The first-ever 'St. Petersburg Month of Photography' is happening this May

In case you haven’t noticed, St. Pete has a lot of talented lens-based artists and photography professionals. This year, six of them teamed up to create the first-ever St. Petersburg Month of Photography (SPMOP), with plans to add a photography festival in 2024.

“I think we’ve cumulatively attended every photo festival in the world,” Beth Reynolds, who’s in charge of outreach, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “A museum might have one photo show a year, but then you go to a photo festival and it’s like jumping in the ball pit at Chuck-e-Cheese.”

That’s the kind of energy SPMOP founder Marieke van der Krabben and crew want to bring to St. Pete with Saint Petersburg Month of Photography in May 2023 and Lumen Photo Fest in May 2024. Director of Programming, Agueda Sanfiz, told CL that SMOP has already launched an open call to find a photo laureate that will shoot Tampa Bay all next year and added that there’ll be an exhibition in April/May at the Morean with the finalists.

“The rest is still in the works,” says Sanfiz, who’s seeking venues to host photo shows, photo book events, photo documentary screenings, photo talks, and more.

Head to spmop.org if you’re interested in hosting a photography-related event, attending photography-related events, or being St. Petersburg’s first Photo Laureate. Follow SMOP on Facebook (@stpetersburgmop) and Instagram (@stpetemonthofphotography).