FORMAT25 International Photography Festival

Derby QUAD, in partnership with the University of Derby, presents FORMAT International Photography Festival 2025, the latest edition is under the theme ‘Conflicted’. FORMAT25 returns to Derby City Centre from 13 – 30 March 2025 to showcase the very best photography and lens-based media being created today alongside thought-provoking archive material from across the globe. Set more as a guide rather than a rule, ‘Conflicted’ prompts responses from artists across the globe, via the FORMAT25 Open Call, to propose work that reflects multiple facets, factions, hopes and fears of our world today. Exhibitions continue until 31 May 2025 at all major venues and some until June 15 2025.

Photographers set to take part in new exhibitions include Felicity Hammond, five Open Call artists selected by international juries and the FORMAT curatorial team including Sujata Setia, Lo Lai Lai Natalie, Thero Makepe, Christopher Gregory-Rivera and Jenna Garrett. Further artists include John Blakemore, Thana Faroq, Xueyi Huang (Snow), Alicia Bruce and Michael Ormerod and many more. FORMAT25 marks the culmination of the two-year National Lottery Heritage Fund project Dancing Through Time which includes artist commissions by Francis Augusto and Jordan Baseman. Exhibitions explore contemporary conflicts within image culture, through AI and image manipulation; and historic narratives including a recently uncovered archive of photographs depicting civil resistance in Italy during the Second World War, shown here for the first time. Personal stories of refugees, the rise of populism explored through photographs taken at Trump’s Scottish golf course, an interrogation of the 19th-century vigilante group from the American Ozark Mountains that inspired the Congress storming Proud Boys- all are part of Conflicted. Visitors will also experience work by John Blakemore, widely regarded as one of the leading photographers and darkroom printers of the 20th century and works by Michael Ormerod (1947-1991), a British photographer with a distinctive and powerful voice, known for striking and evocative images capturing American landscapes and urban scenes. Artist Christopher Gregory-Rivera interrogates and re-presents police archives from the Puerto Rican Police, to uncover how between the years of 1940-1987, in collaboration with the FBI and CIA, they watched, intimidated, and in some cases murdered political activists in the Caribbean U.S. Territory. Meanwhile, a group show explores Derby punk subcultures and Nathan Orchard’s work is a plea to the people outside the LGBT community, think before you speak.

The biennale festival incorporates Derby QUAD, University of Derby, Museum of Making, 19 Chapel Street, Dubrek, The Smallprint Company, Electric Daisy, Banks Mill Studio, W. W. Winter and temporary spaces across the city and beyond. The festival also includes satellite venues including LCB Depot in Leicester.

Jodi Kwok, QUAD and FORMAT Curator says, ''The theme of ‘Conflicted’ not only embodies conflict itself but also offers a timely, thought-provoking lens through which to view the world. Society is full of contradictions, yet photography has the unique power to give us a voice. Through its curated programme, this edition of FORMAT Festival uses both the lens and archives to reflect these truths with clarity, raising awareness about issues unfolding both close to home and in distant corners of the globe.''


Exhibitions
Variations by Felicity Hammond
Variations by Felicity Hammond is an evolving installation using photography, AI processes and immersive installation. Through four unique versions of the work the artist explores the relationship between geological mining and data mining, and image-making and machine learning, each iteration being different and building on the last. The work opened at Photoworks Weekender in Brighton and is touring across the UK, with the next stop being FORMAT. Variations is commissioned by Photoworks through the Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship, a unique biennial opportunity that supports a mid-career artist to create and exhibit a new body of work.

Sujata Setia – A Thousand Cuts
FORMAT25 OPEN Call presents the work of selected international photographers and artists. Sujata Setia – A Thousand Cuts. Derived from the ancient Asian form of torture - “Lingchi”, “A Thousand Cuts” studies patterns of domestic abuse in the South Asian community. Setia borrows the metaphorical meaning of Lingchi to showcase the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. A Thousand Cuts created a metaphorical “waiting room,” where strangers meet and talk to each other without any fear of judgement or hierarchies. It is a room where you are heard, seen, understood and where you feel safe to leave your story behind. This project is proudly supported by the UK-based charity Shewise.


