The Atlanta Photography Group opened two exhibitions through July 17, 2026, that celebrate photography's power to capture authentic moments. "#filmisnotdead 2026" asserts that analog photography remains vital, while "Joy and the Everyday 2026" finds light in the ordinary.
The film exhibition was curated by Michael Behlen, founder of Analog Forever Magazine. The showcase includes work from Tabius McCoy, a photographer and business reporter at The Atlanta Voice, who submitted images from a project documenting Black farmers that he began after returning to Atlanta in 2024.
McCoy's photograph, captured outside Patchwork City Farms in Oakland City, shows a farmer mid-bite into a radish—a moment he didn't orchestrate. "I just kind of waited for the moment," McCoy said.
McCoy's broader practice centers on challenging perceptions of agriculture in America. "If you go look up a farmer now on Google, nine times out of 10 are not Black," he said. "I want people to see that Black people do grow in agriculture. I want every photo to feel like my grandma and granddad's photo book."
Calvin Tigre's contribution to the exhibition emerged from accident. Six years into his film practice, Tigre discovered a camera on Facebook Marketplace loaded with old, exposed film. When he shot over it, not realizing the roll wasn't blank, the lab returned images layered with a stranger's photographs—a double exposure bridging decades.
"I thought my photos were messed up," Tigre recalled. "But upon further inspection, I realized what a gift from the photo gods."
His wife's portrait aligns with what appears to be a German castle, captured by an unknown photographer generations prior. The original image had lived in the dark for 30, 40, perhaps 50 years before Tigre's film found it.
"It's only doable on the analog medium," Tigre said, underscoring why digital cannot replicate this alchemy. He now actively hunts for abandoned rolls through his part-time work at a camera store, deliberately shooting blind into the unknown.
The second exhibition, "Joy and the Everyday 2026," was curated by Emilia Mickevicius, Ph.D., Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography at the Center for Creative Photography. It asks photographers to locate joy in the mundane.
Genesis Tillman, a 29-year-old Atlanta photographer, makes his Atlanta Photography Group debut with an image captured at Bimbo Con, an annual Asheville gathering centered on queer advocacy and harm reduction. The event featured wrestling tied to the Pride Wrestling Alliance.
"It was really, really cool, and nice to see a lot of people kind of make that happen," Tillman said.
For Tillman, joy arrives tangled with resistance. "When it comes to being queer in general, a lot of people's bodies and livelihoods are essentially at risk," Tillman reflected. The photograph documents resilience and defiance dressed as celebration.
Both exhibitions run through mid-July at the Atlanta Photography Group.
