‘The World A Wave’ is the theme for the second edition of Bristol Photo Festival, the
international biennial of contemporary photography, which will open in autumn 2024
(the opening week is 16 - 20 October 2024). The Festival programme focuses upon a
world in constant motion; where the social, political and environmental conditions of
shared life are always changing and becoming otherwise. Drawing on the success of its
first edition in 2021 which drew over 200,000 visitors, the dynamic festival,
internationally focused but locally grounded, delivers long-term engagement and
education programmes engaging with culturally underserved communities and places.
Exhibitions are held in the city’s major visual arts institutions alongside independent and
unconventional spaces, all accompanied by a wide events programme engaging with
multiple aspects of the city of Bristol. All exhibitions are free with donations welcome.
For 2024, Bristol Photo Festival will exhibit works by photographers including Akosua
Viktoria Adu-Sanyah (German-Ghanaian, based in Switzerland); Ariella Azoulay (Israel);
Andrew Jackson (British- Canadian);
Rinko Kawauchi (Japan); Billy H.C Kwok (Hong Kong);
Jay Lau (Hong Kong); Kirsty Mackay (Scotland, based in Bristol); Amak Mahmoodian (Iran,
based in Bristol); Trent Parke (Australia); Nigel Poor (USA); Sarker Protick (Bangladesh);
Bandia Ribeira (Spain); Hashem Shakeri (Iran); Herbert Shergold (Bristol); Inuuteq Storch
(Greenland); Lau Wai (Hong Kong); the shared artistic practice Ritual Inhabitual (comprising
Tito Gonzalez Garcia (France) and Florencia Grisanti (Chile)) and the group exhibition
Dreamlines: Picturing Bristol’s High Streets.
Bristol Photo Festival also produces a long term education and engagement programme
alongside the exhibitions. For this year the Festival is developing a project with local residents and port workers from Avonmouth to create a community archive, alongside a
programme of creative activities, including talks, walks, screenings and an exhibition. With
Prison Education, the festival will present The Prison Mobile Library, an educational
photography project across three sites in the South West of England. The opening week of
the festival (16-20 October 2024) includes artists’ talks, a book fair, tours, and parties.
Additionally, the festival collaborates with the University of Bristol and the University of the
West of England to co-produce two symposiums exploring ideas related to this year’s theme,
‘The World A Wave’.
Photography is a unique creative medium to experience the world anew. In a time of multiple
crises, we need to think of images more than ever. I want the festival to be a space full of
nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of our shared world. Bristol
Photo Festival’s quality and ambition is possible thanks to the great collaboration we have
established with the main cultural institutions in the city and the support of funders and
sponsors.” Alejandro Acin, Bristol Photo Festival director.
Program:
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah: The House is a Body
The Georgian House Museum 16 Oct - 31 Dec 2024
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah is best known
for her original work examining the
relationship between photography and
memory, particularly in relation to her own
family history. For Bristol Photo Festival
2024, Adu-Sanyah will be in residence at
Bristol’s Georgian House Museum, creating a
new body of work in relation to the building’s colonial history. This exhibition is produced in
collaboration with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and supported by Pro Helvetia.
Ariella Azoulay: Unshowable Photographs
IC Visual Lab 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
In 2009, Ariella Azoulay visited the
International Committee of the Red Cross
headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to
view archival photographs of Palestine,
taken between 1947 and 1950. The images
document the forced displacement of the
Palestinian population - an event commonly known as the ‘Nakba’. Azoulay was instructed
that the archival images could not be reproduced or exhibited unless strict conditions were
met, limiting the free interpretation of the material and ultimately of history itself. In
response, Azoulay decided to redraw the photographs, creating a record that exists beyond
the control of official narratives and archives.
Sebastian Bruno in collaboration with Salvation Army - Two Mile Hill
M Shed 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
In 2023, Bristol Photo Festival invited a
group of photographers, all with strong ties
to the city, to develop new projects across
Bristol’s historic high streets and
neighbourhoods. They collaborated with
groups both young and old, including a local
church brass band; a stitching group; a
men’s social club; a food bank; and an elders
acting club. The outcomes of this project will be exhibited, bringing together work by
photographers including: Khali Ackford; Michael Alberry; Kelly O’Brien; Sebastian Bruno;
Esther May Campbell; Jade Carr-Daley; Jessie Edwards Thomas; Yuko Edwards; Mohamed
Hassan; Chris Hoare; Kirsty Mackay; Lua Ribeira; Clementine Schneidermann; and Mikael
Techane. This project has been funded and supported by Historic England and the City Centre
and High Streets Recovery and Renewal programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the
West of England Combined Authority’s Love Our High Streets Project.