Lo Lai Lai Natalie – The Days Before The Silent Spring
Selected via FORMAT Open Call,The Days Before The Silent Spring was a commissioned project by WMA Hong Kong from the Hong Kong based artist Lo Lai Lai Natalie. Lai Lai has been engaged in a continuous contemplation of farming practice and ecology, her observations of which are closely tied to a concern for the social climate in the city of Hong Kong. This multi-channel video installation sees the artist weave together a spectrum of footage shot from different points of view in a homage to the decade-long journey of the farming collective Sangwoodgoon(生活館, literally ”House of Living”), to which she belongs, while reflecting on the multitude of worlds tied together and myriad of life-forms germinated by the practice of farming.

Young FORMAT Open Call
The YOUNG FORMAT Open Call is an exhibition opportunity for young photographers, UK-based, aged 25 years and under. FORMAT/QUAD welcomed photographs from children and young people, aged 25 years and under, to exhibit as part of the FORMAT25 Biennale. Young FORMAT; including work by students from: Pear Tree Juniors, Derby Moore Academy, Horizons Sixth Form, Burton and South Derbyshire College

Schools in Residence at QUAD
Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, QUAD’s Schools in Residence programme enables pupils in formal education settings in Derby, particularly those experiencing systemic inequality or disadvantage, to thrive through participating in creative workshops. Artists and photographers joined the schools and delivered sessions for children and young people ages 8-18 at Pear Tree Community Junior School, St Martins School & Horizons Sixth Form and Derby Moor Academy. Students explored the theme of Conflict using traditional and digital photography and mixed media techniques.

Xueyi Huang (Snow) No.27 Tong Poo Road
No.27 Tong Poo Road is an AI - generated video. It combines old photos from 20 years ago and the narratives of family members, creating a surreal film that blends reality and fantasy. This work serves as a testament to Snow’s family history and the urban transformation that has taken place. This work isn't merely an application of AI technology; it represents their exploration of the value of AI in documenting and enhancing family history. Selected for the NAE Open 2024 FORMAT/QUAD Award.

Thana Faroq – How Shall We Greet the Sun
How Shall We Greet the Sun explores the personal stories and emotional landscapes of young women refugees living in the Netherlands, including Thana herself. Published as a book, this project reflects their shared and individual journeys, balancing the challenges of forming new identities within the diaspora with the nostalgia and trauma of their pasts. These women navigate lives shaped by new cultural contexts, power dynamics, and memories, exploring how identities are continuously reshaped by current circumstances and the homes they left behind.

Within this larger project, a short film offers an intimate lens into the fragmented memories of women migrants, mediating between the joy of reclaiming normalcy and the sorrow of loss. It juxtaposes Randa's reflection on the simple yet profound joy of having a private bathroom in a refugee camp with Thana’s mother in Yemen, who shares a family photo filled with the faces of those who have passed away in her absence.

Thero Makepe – We didn't choose to be born here
This body of work, selected as part of a FORMAT Open Call, is an exploration of Botswana and South Africa's socio-political fabric through a personal lens. Blending staged portraiture, documentary images and re-enactments, Makepe weaves personal family stories with national history. These images are part of a photobook that addresses the history of musicality and activism in his family lineage. The title of the project, We Didn't Choose to be Born Here, is a phrase explored in the minds of different family members during crises, separation, and ennui.


John Blakemore – Earthly Delights
John Blakemore is widely regarded as one of the leading photographers and darkroom printers of the century. Born in Coventry in 1936, Blakemore discovered a passion for photography whilst on National Service in Libya in the 1950’s. Inspired by Edward Steichen’s Family of Man and childhood experience of wartime Britain, he set out to learn darkroom skills in the military camp he was based in. Following his return from National Service, Blakemore went on to photograph the postwar rebuild of his hometown before moving on to freelance work. Here he developed his renowned ability to photograph natural landscapes with black and white film, as well as the tulips that became a trademark of his work. It is with pride that we will be exhibiting John’s last agreed exhibition at this year’s festival.

Jenna Garrett – Teeth of the Wolf
''At 11:16 pm on January 6, 2021, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio posted a video of himself standing in front of the United States Capitol. It was taken days before his group—along with hundreds of other dissidents—violently stormed the building to halt the ratification of the presidential election. Tarrio’s face is shrouded by a gruesome mask, a cape flowing behind him. And I couldn’t stop thinking I’d seen such a mask before—in a relatively unknown 19th-century photo taken near my hometown.''

