment in underrepresented voices looks like in practice. A candid conversation about community, visibility, and the long-term impact of intentional funding in photography.

YK leads participants through the streets of Minneapolis, training their eyes to notice the details, shadows, and fleeting moments that most people walk past. Followed by a group edit session where participants fine-tune their images together.

A small group session limited to five participants. Each person takes a turn in front of and behind the lens, guided by Naska through his process in real time. Intimate, focused, and built for people who want to go deep.

Singapore-based street photographer and self-taught creative YK takes you through his journey from shooting city architecture on an iPhone 4 to becoming one of Asia's most followed photographers. With over a million Instagram followers and clients including Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Porsche, and Apple, YK gives a cinematic, story-driven talk about learning to see the details others walk past, and building a global creative career on curiosity.

A conversation with photographers who have stayed committed to film as their primary medium, covering why they do it, how they sustain it commercially, and what the format still teaches them that digital cannot.

Sandro Miller and Matthew Rolston are two prominent portrait photographers of the same generation: newly acquainted, but immediately intrigued by one another. They share similar influences (from Richard Avedon to Irving Penn), comparable careers, and decades of experience — yet their work diverges in striking and unexpected ways.

Naska sets up a portrait studio at MODE and turns the lens on the photographers. Attendees sit for an intimate portrait session, experiencing his process firsthand while becoming part of a living archive of the people who showed up.

GMUNK has spent the past two years developing a workflow that takes his full spectrum drone and landscape photography and runs it through a machine learning system to produce living, mutating visual art: biological cells becoming digital ones, landscapes transforming into something closer to a painting by Giger or a scene from Annihilation. Drawing on his background in motion design, holographic film work, and projection mapping, this presentation traces how photography, code, and machine vision can come together to create something genuinely new.

A live recording of the Dear Art Producer podcast, hosted by Heather Elder. Heather sits down with Sari Rowe, freelance producer at Omnicom, and other producers from the agency and brand side for a conversation about the state of the industry from the people who hire, brief, and shepherd creative work. Expect honest talk about AI's growing role in production, how treatments and estimates are evolving, the realities of usage and terms & conditions, and how agency and brand-side producers are navigating today's marketing landscape together. Audience questions encouraged; bring your curiosities about the business behind the work.

Drawing on her 23 years as an art producer and her own creative practice using AI tools, Liz invites photographers to move past fear and competition and into genuine curiosity about using AI.

Penny brings her documentary instincts to portraiture, exploring how to build trust with a subject quickly and make images that tell a story rather than just capture a face, drawing on years of shooting people alongside food and culture across 40 countries.

Paul challenges photographers to put down the rulebook and rediscover their own perspective. Drawing on talks he has given at Photo Pills Camp and beyond, he guides participants through his approach to framing, leading lines, and abstraction, pushing them to see familiar spaces in an entirely new way and remember why they picked up a camera in the first place.

Join Keith Ladzinski for a hands-on bird photography workshop. In small groups, participants will shoot alongside Keith, getting instruction and real-time feedback from one of wildlife photography’s most accomplished practitioners. Keith will walk participants through his approach to reading bird behavior, anticipating movement, and making technically precise images in unpredictable conditions.

Kelley covers the fundamentals of bird photography for serious hobbyists and newer photographers. She will go over gear and camera settings as well as teach her tips and tricks for how to find and read your winged subjects in the field. A practical, experience-driven session for the growing number of photographers who have invested in the equipment and are ready to use it well.

Talent has never been the barrier, access has. The gap to big brand commercial work isn’t ability, it’s proximity. Who gets seen. Who gets the opportunity. Who gets brought into rooms for opportunities that actually shift careers. David Johnson, founder of True Chicago, shares his untraditional path from college athlete without creative experience to internationally acclaimed photographer, and what it takes to move beyond the gatekeeping that keeps diverse voices out of commercial and brand photography. Not just getting in, but building paths that don’t require permission.