Andrew Jackson: Across the Sea is a Shore
Venue tbc 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
Since 2008, Andrew Jackson has been developing an
ongoing trilogy of projects exploring the intergenerational
experience of Britain’s Caribbean diaspora. Divided into
three chapters with questions of family, community and
inheritance at its core, it begins with Jackson’s own
reflection on his parents’ story, who arrived in England as
part of the Windrush generation. Next, it follows a group
of young men from Handsworth, Birmingham, from the
2008 financial crash to the hostile environment of
post-Brexit Britain. The final chapter will see Jackson
return to Jamaica, exploring the psychological impact of migration, home and belonging.
Rinko Kawauchi: At the edge of the everyday world
Arnolfini 16 Oct 2024 - 9 Feb 2025
Internationally acclaimed Japanese
photographer Rinko Kawauchi will be
showing at Arnolfini as part of Bristol Photo
Festival, marking her first major UK survey
exhibition in 18 years. At the edge of the
everyday world moves between explorations
of the natural world’s fragile beauty to the
gentle rhythm of domestic scenes, capturing
the connections and continuity of life on this
‘planet we call home’. The exhibition is
presented by Arnolfini in collaboration with Bristol Photo Festival. It is kindly supported by The Japan Foundation.
Billy H.C Kwok, Jay Lau, Lau Wai: Finding Fonds
The Royal Photographic Society, 17 Oct - 22 Dec 2024
The archiving impulse is one that attempts to trace,
document, and make sense of the world. In response to
the photographic archives of Hong Kong held by the
University of Bristol and the University of Hong Kong,
artists Billy H.C. Kwok, Jay Lau, and Lau Wai have
developed new projects that interpret the archival
stories of their home city, while revealing the gaps that
exist. The works created explore how Hong Kong has
always been a place of duality: real and imagined,
public and private, fact and fiction, public and private. This exhibition is produced by WMA, in
collaboration with the Royal Photographic Society and the Hong Kong History Centre at the
University of Bristol.
A homeless man falls asleep, after receiving a hot drink at the drop-in centre St Hilda's church, South Shields, September 2023. © Kirsty Mackay
Bricks, St Anne’s House 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
Kirsty Mackay’s research-led documentary
practice examines issues of gender, class
and discrimination. For this project,
produced in collaboration with The New Art
Gallery, Walsall, she has worked with and
alongside communities across England,
documenting the impact of the cost-of-living
crisis and the realities of poverty in the
world’s sixth largest economy. This
exhibition is produced in collaboration with The New Art Gallery Walsall, Hahnemuhle and
Arts Council England.
Amak Mahmoodian: One Hundred & Twenty Minutes
17 Midland Road 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
In this new work premiering at the Festival,
Bristol-based artist Amak Mahmoodian
examines the experience of dreaming for
individuals living in exile. Working with 16
collaborators, all of whom are exiled from
their native countries, Mahmoodian uses photography, poetry, drawing and video to explore
the new lives created through dreams, as well as the ways in which dreaming enables
individuals to return to a past that cannot be reached while awake. The title, One Hundred &
Twenty Minutes, refers to the average time a person spends dreaming each night. The project
was supported and commissioned by Multistory and D6: Culture in Transit.
From the series 'Monument' © Trent Parke
Martin Parr Foundation 3 Oct - 22 Dec 2024
Presenting the European premiere of his
latest work, critically acclaimed Magnum
photographer Trent Parke draws together
images produced over a 25 year period.
Monument stands as an elegy to time, to the
late light of Sydney streets, the movement of
people and the circling of moths as night
falls. Parke is known for his impressionistic, long-form work that explores themes of identity, place and community, often working in rural Australia. This exhibition is produced in
collaboration with the Martin Parr Foundation.
Nigel Poor: The San Quentin Project
The Gallery Weston 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
In 2011, artist Nigel Poor started
volunteering at San Quentin State Prison
teaching a history of photography class
through the Prison University Project. This
led to a long-term collaboration, working
with a group of men to explore and respond
to San Quentin’s prison archive. Through
her images and accompanying stories, viewers are led on a journey that unpacks both the
long history of San Quentin Prison, as well as the challenges of representation in relation to
incarcerated communities. The exhibition will include some of the results of the BPF & IC
Visual Lab educational project in collaboration with Prison Education working prisons in the
South West. The exhibition and educational programme is supported by Weston College
Group.
