Va-va zoom! Photomonth is upon us once more

Living in Exile by Matthew Aslett. Part of F8 Collective launch, until 18 October at Hive Dalston

With more than 100 Photomonth exhibitions to take in over October and November, and at least 500 contributing artists, it is understandably difficult to know exactly where to focus one’s gaze.

The state of London today is a common theme among work presented this year. For his satirical series Harrodsburg, Glaswegian Dougie Wallace ventured into West London, where he papped the mega rich out shopping in what he calls a “story of glut, greed and the widening wealth gap”.

Harrodsburg by Dougie Wallace. Until 19 October at theprintspace

Portraits of a different kind line the walls of one East End institution. Seven photographers have snapped the tourists, shoppers, revellers and stressed out office workers who frequent Brick Lane Beigel Bake, with the results on display there this month.

6am by Jonathan Goldberg part of Twentyfour7 exhibition. Until 22 November at Brick Lane Beigel Bake

The future of East London in the face of luxury blocks of flats and rising living costs is of concern to Hackney Wick resident Ansell Cizic. In The Wick and Beyond, he records those artists whose very presence in the East has helped it become an attractive proposition for property developers.

Venice Mob from East End, by Ansell Cizic. The Wick and Beyond until 1 November at Well Hung Gallery

Jerwood Drawing Prize nominee Pete Burke takes a more voyeuristic look at what the future holds. Glimpsing the Future is a series of photographs taken through building site peepholes in Hackney, which he is displaying alongside drawings that act as a route between them.

Dalston Junction by Pete Burke, part of Glimpsing the Future, until 1 November

Not all the exhibitions are about the here and now. Syd Shelton’s photographs of the 1970s Rock Against Racism movement capture an intriguing political period in which musicians and political activists confronted racist ideology on the streets and in parks.

Photograph by Syd Shelton, part of Rock Against Racism, until 5 December at Autograph ABP

Global issues come to the fore with Africa’s Last Colony, which remembers conflict in Western Sahara 40 years ago with never before seen images by UK-based photographers , while Kites from Kabul, a series of photographs of kite flying sights around Kabul and Bamiyan, provides an insight into the lives of children living in war-torn Afghanistan. (12)

Quintana Valero, Africa’s Last Colony: 40 Years Not Forgotten, until 28 October at Hundred Years Gallery

Oculi by Andrew Quilty, part of Kites from Kabul, until 3 January at the V&A Museum of Childhood

As usual for Photomonth, there’s a staggering breadth of work on display, with subjects that push boundaries and defy categorisation. Zoo Logic by David O’Shaughnessy looks at captivity through photographs of the environments in which zoo animals are presented to the public, and Piotr Karpinski’s photographs of people doing strange things in morgues and graveyards view life and death with humour and originality.

Cercopithecus Wolfi by David O’Shaughnessy, part of Zoo Logic. Until at Stour Space

Old Woman with Narcissus by Piotr Karpinski, Let’s Talk about Life & Death Darling from 1–30 November at St James the Great Church

Deciding where to go is perhaps the main drawback to Photomonth, but with the standards of exhibitions seemingly ever rising there’s a fair chance that whatever you choose will be a winner.