The mask—black and horned—belonged to the Bald Knobbers, a vigilante group that sprung up in the Ozark Mountains in the aftermath of the Civil War. They were everyday citizens—shop owners, ministers, sheriffs—who swore to protect their community from lawlessness. In just five years, their numbers swelled from 13 to an estimated 500. By the time they disbanded, 17 people were killed, plus countless reports of floggings, arson, jail escapes, and lynchings. The Bald Knobbers became the terror they swore to defeat. Selected via a FORMAT Open Call, the project Teeth of the Wolf (2019-present) interrogates the story of these men. It’s a history obfuscated by secrecy and whitewashed through decades of mythology and commercialization.


Christopher Gregory Rivera – EL GOBIERNO TE ODIA (The Government Hates You)
From the 1940’s until 1987 the Puerto Rican Police- in collaboration with the FBI and CIAwatched, intimidated, and in some cases murdered political activists in the Caribbean U.S. Territory. The program remains one of the longest continuous surveillance programs by the US government on its own citizens. Aimed mostly at people advocating for independence from the United States, the operation, led by a secret police division, tracked over 150,000 people and compiled extensive dossiers on over 15,000. For the last decade Christopher Gregory-Rivera has become a guerrilla archivist, finding these files and rescuing the archive through still life photography, digitization and research. The resulting reconstructed archive repairs the web of time where it was broken, affording a window into forbidden political history and a chance at a national truth and reconciliation process at a time when the colonial relationship with the US is more fraught than ever. Selected via FORMAT Open Call.

FORMAT/ Lishui Photography Festival Award: Xu Jun - Island Ferry
Floods occurred in the Bingshen year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1416), and the Wu family's house in Huitan Village, Lanxi County, was destroyed. After the severe famine, Wu Yuanfu Gong moved to live on a sandbank built up from the waste beach. After that, other families moved in one after another. This is where Zhoushang Village, Xiangxi Town, Lanxi City comes from. The civilization has been passed down for 608 years. The two villages of Zhoushang and Huitan, which share the same surname as Wu, have been travelling by small boat for more than 300 years. The artist was born in Xiangxi Village, a thousand meters away from Zhoushang Village. This is selected as the FORMAT/Lishui Award from the Lishui Photography Festival 2023.

W.W. WINTER ARCHIVE - Behind The Barbed Wire
During the Great War of 1914-1918, W. W. Winter was commissioned to photograph German officer prisoners interned in camps near Derby, at Donington Hall and Kegworth. Only 54 of the many photographs taken have survived the intervening years. Although the establishment, operation and eventual closure of the camps is not a new topic of study, original material was discovered and included, along with glass plates found in a box at the Winter’s studio. The images go some way to illustrating a remarkable and largely unknown story which has been revealed only after much painstaking research. The photographs were created to enable prisoners to reach out to the world ‘beyond the barbed wire’ and they therefore form an important part of the study of the psychological aspects of imprisonment.

Dancing Through Time Showcase Exhibition
'It changed everything in an instant. It changed everything'- Shelly, Derby Mod

Derby, furthest point from the sea, the UK’s passing through place. But just beneath this city’s surface is a rich history of worn-in sprung dance floors; one of change, of firsts and of energy.

The ‘Dancing Through Time’ archive brings together over 650 photographs, ticket stubs and ephemera as well as over 30 hours of oral histories. Exhibiting as part of FORMAT25, it explores, celebrates and preserves the social history of the music, club and dance scenes in Derby - from the 1960s through to the late 1970s and creeping into the mid 1980s (there was too much good stuff to leave out).

The ‘Dancing Through Time’ project and archive will be made available through a publicly accessible website. This project has been made possible thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, with thanks to the National Lottery players.

Jordan Baseman – Land of a Thousand Dances
Dancing is free and freeing. The smallest movement can be understood as dancing. In an increasingly fragmented and isolating world, dance (as participants and/or as spectators) provides us with important fundamentally shared experiences that make us aware of our essential humanity, our connectedness, our community, ourselves. Instead of creating a position of nostalgia or sentimentality, this artwork will act as a political call, a rallying cry to gather and dance, celebrating the past in the present, to encourage a future.

Francis Augusto – Ghost notes
In Derby, punk continues – not as a dominant cultural force but as a resilient subculture that refuses to fade away. Through Ghost Notes, Augusto explores how punk culture and spirit maintain their identity and values despite broader cultural and societal shifts. This project is rooted in an ethnographic methodology emphasising real engagement with communities and individuals. Showing how punk's spirit of creative resistance lives on in people like Maggie, who's been running DIY print workshops for decades, or Glyn, who's preserved the scene's history in his basement museum. Each portrait is made in a place that matters to that person's story – venues where bands first played, community spaces where fanzines were printed, corners where generations have gathered.