From the series Jirno (Spaces of Separation) © Sarker Protick
St Paul’s Crypt 15 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
For his first solo exhibition in the UK, Sarker
Protick will bring together multiple bodies of
work, including Spaces of Separation
(2016-ongoing), a long-term study of the
colonial architectural remains that can be
found across Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Working with photography, video and sound,
Protick’s works are built on long-term
surveys of Bangladesh. He is drawn to
themes such as time passing, the alteration of land and borders, as well as traces of both
personal and political histories. This exhibition is supported by The British Council as part of
their Biennial Connect programme.
Bandia Ribeira: Not a Home Without Fire
Bricks, St. Anne’s House 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
Bandia Ribeira’s work stands as a historic
record of agricultural production in the 21st
century. Here she focuses on the
often-invisible labourers of the vast network
of greenhouses that dominate the landscape
of the agro-industrial region of Almería
(Andalusia, Spain), known locally as ‘The
Sea of Plastic’. It is an area dedicated to the production of out-of-season vegetables for
export to northern European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany, where
communities of workers form an often-invisible part of a system of ‘techno-agrarian’
capitalism, where lax labour and environmental regulations fuel cycles of exploitation and
segregation. This exhibition is supported by The European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists
and Accion Cultural Española.
Ritual Inhabitual: Oro Verde
Venue TBC 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
The global surge in demand for avocados has driven drug
cartels across Mexico to become heavily involved in the
trade. In response, in 2011 a group of women from the
community of Cherán (Michoacán state) took a stand
against the local cartel and succeeded in establishing a
new government based on long-standing Purépecha
indigenous principles. For five years, the collective Ritual
Inhabitual documented Cherán's struggle through a
blend of documentary and fictional photography,
collaborating with local artists to create a polyphonic
narrative. Their project, Oro Verde, represents a form of
‘mytho-documentary’ symbolising key events in Cherán's reclamation of communal
autonomy. This exhibition - their first in the UK - is co-curated by Rosi Huaroco and Sergio
Valenzuela-Escobedo and supported by Fluxus Art Projects.
Hashem Shakeri, from the series Staring into the Abyss.© Hashem Shakeri
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery 21 Sep 2024 - 12 Jan 2025
Premiering this new work for the festival,
which will represent his first solo exhibition
in the UK, Hashem Shakeri is best known for
creating slow documentary projects that
study the ‘post-catastrophic’ aftermath of
places shaped global histories and
ideologies. Shakeri has spent recent months
working in Afghanistan, documenting daily
life as the country readjusts to the Taliban’s
return to power. Through his work, he endeavours to show the uncertainty and ambiguity of
this moment for Afghanistan, creating a poetic document of the current atmosphere within
the country. This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Herbert Shergold: Now Keep Quite Still
The Laundrette Gallery 16 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Herbert Shergold
operated a commercial photography studio in Bristol,
using glass plate negatives - an unusually antiquated
technique popular in the 1910s - to create highly
stylised portraits of actors as well as of his local
community. In Shergold’s studio, Bristol’s working class
residents were styled to appear as Hollywood film stars.
Yet little is known of Shergold. After his death, his
images largely disappeared from view, falling into the
possession of private collectors in the US, The
Netherlands, as well as Bristol. From the latter
collection, curator and photo historian Hedy van Erp has curated the first known exhibition of
Shergold’s work. This exhibition takes place close to the site of his original studio and is
supported by Marcel Brent (Vintage Photographs) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands.
Inuuteq Storch: Porcelain Souls and Keepers of the Ocean
Centrespace Gallery 16 Oct - 17 November
For his first solo exhibition in the UK,
Inuuteq Storch will present two bodies of
work. Porcelain Souls, a collection of
photographs and letters created by his
parents during a period of geographic
separation, his father in Sisimiut and mother
in Aarhus, Denmark; and Keepers of the Ocean, a delicate and diaristic portrait of Sisimiut,
Storch’s hometown. Storch aims to present a living, breathing history of Greenland, as told
through the eyes of Greenland’s people, rather than defined by others. He represented
Denmark at the Venice Biennale 2024, the first ever artist from Greenland to do so. This
exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation.
