The curtain is about to rise on the 3rd Kyotographie festival of photography, and Lucille Reyboz, one of the two co-organizers, says that this is the most exciting but also most difficult time of the year.

It's a time to be "dokidoki" as she puts it. Excited? Anxious? Neither of us can quite find exactly the right word in English or Reyboz's native French. Despite this, she and her co-organizer, Yusuke Nakanishi, seem happy and relaxed, though it can't be a cakewalk to produce such an involved event.

We are talking in a bar run by the photographer Hozumi Nakadaira whose subtle black-and-white silhouettes of jazz greats are icons of another age. He is picking out some vintage album covers to go on display in the festival, which will also include jazz events.

The photo festival takes place at a number of spaces around Kyoto that are visually intriguing in their own right, such as the Comme des Garcons shop, Kenninji Temple and an Edo Period (1603-1868 ) warehouse. The combination of a well thought-out selection of venues, installations and content made the festival an instant success when it started in 2013, partly feeding off Kyoto's reputation of being both very traditional and hungry for aesthetic innovation. From the evidence of the previous two events, the effect of these site-specific arrangements looks to be stunning.

The theme this year is "Tribe, Doko ni Irunoka?" ("Tribe, Where Are You?") and the photography revolves around cultures and subcultures. Two exhibitions are, for example, a collection of vintage prints from the Guimet Museum of Asian Art titled "The Last Samurais," and a series by Yamatani Yusuke of skateboarders and punk rockers in night-time Osaka.

Both the jazz and choice of theme are a reflection of the importance of music for the two organizers and the desire for positive human connection across borders. On this second point, an antecedent for the festival would be the land- mark 1955 "Family of Man" exhibition, organized by Edward Steichen, and there are echoes of this in the similar treatment of photographs as quasi-sculptural objects.

Where Steichen's exhibition received criticism for papering over differences of gender, class and ethnicity, however, this year's Kyotographie seems aimed at celebrating the beauty that can be found in difference. This is not always a welcome idea in a country that values homogeneity; including jazz is an interesting accompaniment in this sense.

From its roots in the absolute margins of U.S. culture and gaining widespread popularity in Japan through the Allied Occupation of the 1940s-'50s, it's now hard not to have a meal in a Japanese restaurant without the sound of cool jazz making hepcats of us all.

Kyotographie likewise seems poised to go from strength to strength.

"Kyotographie" takes place at various venues around Kyoto; April 18-May 10; opening times depends on venue; a passport ticket is ¥2,000. For more information, visit www.kyotographie.jp.