Alicia Bruce – The Greatest 36 Holes? Coming Soon
In 2006, Donald Trump announced plans to build The Greatest Golf Course in the World on Aberdeenshire’s dynamic coastline, an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its ecological significance and natural beauty. The development, approved in 2008 by the Scottish government under First Minister Alex Salmond, prioritized promised economic benefits over environmental concerns. The decision sparked controversy, with campaigners arguing that the impact on the dunes, wildlife, and local residents was too high a price to pay.

For photographer Alicia Bruce, the Menie dunes held personal significance. She grew up nearby and played on them as a child. The dramatic transformation of this cherished landscape into a golf course motivated Bruce to begin documenting Trump’s development in Menie. Since then, she has created an ongoing body of work that spans nearly two decades, a record of the ecological and social changes brought by Trump’s ventures in the region. Her project covers not only the construction of Trump’s first golf course but also the second course, which began in 2023 and threatens the remaining sand dunes, stretching all the way to Balmedie Country Park.

Fernanda: le foto ritrovate: Undiscovered photos of Italian rural life 1930-1950
One of the greatest acts of civil resistance during the Second World War was the courageous actions of the lowliest in Italian society – the contadini (sharecroppers) – who, after the signing of an Armistice between Italy and the Allies in September 1943 and at great risk to themselves sheltered up to 25,000 Allied soldiers who had escaped en masse from PoW camps the length and breadth of the country. The accidental discovery of this photographic collection hidden in a drawer has brought to light a valuable archive documenting and describing rural life in the typical hillside villages of Le Marche region, in Italy, specifically during the years surrounding the Second World War. These images provide a strikingly neorealist snapshot, echoing the movement that emerged in Italy during the same period, championed by photographers such as Mario De Biasi, Arturo Zavattini, Franco Pinna, Chiara Samugheo, Nino Migliori, and others.

EAST MEETS WEST 24/25
EAST MEETS WEST is a bespoke professional development programme produced biennially by FORMAT Festival and Quad in partnership with GRAIN Projects. During 2024/25 twenty emerging artists and photographers were awarded places and have taken part in a series of masterclasses led by industry and artform professionals and leading practitioners. The participants in this year’s programme are; Amina El-Edroos, Amy D’Agorne, Anu Gamanagari, Dan Moriarty, Dawn Rodgers, Ell Hammond, Gemma Briggs, Jai Toor, Johannes Pretorius, Lewis Oldham, Maria Reaney, Nicholas Priest , Philip Singleton, Rebecca Orleans, Rita Pena, Sylwia Ciszewska-Peciak, Tracey Thorne, Tudor Etchells, Tyler Ashford, Valerii Konkov.

Philip M Harris & Nataliia Dniprenko - On Thorns of Evil Ages*
Work by Ukrainian artists created in defiance and defense of their Country

Ukraine's geographical location has determined its difficult historical fate. For many centuries it has been defending Europe from attacks from the East. This has shaped the character of Ukrainians. They have not only learned to survive the constant raids of their crazy neighbours, but also to live as Ukrainians and defend their national identity through difficult times. So, if you think that Ukraine is in ruins, it is not. There are cities that are almost completely destroyed (e.g. Bakhmut, Izyum). However, in cities, towns, and villages throughout Ukraine there are volunteer groups that work together with special services to clear the rubble after the bombing. Cities are decorated with flowers in summer and New Year's decorations in winter. The soldiers on the front line ask their families to live as normal and as peaceful a life as possible. They say that this is why they have been living in the trenches for three years and defending their country in incredibly difficult conditions. The work in this exhibition explores and cements Ukraine as a living country, not one that is beaten and overcome by aggressors. Whilst much of the work refers to the ongoing invasion of the country, what is of pivotal importance is the indomitable spirit of Ukrainians to ensure their country survives and thrives.
*Lina Kostenko, untitled poem, 1962.

