Bristol Photo Festival is a new and innovative city-wide festival that celebrates the power and diversity of photography. It will produce national, international solo and group exhibitions. Talks, events, workshops and training will run through a partnership model of collaboration through all the key photography, visual arts and cultural venues in the region. Bristol Photo Festival will work in partnership with schools, community groups, third level educational institutions, charities and libraries, to build a sustained and accessible city wide celebration of photography. It will offer innovative, high quality exhibitions, commissions for photographers, platforms for students & emerging photographers & the production of an extensive outreach & engagement programme across Bristol communities. The festival will partner with major international photography festivals through tours, collaborations and initiatives to bring new work to international audiences. The first exhibition program will take place in Spring 2021.
A Sense of Place
To photograph a place is to describe a location that has been shaped, nurtured and even contested. It can define the frontier between nature and culture and hint at the complexities of ownership and access. It can be attended by competing narratives and polarised histories, whether they lean left or right.
It can shape our understanding of the world and the qualities that come to define us and it can be about belonging, about appreciation and knowing a place so well that it is like no other. The components of cultural landscape elements play a significant role in defining the sense of place. These components are people, landform, water bodies, climate, economy, social, political which influence on the identity of place.
Festival Director > Tracy Marshall director@bristolphotofestival.org
Engagement and Education Director > Alejandro Acín engagement@bristolphotofestival.org
Press Manager > Eleanor Macnair
Development Director > Rudi Thoemmes
2020 / 2021 Artistic Director > Martin Parr
General enquiries info@bristolphotofestival.org
Bristol Photo Festival is a Community Interest Company run by a small Board of Trustees and a number of core staff.
The Board are: Rudi Thoemmes, Jim Brown, Emma Chetcuti, Alejandro Acin, Tracy Marshall and Martin Parr.
At the core of Bristol Photo Festival is our collaborations and our partnerships, which have been key to the development and roll out of the festival.
MAIN PARTNER VENUES > BRISTOL ART GALLERIES & ARCHIVES (BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL), ARNOLFINI ARTS CENTRE, SPIKE ISLAND, ROYAL WEST ACADEMY, MARTIN PARR FOUNDATION, WATERSHED, UNIVERSITY OF WEST OF ENGLAND and ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIETY.
FUNDING PARTNERS > ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND and BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL
SPONSORS > WEX PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT & SPECTRUM
MEDIA PARTNERS > THE GUARDIAN, 1000 words & BRISTOL 24/7
PARTNERS AND SPONSORS > Our partners: Arnolfini, Bristol Archives, British Cultural Archives, Bristol Museums, Firecracker, IC Visual Lab, James Hyman, Martin Parr Foundation, Multistory, RRB Publishing, Royal Photographic Society, The Real Photographic Company, Wellspring Settlement, Royal West Academy, Spike Island, Spectrum, University of West England, Watershed, St. Pauls Community Darkrooms and Wex.