Filipino conservation photographer and multidisciplinary artist Gab Mejia has been named the country’s sole representative in FOTO Bali Festival 2026, an international photography event that will gather artists from around the world in Bali this year.
Organizers said the festival selected 36 artists from 24 countries for its second edition after receiving nearly 700 submissions from more than 80 nations. This year’s theme, “Afterimage,” focuses on how photographs continue to shape memory, identity and meaning long after the image is taken.
Mejia will present White Water, a project that examines the links between memory, colonial history and the threat of rising sea levels in the Philippines.
The work draws from flood-damaged family photographs and the experiences of coastal communities facing the effects of climate change. Through these materials, the project reflects on how changing coastlines can alter ideas of nationhood, belonging and history.
FOTO Bali Festival will run from June 3 to July 12 at Nuanu Creative City, a 44-hectare creative hub in Bali that has emerged as a venue for international artistic exchange.
Festival director Kelsang Dolma said the event seeks to encourage wider dialogue among photographers working across different cultural and generational perspectives.
Curators Kurniadi Widodo and Putu Sridiniari said the selected works reflect a range of visual approaches while remaining connected by a shared interest in how images preserve traces of the past and continue to shape the present.