Historically, July is the hottest month of the year, and as far as 2025 is concerned, it’s brought us the hottest photography as well. This is partly thanks to Rencontres d’Arles, the annual summer photography festival that brought big names like Nan Goldin and David Armstrong to the south of France, alongside new and emerging talents.

Elsewhere, though, we’ve also had Tove Lo and Kenny Laubbacher’s ode to post-pandemic smooching on the dancefloor, The Kiss Book, plus Dani D’Ingeo’s snaps from Nature Loves Courage, a sun-drenched queer festival on the shores of Crete, Greece. Rounded out by other queer celebrations, including London’s Howl Pride, and a more personal and intimate photo story on the evolution of artist and activist Love Bailey, this July has been filled with sensual, subversive and defiant photography from beginning to end.

Take a look at the highlights below.

RENCONTRES D’ARLES, 2025

Staking a claim as one of the world’s leading photography festivals, Rencontres d’Arles doesn’t disappoint. This year featured heavyweight exhibitions including Nan Goldin’s Stendhal Syndrome (2024) and an expansive Louis Stettner retrospective alongside work by emerging talents, from Bolivian photo booth portraits to a deeply personal – and political – exploration of a Cairo childhood, filtered through a defiant female gaze.

DANI D’INGEO, NATURE LOVES COURAGE

“It’s important that we remind ourselves of what queer bodies look like out in the sun, out of the shadows,” as photographer Dani D’Ingeo told Dazed earlier this month. Presented in contrast to typical images of queer euphoria – located in sweaty basements and dark clubs... more on that later – their photos of the Cretan festival Nature Loves Courage do just that.

IMOGEN, HOWL PRIDE, 2025

“In an increasingly polarised world where our community are becoming more marginalised and trans voices silenced, it’s more important than ever to be unapologetically loud, proud and free,” said photographer Imogen, after documenting this year’s Howl Pride. Billed as an alternative to London’s official Pride celebrations, the party sprawled across various venues in Hackney Wick, as captured in this sweaty, sexy, and unapologetic photo series. 

THE KISS BOOK

The Kiss Book was designed to make you “happy, horny and inspired to kiss”. That’s according to Tove Lo, whose Dirt Femme tour is documented throughout its more than 600 images, courtesy of photographer Kenny Laubbacher. Spanning 15 countries and 18 cities, the tour came as the world reopened at the end of Covid lockdowns, and as Tove Lo says: “The idea of kissing and dancing so closely still felt surreal, almost forbidden... I wanted to capture and keep that energy forever.”

NICK HAYMES, DANCING ON THE FAULT LINE

For the past 15 years, Love Bailey has been the muse of photographer Nick Haymes. Following her journey from 2010 to 2024, Dancing on the Fault Line documents – in intimate and tender detail – her transition and evolution over the years, from underground parties in New York to Temecula’s Savage Ranch. “It reminded me that I am a living archive, a body of work in heels,” the artist, activist, and performer told Dazed in July. “And that becoming doesn’t have an endpoint. I’m still transforming, still shedding skin. I’m not just a woman or a trans woman, I’m a representation of what can happen if you choose yourself instead of succumbing to others’ perception of you.”

DAVID ARMSTRONG

Nan Goldin, Cookie Mueller, and Vincent Gallo are just some of the characters that crop up in an exhibition of David Armstrong’s black-and-white portraits that opened in Arles this July. In case it isn’t already obvious, the photographer was deeply embedded in 70s New York, after moving there with Goldin, his lifelong friend. Although known for its drug-fuelled hedonism, sexual freedom and gender fluidity, the show captures this scene in its quieter moments, defined by a sense of intimacy and self-reflection.

YUKA HIRAC, JAJAJA…瞑想散歩

In jajaja…瞑想散歩, the Tokyo-based artist Yuka Hirac tries to capture the flow of “looking back on the past and moving forward into the unknown” via an imagined experience of dying. The result is a zine filled with glitchy, lo-fi, fantasy collages that blend together a range of sources and media. The pages are intense and overwhelming – overall, they look a lot like how it feels to live today.