Gemma Marmalade - I love America and America hates me
This short film and series of still images is a reimagining of German artist Joseph Beuys’ seminal 1974 performance piece, I like America and America likes me. Beuys made this work when he reluctantly arrived in America for the first time amidst his anxiety towards the political actions of the USA and their global influence. Beuys travelled via ambulance to the René Block Gallery in New York City. For three consecutive days he undertook a durational performance contained within a space with a live coyote before returning to the airport by ambulance and back to Europe. Fifty years later, I love America and America hates me meditates on the same anxieties felt by Beuys, now contextualised in the twenty-first century by a female protagonist. In sharing a lexicon of visual and performative symbolism with Beuys, this work was made in Nevada on the 20th January 2025 – Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration as the 47th President of the United States of America. This visual testimony navigates an uncanny allegory of symptomatic estrangement from the current socio-political landscape.

OUR RIUKZAK: Maria + Yehor, Lesia Maruschak
OUR RIUKZAK is an invitation to hold time in your hands, to unfold its layers, and to confront its haunting echoes. This portable exhibition-in-a-box collapses nearly a century of history, bringing the stories of Ukraine’s Holodomor famine-genocide (1932-1933) into dialogue with the ongoing atrocities of today’s war. It bridges memory, trauma, and resilience, urging us to witness the lives of children caught in the violence of history.

At its heart, OUR RIUKZAK is a bilingual (Ukrainian English) photographic exhibition, designed to foster reflection and dialogue in intimate, adaptable spaces. The box—compact and unassuming when closed—unfolds to reveal a cross-shaped display containing 24 posters, descriptive labels, and three essays. The form echoes its contents: a physical manifestation of stories unfolding, inviting us to trace the connections between historical and contemporary crises.


Michael Ormerod
Michael Ormerod (1947-1991) was a British photographer with a distinctive and powerful voice, whose career was tragically cut short on August 7th 1991 in a road accident on his last field trip to the USA. He is known for striking and evocative images capturing American landscapes and urban scenes. His work often depicted the raw, gritty reality of life in America, showcasing both its beauty and its challenges.

His photographs are those of the outsider, constantly travelling through a no-man's-land. A sense of pessimism pervades, showing how the commercial boom of the 1950s has collapsed, leaving deserted streets, rubbish dumps and alienation. It is a land where the American Dream has turned sour.

FORMAT25: FORMAT Graduates Award
Artists: Katie Weller; Ell Hammond; Nathan Orchard from BA (Hons) Photography Graduating Class of 2024, University of Derby have been selected for a FORMAT Graduate Award.

Ell Hammond: The Ghost Exists and so do I
My existence is questioned daily; who I am is mocked and belittled, ‘you really believe that?’ I can’t defend myself to the mass of hate, so I retreat and embody the being that I understand and that understands me – the Ghost. A self-portrait, performance, and examination of my own feelings of being non-binary and how I am not readily accepted into this world. This artwork depicts the emphasis of the Ghost character and how I feel and embody it. The Ghost is a safety blanket that I use to shelter myself; it’s how I keep going. The Ghost symbolises all my insecurities, and all my worries. Despite this, the Ghost provides comfort to me. Few people know that I am non-binary, and this creative artwork allows me to break out from under the safety blanket; it’s a difficult process but one I need to do.

Nathan Orchard - Titled Carved by Hate
One thing that is prevalent within queer culture is a sense of othering and abuse. The queer community has always faced adversity and persecution both physically and verbally. This work is a plea to the people outside the LGBT community, think before you speak and hold the people around you accountable for the hurtful words that they spew.

Katie Weller - “It's not finished….. yet”
Stop for a moment.
These images are not finished narratives, but open-ended questions. They invite you to contemplate the spaces between breaths and the pause before the next piece. Like the tide, my work is in constant motion, forever shifting, forever evolving. What you see today may be transformed tomorrow, a reflection of the ever-changing nature of time itself.

This exhibition is just one frame in a continuous story, a moment of a journey that has no destination. It is an invitation to join me in this exploration of the void, to find solace in impermanence, and perhaps, discover a kind of beauty in silence.

Erin Todd - House Is A Feeling
House is a Feeling explores the continuing rave culture in the UK, and how the youth of the 90s are still dancing. These Photographs were taken at an Amnesia House event in Coventry on the 6th of April 2024, and they show people of all ages dancing till the early hours. These images have been distorted using an overlay of a UV paint image. The UV colour represents the feeling of being at these raves, recreating the experience that I and many other ravers feel when being on the dancefloor. They capture the true ravers in a euphoric state, while showing an authentic rave experience, inviting the viewer to travel back in time to where this scene began in the late 80s.